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Local journalist Jeff Ishee to release ‘Two Sacks’ historical fiction novel

Crystal Graham
Two Sacks Novel
Cover image courtesy Jeff Ishee

Author and journalist Jeff Ishee has a novel coming to Amazon on Dec. 1, and much of the story takes place along the Great Wagon Road, or U.S. 11, in the Shenandoah Valley.

Ishee’s first novel, “Two Sacks,” follows a family from Swiss/Germany to America in the early 1800s. They family carried everything they owned in two sacks.

Readers will follow this family of nine, ranging in age from 2 to 69, as they travel down the Rhine River aboard a Dutch cutter; depart Amsterdam as ‘Redemptioners’ aboard the brig Commerce; trek on foot down the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia through Lancaster, Pa., and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to the Carolinas and Georgia; to finally cross the remote Indian trails of the Alabama Territory and reach their destination in the wilderness of the Mississippi Territory.

Much of the story takes place in the Shenandoah Valley. The primary characters spend the winter of 1803 to 1804 at the Augusta Stone Church in Fort Defiance.

The novel will be available on Amazon as a hardcover, paperback or Kindle version.

Ishee has worked in the news media in print, radio and television sectors.

Crystal Graham

Crystal Graham

Crystal Abbe Graham is the regional editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1999 graduate of Virginia Tech, she has worked for 25 years as a reporter and editor for several Virginia publications, written a book, and garnered more than a dozen Virginia Press Association awards for writing and graphic design. She was the co-host of "Viewpoints," a weekly TV news show, and co-host of Virginia Tonight, a nightly TV news show on PBS. Her work on "Virginia Tonight" earned her a national Telly award for excellence in television.