Take Me Home to Woodstock

John Wienke of Woodstock, Illinois, is looking for a wife and Ida Doering of Racine, Wisconsin, has all but given up on finding a husband. Friends step in, and soon they are engaged in a long-distance courtship through letters, electric train trips, and this newfangled contraption called a telephone. Eventually, Ida can stand it no more. She forces the issue and the date is set. But moving to Woodstock means beginning a whole new life and moving in with John’s mother. Now with John’s job at the typewriter factory in jeopardy and a potential pregnancy to consider, John and Ida must decide whether to face the hardships of the new century together – or apart.

The story of John, Ida, and their German emigrant families is told through narration, actual newspaper accounts from The Woodstock Sentinel and the Racine Journal Times, and letters sent over the years.

Woodstock, thoroughly modern and prosperous in 1900, looms large in this story. As the town grows so does the family. Each chapter of Take Me Home to Woodstock details one year in the lives of Ida, John, and their extended families. Take Me Home to Woodstock engages the reader in the day-to-day life, the trials and tribulations, the celebrations and joys of life in early Woodstock.