Kate Hamilton's plans for recreating Asheboro, Maryland as a Victorian village and tourist attraction are progressing nicely, and most of the townspeople have become supporters. There's only one problem: money. Kate had laid out what she thought was a reasonable plan and had built in a financial cushion in her estimates, but the over-runs had exceeded everybody's expectations, and the town coffers are empty, while the opening date looms closer and closer. But Kate and her ally, historian Joshua Wainright, may have come up with a solution. The centerpiece Barton mansion outside of town has proven to be a veritable goldmine of documents about the town's nineteenth-century history, and the Clara Barton correspondence and documents they had first discovered in the house will be the centerpiece of the first exhibit at the newly-renovated Barton factory in town. But Henry Barton's interests and skills went far beyond the operation of his home-town factory. Kate and Joshua stumble upon a cache of documents that suggest that Henry was developing municipal electrical systems at an early date--and that the region's major provider, Universal Electric, may have stolen some of his patents. Can Universal Electric be persuaded to step up and help the town, rather than face legal action.
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