Fern Spencer Dumbrill and her family left Michigan to homestead in Wyoming in 1910. For five years, young Fern taught school on the Wyoming prairie, riding on horseback and living with the families of her pupils before she married her Michigan sweetheart, Harold Ray Dumbrill. Harold built a log cabin for Fern and his family that he named "Fernswood", served in WWI, worked hard to keep the family homestead land, taught school, and wrote poems as gifts for his family. In the first volume of Fernswood, Fern tells about her Wyoming teaching experiences, and many of Harold's poems are printed here. Harold's son Richard (Dick) Dumbrill's writes about what it was like to live on the ranch, and Lucille Dumbrill's tells about her first visit to meet the family. Five poems by Mary Dumbrill Pringle (Fern and Harold's daughter) are included and many chapters of Dick Dumbrill's book NEVER PET A RABBIT IF ITS NOSE IS RUNNING are reprinted here. Fernswood, Volume Two will continue to tell more about Fern and Harold and their family, and will include descriptions and photographs of some historic family celebrations at Fernswood.
