BEARDSTOWN

An epic novel dramatizes the origins of an Illinois community.

In this second volume of his American Trilogy (following A Panther Crosses Over, 2022), Foster traces the settling and growth of Beardstown, Illinois, from Tom Beard’s purchase of riverfront property in 1818 through the end of the 1860s. Illinois is still a territory when Beard finds the perfect location to set up a ferry that carries settlers heading west across the river while encouraging some of them to stay and provide the infrastructure for his dream town. Beard builds relationships and makes alliances, and Beardstown prospers. He marries, but after many years of taking a back seat to Beard’s ambitions, his wife, Sara, leaves him for a riverboat gambler. The town’s other key founders—Chaubenee, a member of the Potawatomi Nation; Murray McConnel, a lawyer and politician; and Francis Arenz, a German immigrant and businessman—make up Beard’s chosen family, and they support one another through the challenges of weather, politics, technological innovations, and financial crises that make up the middle decades of the 19th century. By the 1860s, Beard and the other founders have died. But the town continues to thrive in the hands of a new generation, with salon—and bordello—owner Vivienne de Villiere, a transplanted Southerner, serving as the main protagonist in the book’s final chapters. Foster has a deep knowledge of the history of both the region and the era, and his well-developed characters transform a timeline of events into a captivating tale. Cameos by Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Wyatt Earp (plus Jefferson Davis, who, Foster acknowledges in an author’s note, is undocumented but plausible) situate the narrative amid the more famous events in American history without giving short shrift to the smaller stories that are the novel’s focus. The book is both informative and engaging, with solid pacing and engaging dialogue that keep the plot moving steadily over its half-century timeline.

A compelling tale that explores the historical development of the Midwest.