Jenny D. Beard: Escaping Religious Persecution

Jenny D. Beard's Higher Up The Mountain  draws details from her family's genealogy, from personal memories of her grandfather's farm and from her own passion for living in the country and in small towns.

A powerful folksy saga chronicling several generations of the Balmer family. Escaping terror in Switzerland, the Balmers flee to Holland where William Penn invites them to find freedom in the new world. Charismatic Fritz Balmer leads 105 colonists into the harsh wilderness of 1715's Pennsylvania.

Upon settling, Fritz's wife, Olga, is shocked to find Aprilmay, a frantic young slave. Fritz's younger brother, Wilhelm, learns to his disheartenment that stubborn Moravian elders have promised the girl of his dreams to a vicious man whose wife has drowned under mysterious circumstances.

Ninety-eight years later, in 1833, young Frederick Balmer makes a life changing voyage to Connecticut. Obsessed with finding property, he travels to the Western Reserve in Ohio. Frederick's broken-hearted son, Isaac, carries on the Balmer family farming traditions. Isaac's daughter, close-minded Esther Balmer, grows up without a clue about marital relations until marrying and shocking her new husband on their wedding night.

This is Author’s Beat, sponsored by The Writers League of the Villages in central Florida. This program is hosted by award-winning author Mark H. Newhouse and was created by Don Canaan and Mark Newhouse.  And don’t forget to listen to “The Chosen Radio” every first and third Sunday morning at 10:30. Multiple award-winning journalist Don Canaan brings you nostalgic encore presentations of many of the radio programs that you grew up with during the 1940s and 1950s.