"Every now and again, a privately published volume crosses our desk which deserves more than passing notice. Such a book is Josiah Volunteered...everything from songs and poetry to a catalog of patent medicines in the family pharmacopoeia... a tribute to the editor's ancestors and an important record of rather uncommon common people who during more than half a century lived on the fringes of history."
(Down East Bookshelf)
"A fascinating book about a Maine man of the nineteenth century and his enterprising family ... a significant contribution to Maine history. Its value is enhanced by explanatory notes and expansive appendix of genealogical and historical records. We have many books about Maine’s great figures of the Civil War. It is time we had one about an ordinary soldier, who left wife and small child to answer the call...”
(Ernest
C. Marriner, Historian, Colby College)
"I
am overwhelmed--what an opus! Valuable…beautifully
edited and produced. The
photographs and drawings are very fine."
(James B. Vickery, Educator, Historian, Collector)
"...delightful...fascinating...romantic...the reader is caught up in the joys, tragedies and loves of the family and is, perhaps, awed by the influence of the church in their lives...so personal an experience that the reader is often carried back to the 1800s with great feeling for what he or she is reading."
(Lewiston Evening Journal, Magazine Section)
"Reading this vast compendium is like wandering through a personal museum...fascinating displays and curious artifacts...though the Civil War was raging, the cows had to be milked. The Sturtevants were rather ordinary people...but that's what makes the book also extraordinary for historical reasons. This is how typical Maine people lived from the 1860's into the beginning of the 20th century...invaluable as a source book of that time in Maine and in our national history."
(Maine Life)
"More than anything else I've read, it helps to make comprehensible the Victorian sentimentality about death, and the real strength and courage that underlay it."
(American Heritage)
"...their story may be of extraordinary importance. They are probably typical of the many Maine people who have managed to live beneath the level of historical scrutiny, even though their contributions to history and their reactions to it provide significant examples of the 'American Story' as seen by those who lived it and viewed it on a day-to-day personal level."
(Ronald Kley, Head, Research and Collections, Maine State Museum)
"...skillful compilation of letters, diaries and photographs...brings us into intimate touch with the life and times of a Maine family...(The) editor never intrudes. His connectives simply illuminate and clarify...readers who are sensitive to the values of those who have gone before will be pleased. A book to treasure, a true and poignant American Story."
(Maine History News)
"A Maine family truly speaks to us across the years. A treasure and a joy."
(Dorris A. Isaacson, President, The Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums)
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