Munsey's Magazine, August 1920

# "The Roof Tree" by Charles Neville Buck

The August 1920 Munsey's Magazine features "The Roof Tree," serialized fiction by Charles Neville Buck, illustrated by Lee Conrey. This historical narrative follows two intertwined timelines across Appalachia and early American expansion.

The contemporary plot opens with Kenneth Thornton witnessing his sister Sally shoot her brutish husband John Turk in self-defense during pregnancy. Thornton assumes guilt and flees Virginia for Kentucky, adopting the alias Cal Maggard to escape prosecution, believing his sister—a woman with child—cannot withstand trial.

The narrative branches backward to colonial Virginia, where ancestor Caleb Parish serves General Washington defending Kentucky settlers. Washington warns of wilderness frontiers requiring steadfast protection. Parish's daughter Dorothy attracts rival suitors: the established Peter Doane and the newly-arrived young Kenneth Thornton, an officer bearing Washington's commission. The two timelines explore inherited patterns of conflict, sacrifice, and frontier ambition within the Thornton family legacy across generations.