The travels and adventures of Auguste in the middle of the 19th century have left an indelible mark on our family history. Auguste fled his native land of Lorraine in eastern France after committing a punishable offense and ended up in America, an America that was in turmoil and still healing its wounds in the years following the Civil War. He was witness to the complicated abolition of slavery, the tense relations between the whites and the Indian tribes, the birth of heavy industry and of Union movements around the country. The wild and tortuous path that he followed mirrored the historical events that were taking place at the time. Auguste turned into a hardy trail-blazer, an entrepreneur in the pure sense of the word who was extremely resilient in the face of all the hardships he encountered
