A Dreamy Look at Historic Houses in a Small Town

 

Do you ever go wandering down the rabbit hole of looking at old houses online? Do you hop onto Pinterest or Facebook into those pages that have you wandering through photographs of the insides of homes and castles and all the cool old buildings? Or do you yourself live in one of those Victorian masterpieces? If you do, I'd love to hear about it!

Occasionally, while writing a novel, I spend time either online or by driving around neighborhoods in my story setting, hoping for likely homes my characters might reside in, or deciding where an imaginary home could be placed. This was especially fun to do when I wrote Polly (Apron Strings, Book One), and part of the reason why I chose Hudson, Wisconsin, as my story's location, rather than one of the other small towns along the northern Mississippi. 

In fact, Hudson is located on the St. Croix River, where it flows from northern Wisconsin and then meets the mighty Mississippi. The Willow River is a tributary of the St. Croix which also conjoins there, offering a state park with scenic trails and views of graceful waterfalls, as well as good fishing.

This confluence of navigable rivers is the location early settlers chose to establish a trading post first, and later, lumber mills. As the setting was so prime for the development of the lumber and railroad industries, and so conveniently located to nearby developing St. Paul, it became a natural place for wealthy businessmen and founders to build stately homes, a number of which have been added to the Register of Historic Places. Let's take a look at a few of them.

Fredric L. Darling House / Darling-O'Brien House

The first we'll visit is the Fredric L. Darling House, built in 1857 by architects Amasah and Ammah Andrews. The Andrews twins were transplants from New York, and it was said that their style "Hellenized Hudson". They built this home for Mr. Silas Staples the same year that Hudson was incorporated into a city. 

Staples had immigrated from Maine and became engaged in the St. Croix Valley lumber industry. He eventually became Hudson's third mayor, but sold the house to Fredric Darling in 1865. Darling had arrived from Vermont and came to Hudson to open a dry goods store.

When Darling died in 1899, having become known as a gentleman merchant and one of the last pioneer merchants of the county, the home came into the hands of cigarmaker and insurance man-turned-county sheriff, Cornelius O'Brien, and has remained in the O'Brien family. So the home eventually became known as the Darling-O'Brien House.

The home's style is Greek Revival. It stands in an L-shape two stories above a stone foundation. The style is most notable for it's gable portico and four octagonal columns.

Herman L. Humphrey House

 

William Dwelley House

Less imposing but important because they showed the mid-18th century influence of the Italianate style of architecture at the time, are the Herman L. Humphrey House, home to U.S. Representative Herman L. Humphrey, and the William Dwelley House, another pioneer who made his fortune in Wisconsin's pine lumber industry after he arrived from Maine in 1850.

And then there are the Grand Dames of the town. First, there's the Phipps mansion:

William H. Phipps House - Phipps Inn Bed & Breakfast

One of Hudson's prizes is the William H. Phipps house, a beautiful, Queen Anne Victorian now operating as a B&B. Here are a just a few of the interior photos from Trip Advisor. 

 

With it's verandas, balconies, and octagonal tower, it's hard to not have fanciful dreams about living in such a house, and it makes me wonder what it would have been like back in 1884, when it was first constructed, although it is said that not too many alterations were made between then and the time it landed on the National Register a hundred years later. The butlers pantry became a laundry room, the kitchen was updated, and both fire alarm and sprinkler systems were added for safety. The front sidewalk was replaced with brick. 

As one of the most significant residents of the home, it was named after William Henry Phipps for his many contributions to the welfare of Hudson. Both he and his son were known for their philanthropies. Of Phipps, it is said, he was an "energetic, progressive citizen, never doing things by halves but a believer in the doctrine that what is worth doing is worth doing with one's might." 

Phipps was born in England, but he and his family emigrated to Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1855. After several years, he took a position in the state's treasury office in Madison. In 1875 he became a land commissioner of the North Wisconsin Railroad Company, and settled in Hudson. In Hudson, William acquired considerable wealth as a land commissioner and lumberman.

During his time in Hudson, William also served in a number of governmental capacities, from county board of commissioners, to mayor, and to Wisconsin State Senate. He held other town board offices as well, including bank president to the First National Bank of Hudson for thirty years.

Phipps was also involved in his church as Sunday School Superintendent, and when he saw the need for a public library, he took action. In 1904, after meeting with Andrew Carnegie, he led the way to Hudson having one of the earliest Carnegie-funded libraries completed in the state.

