Young Octavia McLeod can’t for the life of her understand why her Mama keeps having babies. Animals are much more fun, and usually nicer than a lot of people she knows. All in all, life on the McLeod farm in the early 1900s is usually pretty ordinary. Not a lot happens in the south Mississippi community of Brushy Creek.
That is, most of the time.
Other times, there are some rather strange goings-on. Such as when the McLeods had a family photograph made, and when it came back, there was an extra person who showed up. Peeking out from behind a tree, no less. Or when Grandpa Dave Hulett, who fought through the entire Civil War, thought the children he had left behind were lost forever. And then they turned up over 250 miles away in Pontotoc, Mississippi.
But none of it compares to what happens to the Yonge family in Chatom, Alabama. And to a young, mysterious woman from Louisiana whose actions eventually tie the Yonges to the McLeods once and for all.
Based on the lives of author Lisa Lacy’s paternal ancestors, A Promise on Brushy Creek weaves these true stories into an engaging tale of the past. “I took literary license in writing out conversations and what the characters might have been thinking, but all the major storylines are true. My great-grandfather George Penn Yonge was a cunning businessman and womanizer, greatly affected by the death of his own father when George was only three. In the book, the character of Clotile represents the heartache George Penn brought upon his wife and family.”
“Family trees and genealogies can be rather dry. Everyone has a unique heritage, and it is much more fun to read when turned into a story. My hope is that others will be inspired to write down and share their own ‘family stories as stories.’”