Deborah Ross grew up hearing about her great-great-grandfather Joseph Kirk, an American engineer who traveled to Russia to work on the railroad, and encountered the beautiful and aristocratic Charlotte Meyer, contriving to leave his umbrella behind so he could return and court her. In 2010 Deborah began a search for the facts behind “the umbrella story” and others that had been handed down through the generations. Her research and travels took her as far east as St. Petersburg, Russia and as far west as Denmark, Iowa. Along the way she made new friends, found distant relatives, and corresponded with fellow historians and others interested in family history. This book is the result. Mills, Rails, and Mission tells the fascinating story of the Kirk family, whose far-ranging interests, careers, and activities are emblematic of the great changes that our country experienced throughout the 19th Century.