History came alive for attendees at the Franklin Area Historical Society, on Saturday September 13, 2025. Local author and historian Jeffery Charles Larsh gave a talk about his newest book 1787 and traced his family’s remarkable journey from French Canada to the Ohio frontier. Larsh, a military veteran and retired law enforcement officer, has written three historical novels inspired by his ancestor Paul Larsh (originally Larshvik), a French-Canadian fur trader whose adventures spanned thousands of miles and multiple wars.
Larsh explained that his passion for history began as a boy at family reunions, where an older relative, World War I correspondent Harvey Larsh, shared research into the family’s past. Those stories, paired with the discovery of his fifth great-grandfather’s last will and testament, eventually sparked a writing career.
Paul Larsh left Montreal in 1753 at just 18 years old, determined to become a coureur de bois, or independent fur trader. His route carried him by canoe up the St. Lawrence River, across Lake Ontario, around Niagara Falls, through the Maumee and Wabash rivers, and finally down the Ohio to the Mississippi. His trek of more than 1,200 miles ended at Fort de Chartres, a French stronghold south of present-day St. Louis.
“Think about that for a minute,” Larsh told the audience. “Eighteen years old, by himself in a canoe — how he made it is a miracle.”
Paul’s life soon intertwined with the great conflicts of the era. He served as a scout during the French and Indian War, partnered with a Shawnee trader, and rescued his future wife, Alice Kincaid, after she was captured in a raid. After the war, the couple settled in a Huguenot community in Pennsylvania, where their son Charles — Larsh’s direct ancestor — was born.
The author highlighted the cultural dislocation of French settlers after Britain’s victory in 1763. “All of a sudden, New France was gone,” he said. “You have no country anymore.” That sense of abandonment shaped the family’s decision to move into frontier communities sympathetic to the American Revolution.
Larsh’s presentation also touched on artifacts linking him to this past. He displayed an antique Pennsylvania-made rifle, handed down through generations and referenced in Paul Larsh’s 1794 will. Modified over the centuries from flintlock to percussion, the weapon was carried in the Revolutionary War, the Northwest Indian Wars, and the War of 1812.
His newest book, 1787, places the Larsh family against the backdrop of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and the Northwest Ordinance, which opened present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin to American settlement. The novel depicts the family’s migration to Cabin Creek, Kentucky, along ancient buffalo traces once carved by mastodons and later used by Native nations.
“I try to make these books about people,” Larsh said. “Yes, there’s history in the background, but it’s about how they lived — how they got their food, how they endured, and the choices they faced.”
Audience members praised Larsh’s ability to blend gritty details of frontier life with broader themes of loyalty, identity, and survival. His next projects will focus on the Northwest Indian Wars and the War of 1812, continuing the saga of a family that straddled cultures and helped shape the American frontier.
Jeffrey Charles Larsh – Historical Novels Timeline
Paul Larsh An Original Frontiersmen
French & Indian War era (1750s–1763)
Frontier Warriors
Revolutionary War era (1763–1783)
1787
Post-Revolution, settlement & Northwest expansion (1780s–1790s)
Click a book to view on amazon.com
A special thanks to Amy Bridge, our host at the Franklin Area Historical Society, for moderating the event and dressing in frontier attire for the occasion!
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