Lila Osborn Mechling

Eliza Jane Lila Osborn Mechling

In 1879 life offers very few choices for a seventeen-year-old girl. Eliza Jane Ludlow, eldest daughter of a large family, must leave her beloved grandma behind in New York and move with Mumma and the other children to join Papa on a virgin farm near Huron City, Michigan. She struggles to meet the expectations of her family: to find a job, to be courted, and to marry. Burdened with the position of second mother to the smaller children and overshadowed by her beautiful younger sister Roseanne, Eliza wonders, Is this all life has to offer?

Slowly she makes her way in her new home. She becomes best friends with Annie Bruce, lands a job as a maid at Stafford House in Port Hope, and captures the heart of Ethan Kilpatrick, a handsome young farmer. Happiness does not come quickly for Eliza Jane. Her hopes and dreams are dashed brutally by fate. Surrounded by death and destruction, she must dig down deep inside herself to find the perseverance and strength to begin again.

Based on the life of Eliza Jane Ludlow.