A desperate English king had turned loose the swarms of native warriors to threaten the northern regions of the Susquehanna with death and plunder. General Knox called on Simon Braide to make the vital map that would guide Washington's forces in defense of this territory-whenever they could be spared to bolster the meager but gallant ranks of the men in buckskin who now patrolled the lonely forest rivers.
Young Braide set out upon this mission with these vicious words, his fiery-tempered bride, Celine, ringing in his ears: "Some day I'll make you truly sorry for what you have done to me ..." And as though in answer to her curse, ill fate was to dog Simon's footsteps from the evening he returned to find his home wrecked, his wife gone, and the precious map stolen or destroyed by Indian raiders.
The relentless search that followed led him within the shadow of a British scaffold at Niagara, lighted by the flames of Iroquois fires. Misfortune brought down upon him, in addition, the wrath of the ailing General Sullivan, who sent troopers of Braide's own forces to arrest him for high treason and alienated the girl he came to love almost too late.
With the authority of a true historian and the skill of an adept storyteller, Herbert Stover has interwoven Simon Braide's perilous adventures with the events that beleaguered the hard-pressed patriot army: Colonel Boone's attempt to build a road through native-inhabited forests against insurmountable odds; the mutiny that threatened the troops of General Wayne in Princeton; the intrigue of Britain's arch spy ring; and the menace of hordes of rapacious Indian warriors commanded by English Rangers.
In Men in Buckskin, the author of Song of the Susquehanna brings a rousing drama that can be found only in history.
Stover, Herbert E.: - Herbert Elisha "Bert" Stover, of Livonia, Pennsylvania, was a well-known area historian. Born at his homestead at the top of the mountain between Loganton and Livonia January 15, 1888, he was the son of Adam & Jessie (DeLong) Stover. He was married (June 9, 1917) to the former Elva Kyler who died in 1955. They had two daughters, Ann Stover McFate of English Center and Marjorie Murray of Williamsport; two grandchildren and four great grandchildren.Beginning at the age of 17, Mr. Stover was a school teacher. He taught in the schools of Brush Valley and schools of Huntingdon, Austin and Philipsburg. He also taught at Lock Haven State College and was the principal of the Lock Haven High School. Mr. Stover was the supervising principal of the Lewisburg School System for 25 years before his retirement in 1953. He was a graduate of Lock Haven State College and received his master's degree in Education from Bucknell University at Lewisburg. He also took several courses at PSU. After his retirement Mr. Stover did some graduate teaching at Bucknell.In the 1920s, he wrote short stories for many magazines across the country but was rejected nearly all the time. His short story "My Lesson" was accepted by True Confessions magazine in February 1929, but then the stock market crashed and the Great Depression followed.During World War II, Stover compiled a schoolbook titled History of Pennsylvania which was published in 1944 and circulated across the Commonwealth. This was followed by several historical novels that gained national acclaim, the most famous of which was Song of the Susquehanna (1949). Mr. Stover was a member of the Great Island Presbyterian Church in Lock Haven and an elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Lewisburg. He is buried at Dunnstown Cemetery.
