The three book series of Coldspring (Coldspring, Coldspring; The Trial and Coldspring; The Resolution) is a trilogy of human spirit and mystique; synchronized into karmic resolution. It is a literary non-fiction story of love, murder, mystery and a woman whom was ahead of her time.

While visiting family in Jamestown, New York, authors Cheri Mancuso and John Scarano inquired about an old photograph of a woman which was intentionally hidden in a family album. The 1930 photograph was of Bernice Kenyon Farnsworth (author Cheri Mancuso’s great aunt) Learning who she was, and a few details of her life in 1935, ultimately led to a full on investigation, unveiling truths and extraordinary events hundreds of years old – long buried and forgotten.

Coldspring chronicles three documented lifetimes, as well as two earlier ones, which were intuited in order to demonstrate the evolution of karma from lifetime to lifetime.  This in-depth story leads us through three similar documented events, involving one woman and two men which took place over a span of 234 years within Coldspring Creek, Cattaraugus County, New York.

•    In the early 1700’s, a Seneca Indian brutally murdered two of his own tribe – the woman he loved and the man who had won her heart – with an ax. A Seneca Indian Guide recited the legend of these murders in Coldspring to a Holland Company surveyor in 1799.

•    In 1873, William Bourne, the young stepson of a settler, murdered his stepfather Caleb Omens and his stepfather’s wife – with an ax. This incident was reported in many local papers in 1873.

•    In 1935 Alfred “Freddy” Lindsay, murdered Bernice Kenyon Farnsworth and her husband Harold Farnsworth – with an ax.

“Hang on for a ride! This book will suck you in you. It’s fantastic!”   Eva La Rue

“What a page turner about an undeniable Connection through time!”  Anne Ryan

“Spellbinding right up to climatic finish!”    Cindy Ambuehl

“The characters colorful, the true story fascinating!”    Jamestown Post Journal

 

Regarding Bernice Kenyon Farnsworth

 

Co-Author Cheri Mancuso’s great aunt Bernice Kenyon Farnsworth was a strong independent woman ahead of her time in the early 1930’s.

She was very involved with the local community; she worked for Judge Orla Black and became politically active in the protest against capital punishment. A career and community minded woman, she never married until very late in life.

Bernice was very well liked in the small rural NY community – but her memory was shunned and buried after her murder.

Some felt that she may have brought it all on herself by her life and career choices along with marrying Harold Farnsworth, an ex-con and 25 years her junior, (the cell mate of their farmhand Alfred J. “Freddy” Lindsay, who eventually murdered them).

Many in Cattaraugus County NY recall Bernice and the incidents surrounding her so when Coldspring was released, buried truths revealed a new perspective on them – and many exhaled in peace over something that had greatly affected their lives.