A Lumberman's Daughter Comes of Age In Michigan's Upper Peninsula: A Memoir

A Lumberman’s Daughter Comes of Age in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: A Memoir by Patricia Schaut McMartin is a firsthand account of growing up during the depression years as the eldest child in a family of fourteen children. The author’s description of everyday routines at her grandparents’ farm home in Labranche, and of her early childhood “back in the woods” of Northland, Michigan, transport the reader back to a time when the lumbering industry was past its heyday, and survival depended on resourcefulness, persistence, and constant hard work. McMartin describes her love of learning and her experiences transitioning from homeschooling to a one-room schoolhouse; and to public and parochial schools in Escanaba. The author’s heartfelt vignettes bring the characters in her narrative to life.