There were many other contributions to Hudson made by William Henry Phipps, industrialist, lumber barren, politician, and philanthropist. Benevolent, religious, and civic-minded, Phipps died in the garden of his home in July, 1924.

He would have been an elderly man, enjoying his residence at the time my heroine Polly lived in Hudson. I wish I'd written him into the story!

There are many historic homes in Hudson, but let's look at one more iconic work of architecture.

The John S. Moffat House - Octagon House Museum

The John S. Moffat House, Hudson's Octagon House (not to be confused with the Watertown, Wisconsin Octagon House) was built in 1855 by Judge John Shaw Moffet. It is on beautiful grounds directly across the road from the Phipps house, and is surrounded by garden landscape, garden house, and carriage house. 

John Shaw Moffet worked in New York primarily as a storekeeper until 1854. Then, on the advice of his brother-in-law he emigrated to Hudson, Wisconsin. He arrived with his wife and ten-year-old daughter by train, riverboat, and lastly horse and wagon (much like the journey of characters in my novel The Green Veil, Empire in Pine, Book One, who came from Michigan to the Wisconsin woods).

Shortly after arriving, he became a police justice in Hudson. In 1867, he was admitted to the bar, and he became a county judge in 1869, a position he held until 1877. While a judge, in 1871, he went into a law partnership with his son-in-law, Thomas Hughes. Moffat practiced law until his death in 1903. But that's not all. He also became director and later president of the Hudson/St. Croix Valley Produce Company. 

If you tour the Moffat Octagon House Museum, you will find many of the artifacts, family photos, and historic furnishings intact. To see more pictures of this interesting home, visit the St. Croix Valley Historical site.

In writing Polly, I imagined that her grandfather had also gained his financial success in the lumber industry. He too "built" his lovely Queen Anne Victorian in Hudson--all imaginary of course!

Just for fun, would you like to see how I imagined Polly's home, with a few modifications?

I wanted Polly's home to have a porch, but not a wrap-around. I wanted her home to be big and beautiful, but not grander than the Phipps House. If you look at the plan for the lower level, it was nearly just so, with her sitting room and dining room to the left of the entry hall becoming serving rooms in Polly's Tea House, and the Parlor becoming her gift shop. I put reversed the kitchen and back porch, and allowed the hall to continue straight out the back. I visualized a small butler's pantry between the dining room and kitchen. 

The second floor was just as in the novel. I don't think I spell it out directly, as to which room belongs to whom, but I would imagine the largest room with the bay window to have been her grandfather's room, the one she turns into a sitting room for her and Mrs. Adams and where she shares invites Ross to rest after his personal tragedy. 

The exterior of Polly's Queen Anne is a painted in various shades of beige with white trim. Do you find the Queen Anne style to be romantic, or would you prefer something more like the Italianate, or something as unique as an octagon house? Or something else entirely? 

If a Queen Anne suits you, or you just like to daydream, you might enjoy this picture gallery of Queen Anne architecture. 

Have you read Polly yet? I hope you'll enjoy wandering through her stately home and Holloway House, the name of her tea house. Nellie, book two, in the Apron Strings series just released on February 15, and Book Three, Priscilla, comes out on March 15. Get ready to follow Mrs. Canfield's Cookery Book through the decades from 2020-1920, one new title each month!

The History of Midway Station By Donna Schlachter—with Giveaway

Midway Station pre-1959

If you look on a map of Nebraska, you won’t find Midway Station. That’s because it is not, and has never been, a hamlet, village, town, or city. Midway Station was one of the stops along the Pony Express route, which ran—and still exists in many areas—from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco, California.

However, if you’ve ever passed near or through Gothenburg, Nebraska, you might well have seen the cabin called Midway Station. It is one of the few original stations that remains at its original location. Much more famous, perhaps, is the Sam Machette station in the city of Gothenburg, which was moved in 1931 and turned into a museum in the mid 1950s which attracts more than thirty thousand visitors each year.

Midway Station with Pony Express plaque

Midway Station was built in 1859 just south of modern-day Gothenburg and expanded in 1860 to its current size when it was contracted by the Pony Express. Originally it was used by the Leavenworth City and Pikes Peak Express Company, then adopted as a stop where riders could get a fresh horse, use the privy, and perhaps get a crust of bread or a quick meal to keep them going to the next home station.

