The book consists of letters written during the Civil War by George Ladd, a soldier from New Hampshire. He had passed through Lebanon,PA, on a troop train with his unit. While the train was stopped Mr Ladd tossed a note with his name and contact information to Caroline Deppen, a teenage girl who had been brought by her father from their home in Myerstown,Pa to see the troops pass through. Mr Ladd and Carrie began writing to each other. The book is made up of letters Ladd sent to her. There is only one letter from Carrie to him. The rest of her letters have been lost. But from Mr Ladd's letters, it appears they became close despite not having actually met. Mr Ladd was killed in the war and his mother obtained the letters. She continued to write to Carrie for at least a few more years.The book was written by a relative of the Ladd family
Contents 1. Peter Grubb: Ironmaster? (this chapter tells of Peters start as a stone mason, how he discovered iron ore while searching for stone, and how he later established iron furnaces at Hopewell in Berks county and Cornwall in Lebanon county ). 2-Curttis and Peter Grubb: Ironmasters (this chapter chronicles the work of the two sons after they inherit the business from their father).3- The Patriot Cause (Peter Grubb is elected to the Warwick Committee of Observation and Inspection; Curttis forms a company of associators). 4- The Call to Action (Peter suffers from public criticism; Curttis leads battalion of flying camp). 5- A Qustion of Inheritance (Curttis marries a third wife, pregnant with child, which complicates the expectations of inheritance). 6- Appendix with Grubb family genealogy
