The Secret Box: A Story of the South

Elizabeth Coble found herself living with daughters, Catherine and Nancy, at Vanderberg Plantation, in Iredell Co., NC. Here they were treated as family, rather than employees. Catherine meets her future husband, John Stamper, when he arrives to help with planting. Within the year, they were married, and dreaming big dreams of land, farm and children. John and Catherine would bond together through turmoil and tragedy, while a murderer roamed their county and they faced a kidnapping head on. The year 1850 proved to be a devastating year for Catherine trying to hold her family together. The next ten years saw the fruit of the hard labor of the Stampers, a thriving farm, but the sound of cannons and gunfire brought about hardship they could have never dreamed. Civil War was upon them and they desperately fought to keep their home. With many in the Stamper family away at war, the women and children worked to feed the family and just survive. But then again, there was the secret box.