Told in his own wry, dry, tongue-in-cheek subtle humorous style, Ben Weber, takes the reader on a delightful journey through his family tree from ancient Germany, through 19th century travel to the United States and thus to Ohio and Michigan, all by water, to his grandfather's settling in Nottawa Township, Isabella County, Michigan. Meet the Webers and their Beal City neighbors. In a previously unpublished memoir, edited and augmented by Jack R. Westbrook, Ben J. Weber (above in 1975) relates the story of his personal quest for his family history.

Walk with us through the streets of this lumber/oil/university town in the center of Michigan, rooted in the 1855-established Saginaw-Chippewa Indian Reservation. Inside, we will visit the homes of hundreds of those who have come before us and, where possible, see how the structures have changed through the decades. Join author Jack R. Westbrook, whose five previous middle Michigan photo history books have put the spotlight on our area's past, on a photographic journey through the historic core of Mt. Pleasant and meet some of the residents who have added colorful threads to the tapestry of our community's past. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be contributed to the Mt. Pleasant Area Historical Society's History Center Fund dedicated to creating a proposed Mt. Pleasant History Center..

For seven years, retired Michigan Oil & Gas News Managing Editor Jack R. Westbrook has been furnishing local Mt. Pleasant publications with local historical photo articles ranging from the significant to the whimsical. Westbrook was a regular monthly contributor to the Mt. Pleasant Monthly Magazine with a full page feature called "The Way We Were." When the Mt. Pleasant Monthly ceased publication, Westbrook began his "Mid-Michigan History" ongoing series of regular features in the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun daily newspaper. Now Westbrook has assembled those articles, with relevant pages borrowed from his eight local photo history books and some never before published pages in this compact photo review of the Mt. Pleasant area's past. This compact volume is a 134 page volume of entertaining and educational snapshots of the rich heritage of mid-Michigan history and lore, guaranteed to furnish hours of nostalgic pleasure.

A sweeping tale of a Holland, Michigan, Dutch schoolteacher and an Upper Peninsula Finnish copper miner during the turbulent times of the 1913 Keweenaw Peninsula copper miner's strike and their daughter Kiasa, named for a victim of Calumet's Italian Hall Tragedy. Born of the Michigan copper mines, Kaisa's saga traces her life to the 1930s oil boomtown of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where her life is changed by Michigan's worst oilfield disaster. At Mackinac Island, Michigan, her chance encounter with a member of the wealthy Maurice family ultimately leads her to Jekyll Island, Georgia, in 1942. At Jekyll Island, where the Millionaires Club is breaking up because of the Nazi U-Boat threat to members' safety, Kaisa finds love and intrigue.

Our town Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, is seen through cameras past and present in this largest ever photo historical review reaching as far back as 1875 to as recently as the summer of 2010. Matching vintage pictures with camera views from the same angle today, local historian and photo history veteran Jack R. Westbrook turns the same concise reporting of his five previous books again to his home town, describing what was there and what the more than 200 locations look like today. In addition to looking at people and businesses of the past and present, Westbrook turns the camera's eye on a number of historical homes and the folks who occupied them. The book is flavored by a local high schooler of the times description of life in the town in 1920, Westbrook's own 1956 high school essay on Mt. Pleasant when he was 16 years old and local interviewer and columnist Burnie Bonnel's inter views with notables of the past. This is the most comprehensive photo history of the town's growth from village to city ever published and will introduce the newcomer to Mt. Pleasant's heritage and provide hours of nostalgia to longtime residents, as well as being a welcome addition to any historian's bookshelf. A portion of the proceeds from the new book's sale will be devoted to the Veterans Memorial Library at Mt. Pleasant for the purchase of a ProScan 1000 microfilm reader system to replace the library's outmoded microfilm readers. The new machine will allow downloads, in a variety of electronic formats, of articles from newspapers past.

A compendium of photographs of Isabella County one room schools circa the late 1800s through the 1940s. with modern photos of sites presently occupied by the school buildings in current use for other purposes.

This book began as a simple memoir for future generations of C. John Miller's family. It grew into an inspirational story of triumph of faith, in self and in God. The reader is taken on the journey that starts with an oil driller's kid born to a stark life at the depth of the Great Depression. We follow that kid to the pinnacle of accolades, selection as one of the 100 Most Influential People of the Petroleum Century, across all the hilltops and into the valleys a risky industry and a tough business climate can throw at those who try to outsmart Mother Nature to find the oil and gas we need. In the own folksy, friendly manner that is his hallmark, C. John Miller, America's most honored spokesman for the United States petroleum independents, guides us through his adventures as an oilman and as spokesman for the U.S. independent oil and natural gas exploration industry during the times of the nation's worst energy crisis to date, in the 1970s .... with cautionary words about our energy future.