Midway was used by wagon trains along the Oregon Trail to water or rest their animals and emigrants, and sometimes the trains would send hunters to replenish fresh meat supplies. Large and small game was plentiful, as were wild berries in season and plenty of prairie grasses to feed their horses, cattle, and oxen.

By the late 1870s, when wagon trains were replaced in large part by trains, the station wasn’t used as much. In 1879, Henry Williams bought the building and turned it into a bunkhouse or cabin on his Lower 96 Ranch.

The Midway Station has gone by several names over the years, including Cold Water Ranch, Heavy Timber, Smith’s East Ranch, and Pat Mullaly’s Home Station. It is a long, low, one-story cabin, constructed of heavy, squared, hand-hewn cedar logs. When the Pony Express contracted to rent the location for its riders, two additional sections were added to the east. Originally, the log walls sat on a bare earth floor, but a concrete foundation was added later. Wall spaces were originally packed with mud, and the low pitched, split cedar roof was supported by cedar log ridge beams, and then covered with a heavy layer of sod, on which the split cedar shingles now rest.

Many stations used by wagon trains and express services in Nebraska were destroyed during Indian raids, and many more fell into ruins once the railroad was completed. Rumors abound that Midway Station was one that was burned, however, it seems a larger frame house built nearby was destroyed, with minor damage to the station.

In recent years, the family that owns the station has created a museum-like experience including furnishings and artifacts. If you’d like to visit, contact the Gothenburg Pony Express Museum at 308-537-9876.



Leave a comment to enter a random drawing for an ebook copy of Hearts of Hollenberg, the first in my Hearts of the Pony Express series. And stay tuned for Book 4 in the series, Hearts of Midway, which releases in August.

About Donna:
A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 60 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter. She is taking all the information she’s learned along the way about the writing and publishing process, and is coaching committed career writers. Learn more at https://www.donnaschlachter.com/the-purpose-full-writer-coaching-programs Check out her coaching group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/604220861766651


Connecting Online:
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Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothenburg,_Nebraska

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midway_Stage_Station

https://www.ponyexpressstation.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1x3KUuGP4 Video tour

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/poex/hrs/hrs5a.htm

https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/81ae5996-bb27-4bbe-8229-d5c66bfb8748

Did You Know.... Bible Trivia

by Naomi Craig

I love random trivia . In many forms like behind the scenes info about movies (Did you know in the musical Singin' In The Rain where Kathy Seldon does voice overs for the star, Lina Lamont, only the actual movie people thought Debbie Reynolds' (Kathy) voice wasn't mature enough so Jean Hagen (Lina) sang the movie song "Would you?" ----Ending up being Lina covering for Kathy who was covering for Lina)

Singin' in the Rain trailer 5.jpg, wikimedia

Historical tidbits---why I love this blog

And Random Bible Trivia.

I don't know why.

There is a sense of pride when I know the most answers in the American Trivia board game.

So let's get into some interesting Bible trivia.

Did you know the Bible is not only the best-selling book in the world (100 million per year ) but also the most shoplifted.

Wicked Bible - wicked passage.jpg, Wikimedia

Did you know in 1631, a publishing company accidentally omitted the word "not" from the 7th commandment? Around 1,000 copies were distributed before "thou shall commit adultery" was noticed. This version is known as the Sinner's Bible or the Wicked Bible.

How's your trivia inside the Bible?

Did you know about the left-handed assassin and the obese king?

The dead man comes to life at Elisha's sepulchre.jpg, Wikimedia

Did you know a man came back to life after his dead body touched the (very dead) bones of a prophet?

What about an Iron ax head floating in water?

Did you know there is a woman credited with building three cities?

Donkeys talking? Sounds like a cartoon or fantasy movie, but it's actually in the Bible first

Og's Bed (crop).jpg, Wikimedia

Did you know a man had a bed 13 1/2 feet long and 6 feet wide. (I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Goliath)

Or how about the man whose hair weighed 6 1/4 lbs. when it was cut annually.?


Did you know all these? What other random tidbits should be included?

Author of Biblical fiction, avid reader, and pastor's wife, Naomi loves reading the Bible and imagining how things were at the time. When she’s not serving in various areas at church or trying to stay on top of mountains of dishes, you'll most likely find her enjoying a good book and a cup of coffee. Naomi is the founder of Biblical Fiction Aficionados Community on Facebook and co-hosts #BehindTheStory on YouTube. When not writing or trying to wrangle social media, Naomi attempts to get her rescue dogs to be cute on command for the many pics she takes throughout the day.

