The Adelsverein Trilogy – The Gathering, The Sowing, and The Harvesting – is a saga of family and community loyalties, and the challenge of building a new life on the hostile frontier, spanning half a century of eventful history.More than 7,000 German settlers came to Texas in 1847, under the auspices of the “Mainzer Adelsverein” – the society of noblemen of Mainz, who planned to fill a land-grant on the Texas frontier with German farmers and craftsmen. Among those hopeful settlers was the family of Christian “Vati” Steinmetz, the clockmaker of Ulm in Bavaria, who brought his sons and daughters to settle in a new land. There Vati’s descendants would make their mark. They would survive and ultimately triumph.Once established in the beautiful Hill Country of central Texas, his oldest daughter, Magda – passionate and courageous – is courted by Carl Becker, a young frontiersman with a dangerous past. Her younger sister Liesel dreaded the journey away from the only home she had ever known, but she loved and trusted her husband Hansi more than she hated the wild lands where they settled – even as Hansi was transformed from a stolid and practical farmer into a wealthy cattle baron in the boom years of the great cattle ranches. Magda and Liesel’s younger brothers, Friedrich and Johann, were always as close as twins could be. In the Civil War, one wore Union blue, the other Confederate grey homespun, but never forgot they were brothers. And finally there was Vati’s beloved adopted daughter Rosalie, whose life ended as it began – in tragedy.Based on historical events, the Adelsverein Trilogy is about love and loss, joy and grief . . . and the sometimes wrenching process of becoming American. The complete text of the originally separate volumes of the Trilogy, with historical notes by the author is combined into a single volume.