The Mitchell family left Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1762 for North Carolina. Their story is chronicled by Mitchell descendant David Bowles, beginning when 17-year-old Adam Mitchell arrives in North Carolina with his family.
The Mitchells just wanted to be left alone to farm their land, practice their faith in the Presbyterian Church, and raise their family. But the way they responded to the extraordinary circumstances of life on the new frontier, politics, and war made heroes of these ordinary citizens.
Adam fought the British in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, while his mother Margaret Mitchell, his wife Elizabeth, and their children endured deprivation and danger on the family farm in the midst of the battle.
The story of Adam's two loves – his first wife Jennetta who died bearing their firstborn child and his second wife Elizabeth who bore him twelve more children – creates the human backdrop to the dramatic historical events of Revolutionary War times.
"The book both is and isn't a family history. It is a fictional account of the author's actual ancestors, and is faithful to historical realities regarding names, places, time lines, and so on. … A compelling story of love, family, community, war, struggle and history, 'Spring House' is much more than any ordinary family history could be, and should leave any reader feeling both satisfied and informed."
—Arthur Erickson, Genealogy Librarian, Greensboro Public Library, in The Guilford Genealogist
David Bowles lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his best friend and constant companion Lulubelle, a yellow Lab. He started writing stories of his family as a legacy for his son, daughter, and three grandchildren. Unfortunately, while the stories preserved the family history, they didn’t maintain the interest of readers, even his own family. So he used his imagination and creativity to fill in the gaps of what might have happened when the details weren't available. He created dialogue and scenes to add true life drama to the Westward Sagas from colonial days to the settlement of the West. He hopes these stories are as exciting to his readers as the stories told by the previous generations of his family were to him. David shares his experiences telling the family stories at Writing the Western Sagas,