What was your favorite Biblical Fiction you read that released in 2023?

Come on over to Biblical Fiction Aficionados and vote for the 2023 Readers' Choice Award

And Sew it Goes

 By Cindy Regnier

 Any seamstresses out there (sorry guys but I didn’t want to call you sewers!). If you sew, you probably have use of a sewing machine and may not begin to know how to construct a garment without one. I know I wouldn’t. It did make me wonder about the invention of the sewing machine. It was Singer – right? Not necessarily so. In fact, the history of this time saving device is somewhat convoluted. Let’s check it out.

Hand sewing has been around for centuries. The first needles were made from animal bones or horns and thread was animal sinew. Then things began to get interesting during the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe. Factories found it unprofitable to hire hand sewing and something needed to change.

Weisenthal

A German immigrant living in 1755 London, Charles Weisenthal,
first took out a patent for a needle to be used for mechanical sewing. No machine to go with it, but maybe he had some foresight. 34 years later, Englishman Thomas Saint invented a use for the needle. He patented a machine that made a hole in leather with an awl and then allowed a needle to go through. Some say Saint only had the idea and never came up with a real machine. When someone tried to produce a machine from his drawings in the 1880s, it didn’t work well. So maybe we can’t credit Saint with this invention. What happened next?

Model from Saint's plan

In America during 1818, John Adams Doge and John Knowles produced a device that made a e stitch, but it could only sew a short piece before a time consuming re-setting process.

In 1830 Barthelemy Thimonnier was granted a patent by the French government. His contraption used a barbed needle and was built of wood. Supposedly, he designed the machine for embroidery, but then saw sewing potential. He was eventually given a contract to build  machines used to sew uniforms for the French army. 10 years later, Thimonnier ran a factory with 80 machines. But apparently the French tailors were envious and afraid their craft would disappear. Late one night a group of tailors broke into the factory and destroyed all the machines. Thimonnier fled to England with one machine he was able to salvage. He died in the poor house in 1857. 

Hunt's model

It’s worth mentioning that all attempts of designing a sewing machine before the first successful one, all moved the needle side to side and were powered with a winding handle. In 1833 American quaker Walter Hunt invented the first machine which did not try to reproduce hand sewing. It made a lock stitch using two spools of thread and incorporated an eye-pointed needle. But it was unsuccessful as it could only produce short, straight, seams. Furthermore, Hunt thought such a machine would cause unemployment for many, so he didn’t bother to patent the design.

Howe

 Nine years later John Greenough, produced a  machine in which the needle passed completely through the cloth. Although a model was made and exhibited in the hope of raising capital for its manufacture, there were no takers. Another failed invention. In 1844, Englishman John Fisher invented a machine designed for producing lace, but it worked like a sewing machine. But an error at the patent office caused his idea to be lost. No patent or invention credit for Mr. Fisher.

Howe's model

 

 Then, Massachusetts farmer Elias Howe completed his first prototype sewing machine not long after Fisher. It resembled Fisher’s with some minor adjustments. He had trouble marketing his design, so he left for England. By the time he returned to America, others had copied his lockstitch design and began producing the machines. One of those was Isaac Merritt Singer.

 

Isaac Singer

 Singer developed the first version of our modern-day sewing machine,   with a foot pedal and the up-and-down needle. Elias Howe took Singer to court for Patent Infringement, where he defended his case and won. Interestingly enough, if John Fisher’s patent hadn’t been lost, he would also have been involved in the lawsuits as Singer’s designs were almost identical to Fisher’s. As it was, Singer had to pay patent royalties to Howe, as well as giving him a share in the Singer Co. profits.

Singer's model

  It turned out okay for both men, though, since Howe and Singer both died multimillionaires. And so the argument continues over who invented the sewing machine. Whether you vote for Fisher, Howe, Singer or someone else, I am thankful that we can now sew without sinew and bones.

How about you? Do you sew? Do you do any hand sewing or is it a lost art?

