The Journey of the French Coat: Adventures in the Wilds from Old Fort Niagara to the Our House Tavern is an engaging and illuminating regional historical fiction book directed toward youth and young adults. Dr. Gretchen Duling's background and experience in teaching Social Studies, as a Gifted Programming Specialist, to youth and her writing and publication success in varying genres provided the development of an interesting style of writing and approach to history which is both engaging, exciting and easy reading for youth and adults. Over a number of years she extensively researched and gathered data which is interspersed into the story of a gold velvet French coat's journey through several historic time periods from 1759 to 1825. The geographical region covered is from Fort Niagara in Western New York to the Our House Tavern in the southern Ohio River town of Gallipolis, Ohio. Dr. Duling knows these regions well because she lives near Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York, and was born, raised and educated in Gallipolis, Ohio. Which was once called an exotic French frontier colony. She integrates the history and story with actual events involving Iroquois Indians, white English settlers, French settlers escaping the French Revolution and the tour of General Marquis de Lafayette as "Guest of the Nation" in 1825. The coat's journey comes full circle by possibly ending where it began. An actual gold velvet French coat on which this story is based does still exist. Western New York's history has many connections to the history of other regions. As one reader wrote: "The Journey of the French Coat: Adventures in the Wilds from Old Fort Niagara to the Our House Tavern, is a good example of the never ending trail of history with one trail leading yet to another."
About the Author: Gretchen A. Duling, PhD, was born in 1940, in Gallipolis, Ohio. Her early schooling was in this little Ohio River town (once called an exotic settlement) that was settled by the French 500, in 1790. She received the Music Key when she graduated from Gallia Academy High School in 1958. She entered the College of Music at Ohio State University. In 1960, she became engaged to a senior at the College of Wooster in Ohio. They married and moved to Chicago, Illinois. Gretchen transferred to the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University. She completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education in 1963 and began teaching in the Chicago Public Schools. In 1963 - 64 the Dulings were exchange students at Heidelberg University in Germany. Gretchen studied German. In 1964 she returned to teaching in Chicago while her husband took up his Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago. Gretchen completed her Master of Music at Roosevelt University in 1969. The family of 4 came from Ohio Northern University to western New York in 1978 when Gretchen's husband accepted a teaching position at Canisius College in Buffalo. In 1978 Gretchen received a national fellowship through the Creative Leadership Project, funded by the U.S. Office of Gifted Education, to study for a M.S. in Gifted and Talented Education at Buffalo State College. In 1986 she completed a M.S. in Educational Supervision and Administration at Canisius College in Buffalo. She has held permanent teaching certifications in five states. In 1993 she completed her PhD at the State University of New York at Buffalo in Learning and Instruction. Her dissertation was on One-Room Schools in southern Ohio. Gretchen's love of reading, history, research, and writing was evident at a very young age. Her writing ability blossomed in 7th grade when some of her work was published. As a teenager Gretchen became very serious about writing. She wrote for the high school newspaper and did a one year secret author series "The Screwy-Scribbler". She began and has continued writing her, favorite genre, short stories. As a Gifted Programming Specialist for nearly twenty years in Western New York, she enjoyed teaching creative writing and independent study research skills at Maple West Elementary in Williamsville, NY. She has been fortunate to be able to write in varying genres. Recently she coordinated a War of 1812 Commemoration bi-national legacy writing project. Her current research is on the Underground Railroad.