The memoir of a clergyman trying to establish an anti-slavery church in "bloody Kansas" in 1854-1857. The period saw tremendous violence in that region as settlers fought over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave or free state.

The book opens with a vivid and wrenching account of the death of the author's infant on the way to Kansas, and the protracted efforts to find a coffin and a better burial place than a random spot on the river bank. This is the one time that McNamara writes with such a personal touch and the rest of the book can be dry going at times. The events that McNamara chooses to focus on are not always the ones that would be of most interest to a modern-day reader. Fabulous as a first-hand account of living on the Kansas Border as the Civil War looms, but unless you're already interested in that topic, this will be a tough read. ( )