Rand isn't looking for true love. What he needs is a wife to help care for his orphan nieces. Desperate, he sends an advertisement and hopes for the best.
Fleeing her former employer who would use her to further his unlawful acts, an advertisement reads like the perfect refuge to Carly. Hiding herself on a Kansas cattle ranch is her best shot for freedom.
But its sanctuary comes with a price. While marrying a man she doesn't know or love means sacrificing her dreams, it's better than being caught by the law.
Or is it?

The Real History of Valentine's Day

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Valentine’s Day…leading up to every February 14, you almost can’t enter a store without being ambushed by banners and signs, “Don’t forget Valentine’s Day!” Store aisles are stuffed with heart-shaped candy samplers, boxes of cheesy Valentine’s cards for school kids, and even teddy bears and other plushies to commemorate another “day of love!” So…do you love this holiday, or hate it? I’ve been in both camps at various points in my life. 

·      Single, while most of my friends were in dating relationships—“Maybe I’ll have someone to celebrate it with next year…”

·      Dating my college sweetheart—“I LOVE IT! I love him! I love LOVE…”

·      Married, but not happily—“Meh…”

·      Single after a divorce—“Why the hey-hey do we even celebrate this stupid, over-commercialized “holiday…? It’s only meant to line the greedy greeting card and candy-makers’ pockets, am I right?”

·      Dating the man of my dreams—“Whoop whoop! The magic of February 14 has returned!”

·      Married to the man of my dreams— “Who needs to wait for February 14? Every day is a reason to celebrate our love…”

 

That said, do you know the history behind Valentine’s Day? It’s more than a random date chosen by greeting card companies, chocolatiers, or florists to sell their products. There are multiple St. Valentines in Christian church history, and there’s some question of whether their stories have been morphed into one. But while the details may be a bit muddled due to records being destroyed or lost to antiquity, the general consensus is that the origin of Valentine’s Day dates back to around A.D. 270 in Rome. 

 

Two years earlier, in A.D. 268, the Roman Empire covered much of the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, and Rome had many enemies. The Goths were invading, and at the same time, the Alamanni were crossing the Alps with evil intentions. The newly ascended Emperor, Claudius II—a pagan man also known as “Claudius the Cruel”—was ready and willing to defend the homeland, but he needed to have a strong, resilient army at his disposal to fight the threats.

 

A coin with image of
Emperor Claudius II, aka
"Claudius the Cruel"

But he had a problem. Roman men weren’t willing to join him as soldiers to fight. After some deliberation, Claudius concluded that these men were not joining 

him because they didn’t want to leave their wives and children. So to combat this obstacle, he made the decision to ban weddings in Rome (whether it was a blanket ban for all citizens or only for the men of fighting age is unclear).

 

A Christian priest of the time, Valentinus (the Roman way of spelling Valentine), saw that the emperor’s ruling went against God’s law. After all, God had created marriage when he brought Adam and Eve together in Genesis, and He’d called that union good. So how could this man, Emperor Claudius, later ban the institution as evil. So Valentinus would meet couples in the woods and perform Christian marriage ceremonies for them.

 

As news of this reached those in power, calls came for Valentinus to be imprisoned, which he was. But Judge Asterius listened to the priest’s discussions of Jesus Christ, and he put Valentinus on the spot. The judge’s daughter was blind, so he brought the girl to his prisoner and told him to pray for her healing. Valentinus did, and she was healed that day. Three days later, the judge and his household were baptized, and afterward, Asterius released all the Christian prisoners.

 

Valentinus,
aka St. Valentine

With his freedom restored, Valentinus continued to preach of Jesus, but he was again imprisoned, this time being taken to Emperor Claudius himself. Claudius took a quick liking to Valentinus—until the priest encouraged him to believe in Jesus. Claudius staunchly refused and gave the order that Valentinus must either renounce his faith in Christ or he would be beaten with clubs and beheaded. Valentinus would not recant. So on February 14 in the year A.D. 270 (some sources say A.D. 269), the punishment was carried out. Valentinus was taken to the Flaminian Gate and beaten then beheaded.

 

Whether true or not, I am unsure, but there is an addendum to the above history
that says prior to his execution, Valentinus wrote to Judge Asterius’s daughter whom he’d prayed for and saw her blindness healed—and supposedly, he signed the letter, “From your Valentine.”

 

It is easy to see how this man was someone the Catholic church chose to celebrate. Sometime after his death (and after Emperor Claudius II’s death—which came in A.D. 270 also), a feast in honor of Valentinus was called every February 14^th. And over the years, his continued performing of weddings despite the Emperor’s ban, the apocryphal bit about his unusual signature line on a letter to a young girl, and more, morphed into the celebration of love we now know as Valentine’s Day. 

