The true history of America lies in the lives and stories of its many citizens, each attempting to pursue the promise of the American dream while protecting family and weathering the eruptions of events around them. In this well-researched and intimate biography of Otis Dauchy, author Julie Saenz McConnel reveals the amazing life of her grandfather, as well as a one-of-a-kind journey into Chicago at the turn of the century and then Vermont in the first half of the twentieth century. From labor to race to economics, these years cover many events in American history from the point of view of an upper-middle-class family of entrepreneurs and pioneers. Otis captures private, domestic moments alongside nation-shaking news, from the postantebellum period to World War II. McConnel culls these insights and information from an archive of family correspondence and documents to weave together a true story from the American heartland. To read Otis is to experience secondhand the genesis of a modern nation, complete with birth pangs and growth spurts.