“ Farmers and Honest Men is a welcome look at a little known chapter in American history. Through the eyes of Henry and John Ruiter we witness the lives of the early settlers in New York who forged their homes from the rugged wilderness and whose lives were uprooted by the American Revolution.
We see the visciousness of a ‘civil war’ where those like the Ruiters who remained loyal to the crown fought against their former friends and neighbors who embraced the partriot cause. These Loyalists paid a heavy price, and were eventually forced to emmigrate to Quebec Province and start all over again. Henry Ruiter led a long and exciting life as a pioneer farmer, as an officer in the King’s Rangers during the Revolution, and eventually as a Canadian militia officer during the War of 1812.
Author Horst Dresler tells his story well.”
–Tim Todish
French & Indian War author/historian
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