 

It's Your Turn: What are your feelings about this holiday? Does learning the history of its origin change your opinion of the day? If so, how?

 

Award-winning, best-selling novelist Jennifer Uhlarik has loved the western genre since she read her first Louis L’Amour novel. She penned her first western while earning a writing degree from University of Tampa. Jennifer lives near Tampa with her husband, son, and furbabies. www.jenniferuhlarik.com

 

AVAILABLE NOW

 

Love’s Fortress by Jennifer Uhlarik

 

A Friendship From the Past Brings Closure to Dani’s Fractured Family

 

When Dani Sango’s art forger father passes away, Dani inherits his home. There, she finds a book of Native American drawings, which leads her to seek museum curator Brad Osgood’s help to decipher the ledger art. Why would her father have this book? Is it another forgery?

 

Brad Osgood longs to provide his four-year-old niece, Brynn, the safe home she desperately deserves. The last thing he needs is more drama, especially from a forger’s daughter. But when the two meet “accidentally” at St. Augustine’s 350-year-old Spanish fort, he can’t refuse the intriguing woman.

 

Broken Bow is among seventy-three Plains Indians transported to Florida in 1875 for incarceration at ancient Fort Marion. Sally Jo Harris and Luke Worthing dream of serving on a foreign mission field, but when the Indians reach St. Augustine, God changes their plans. However, when Sally Jo’s friendship with Broken Bow leads to false accusations, it could cost them their lives.

 

Can Dani discover how Broken Bow and Sally Jo’s story ends and how it impacted her father’s life?

 

Canadian Heroines: Victoria Cheung

By Terrie Todd

If I asked you to name the first Chinese Canadian (male or female) to graduate as a doctor in Canada, could you? How about if I asked you to name the only Canadian missionary to have worked in China throughout the Japanese invasion, World War II, and the Communist revolution? Hint: it’s the same person. Don’t feel bad, I couldn’t have named her either.

Victoria Toy Mea Cheung was born in Victoria, BC in 1897, the same year as Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Cheung was born during a time when Canada did not welcome the Chinese, when the only people forced to pay a head tax were immigrants from China. Did her parents name her Victoria in hopes that she would be better accepted by the dominant white society?

Victoria’s father, Sing Noon Cheung, had immigrated from his South China village, lured by the Canadian Pacific Railway to help build the transcontinental railway. After the final spike was driven in 1885, he began a small business in Victoria and saved enough money to bring his wife to Canada. He was one of the first Chinese converts to Christianity in the city. His wife, Yin Han, a highly educated woman, had become a Christian in China.

At age five, Victoria attended kindergarten at the Oriental Home run by the Women’s Missionary Society. Originally a place of refuge for at-risk girls and women of Asian descent, the Chinese Rescue Home had become a segregated school offering a public school curriculum, evangelical teachings, and lessons in the domestic arts. Enrolled as a boarder, Victoria could visit her family at home only a few blocks away.

A popular and smart girl, Victoria taught Sunday school, participated in girls’ groups, and resolved to become a medical missionary to China. The idea was preposterous in British Columbia, where provincial legislation prohibited Chinese people from entering professions. Being Chinese wasn’t Victoria’s only hurdle. The University of Toronto was the only medical school accepting female students. Thanks to a full university scholarship from the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Society, Victoria joined the medical school there in 1917. When she graduated in 1922, she was one of only 14 women in a class of 79 graduates.

After interning at Toronto General, Victoria joined the South China Mission, taking charge of a hospital in Kongmoon and serving as both a skilled surgeon and an efficient administrator. Despite political upheavals that forced most other Canadian doctors and missionaries to return to Canada, Victoria stayed for 43 years. As a Canadian, she traveled with a British passport. But somehow her name was not included in the British consulate’s list of female missionaries in China, a list used in times of crisis for emergency evacuations. Some speculate that, since “Canadian women were white,” and since “doctors were male,” and since “missionaries were, by definition, of European heritage,” Victoria Cheung could not possibly have been all three. Whatever the reason, this oversight worked in her favor during the Japanese occupation. Victoria kept her Canadian citizenship hidden, preferring to pass as a Chinese national so that she could stay and continue her work.

