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The letters Dutch immigrant Ulbe Eringa wrote home from the United States are rich with information on farming, the family, the household economy, church activities, and school involvement as he related them to his relatives back in the Netherlands. His memoirs, written in 1942 and 1943, supplement the letters and provide details about his life before emigrating. Brian Beltman's introduction and chapter-by-chapter commentary place Eringa's story within its historical context, complementing findings that there has been more continuity than discontinuity between the European past and the American ethnic experience.
During the nineteenth century, more than three hundred boats met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River, from Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an "orderly pile of kindling," steamboats were, in fact, technological marvels superbly adapted to the river's conditions. Their light superstructure and long, wide, flat hulls powered by high-pressure engines drew so little water that they could cruise on "a heavy dew" even when fully loaded. But these same characteristics made them susceptible to fires, explosions and snags--tree trunks ripped from the banks, hiding under the water's surface. Authors Vicki and James Erwin detail the perils that steamboats, their passengers and crews faced on every voyage.