Victoria Cheung continued to serve through war, invasion, and the communist takeover that made her Christian faith illegal. Any connections to Canada or the west had to be kept strictly hidden. Her patients included residents of four refugee camps where she vaccinated against or treated smallpox, cholera, malaria, dysentery, and typhus. Times proved so bad at one point that a starving mother tried to sell her two daughters to Dr. Cheung.

Victoria Cheung stayed in China until her death in 1966 at the age of 69. For more on this remarkable woman, read “A Woman In Between: Searching for Dr. Victoria Cheung,” by John Price and Ningping Yu.

Sources:

100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces, by Merna Forster, Dundurn Press, 2004

Wikipedia

The Canadian Encyclopedia

One secret.

Three sisters.

One is desperate to discover the truth. One wishes the truth would simply go away. And one would give her life to keep the truth hidden forever.

“I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this compelling story! … With God’s help, good can come from evil, and that lesson is beautifully shown in April’s Promise. I recommend this story for lovers of Christian fiction and compelling stories.” --Jeanne, Goodreads

April’s Promise was short-listed in both the 2020 Word Awards & the 2020 Braun Book Awards.

Terrie Todd’s novels are set mostly in Manitoba, Canada where she lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie. They have three adult children and five grandsons.

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CAT’S CRADLE

 

By Mary Davis

Though adorable, not those kinds of cats.

This kind.

As a child playing Cat’s Cradle, I never realized it was an ancient game played in many cultures.

Cat’s cradle is a string game involving various figures with a loop of string made on the hands. Versions can be played by either one or two people, sometimes more. Each figure created has a different name.

Variations of this game have been found independently in cultures around the world; some of these are Africa, the Americas, the Arctic, Australia, Eastern Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

In other countries this game goes by different names.

         France — crèche

         Japan — ayatori

         Korea — sil-tteu-gi

         Russia — the game of string (but in Russian)

         China — fan sheng (turning rope)

         Israel — Knitting Grandmother

         In some regions of the U.S. — Jack in the Pulpit

So, who created this attention absorbing game and when?

No one really knows, but it is found around the world.

Though the origin and name of this enduring game is debated, it may have begun in China and has likely existed for centuries. Even so, the earliest mention of it in literature isn’t until 1768 in a novel titled The Light of Nature Pursued by Abraham Tucker under the pen name Edward Search.

“An ingenious play they call cat's cradle; one ties the two ends of a packthread together, and then winds it about his fingers, another with both hands takes it off perhaps in the shape of a gridiron, the first takes it from him again in another form, and so on alternately changing the packthread into a multitude of figures whose names I forget, it being so many years since I played at it myself.”

However, Cat’s Cradle isn’t the only game nor is it the only use of a loop of string to create figures. People have been manipulating string for as long as there has been string.

The first known written account of manipulating string was by first century Greek physician Heraklas where he describes surgical knots and slings. His figure called the “Plinthios Brokhos” was used to set and bind a broken jaw. With the string doubled, the shape consisted of four corner loops with a hole in the center. The chin would be placed in the middle hole while the four loops are pulled up near the top of the head and tied. This figure is known as “The Sun Clouded Over” to the Aborigines in Australia.

The extinct woolly mammoth is a figure the Inuits have. So, their culture had been playing with string for a very, very long time to have knowledge of an animal that no longer exists.

And like so many things, there are Guinness Book of World Record holders. In August 1974, a trio of California girls, Geneva Hultenius, Maryann Divona, and Rita Divona played Cat’s Cradle for 21 hours, making 21,200 changes between them. They were in the 1975 and 1976 editions of Guinness Book of World Records. But they didn’t hold their title for very long. In August of 1976, a pair of Canadians, Jane Muir and Robyn Lawrick, also played for 21 hours and completed 22,700 changes, dethroning the California trio. So many questions go through my mind of how they managed this, but I keep coming back to someone having to had counted all those exchanges while not losing track, not to mention bathroom breaks and eating.

In 1963, the game was the inspiration for Kurt Vonnegut’s novel aptly titled Cat’s Cradle where a character surmises that the invisible cat in the game symbolizes all the nonsense of life.

Did you play Cat’s Cradle or other string games in your youth?

 

Here’s a video if you want to refresh your memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHTPnrYLzQ

 

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Sources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpHTPnrYLzQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_cradle#References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_figure

https://www.beano.com/posts/cats-cradle-facts