Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Humboldt, California

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the future eighteenth President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant wasn't currently serving in the army. He worked at a family-run store in Galena, Illinois. In his earlier life, however, he had a military career--one that began at West Point, continued through the Mexican-American War, and ended in 1854 at a small, fog-shrouded fort in Northern California.

Ulysses S. Grant. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress / Public domain

Grant's orders to go to California came in 1852, when he was serving as a quartermaster in Detroit. He and other members of the 4th Infantry Regiment set sail from New York to Panama.

Grant's wife Julia, eight-months pregnant with their second child, did not accompany him on the journey--a wise choice, considering the cholera outbreak that hit their company in Panama. The surviving members of the regiment sailed from Panama to San Francisco, arriving in September of 1852, five months after setting out from New York.

Grant was stationed at a few forts, including those in Benicia, California and  Vanouver, Washington, before he was promoted to Captain. In January of 1854, he was sent to Fort Humboldt on Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco, to serve as quartermaster.

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park as it appears today. JP Smith / Public domain

Fort Humboldt was about a year old when Grant arrived, commanded by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan, a fellow veteran of the Mexican-American War. Comprised of just over a dozen buildings surrounding a central quad, the fort was not fenced, but it sat on a plateau overlooking the bay and Pacific Ocean. 

There were approximately forty men stationed there at the time, as well as a few wives and children (the fort doctor, Assistant Surgeon Simpson, lived in a house with his family). While the soldiers were called upon to intervene between conflicts between whites and the local populations, (most notably the so-called Red Cap War in 1855 and the Indian Island Massacre of 1860, when whites murdered up to 250 Wiyot people), it was fairly quiet during Grant's time at the fort.

Historic American Buildings Survey From Al Sondag Painting at G.G.I.E. (Taken from old photos) - Fort Humboldt, Eureka, Humboldt County, CA. Public Domain.

By all accounts, Grant was good at his job as quartermaster at the fort. He procured the standard rations of salt pork, salt, vinegar, sugar, and other staples, but also supplemented the soldiers' meat by purchasing local goods and hiring a hunter, Seth Kinman, to bring elk and other game to the fort. 

Grant was not happy at Fort Humboldt, however. The area was isolated. Though a decorated soldier, Grant had little use for protocol, and he did not get along with his commanding officer, the strict Colonel Buchanan. 

Worse, he did handle his separation from his wife Julia well. During his absence, she gave birth to their second son, Ulysses Jr. (later known as Buck). Lonely, depressed, and bored, Grant began to drink. 

He spent significant time at a nearby Eureka tavern, and it did not take much alcohol for him to become inebriated (a problem that would follow him into the Civil War, when he was likewise separated from Julia). Colonel Buchanan reprimanded him, and Grant is said to have responded that if he couldn't or wouldn't quit drinking, he would resign.

He didn't quit drinking, though, and facing a court martial, he resigned his commission, effective July 31, 1854. Buchanan never submitted a formal report against Grant, who returned to St. Louis, Missouri to reunite with his family.

Soldiers remained at the fort through the Civil War, and Fort Humboldt was formally abandoned in 1870.

Fort Humboldt hospital building, abandoned and dilapidated. Date unknown, Author unknown. Public Domain. Today it has been restored.

Today, the site is known as Fort Humboldt State Historic Park. The restored hospital still stands, and other buildings have been rebuilt, including Grant's former residence.

Despite the unpleasant memories of his time here, Grant is said to have thought California beautiful and hoped to return, which he did on his World Tour after the presidency. 

In an interesting twist, the son born after he set off on his California journey, Ulysses Grant Jr., did make California his home. He settled in San Diego in the late 1800's, where he became one of its most prominent and influential citizens.

**

Susanne Dietze's latest story, Frontier of Her Heart | The Soldier's Lady, is set at Fort Humboldt during Grant's time there. Captain Grant is a minor character in the story, as is Colonel Buchanan and a third historical figure, the larger-than-life hunter Seth Kinman.

A California native, she is the award-winning author of several award-winning romances. You can learn more on her website, www.susannedietze.com.

The Hudson River School of Art

by Kathleen L. Maher

Anyone who knows me, knows I love my home state of New York. I love to explore its history and often-untold stories, and share my love for all things New York. In addition to being a lover of history, I am also an erstwhile artist, and for me, to have all of these elements come together is a rare and special treat. I hope you enjoy this peek into a special time and place in American history.

Thomas Cole

In the early to mid 1800's, there arose a group of artists that loved to paint in the Hudson River valley, the Catskill Mountains, and the Adirondacks, to capture its grand landscapes and unspoiled beauty. Thomas Cole is considered to be the father of this realistic style marked by European romanticism and luminism, an emphasis on lighting effects.  It is a celebration of the wild, rugged, and picturesque, and an attempt to capture on canvas the grand scale of sweeping scenery.

The Hudson River school wasn't an actual place of study in the literal sense of a school, but rather an association of like-minded artists in one region at one place in time. The second generation of artists influenced by this school took their canvas and bushes to other places, such as the American West.

Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt is one such artist who employed the aesthetics of this movement at the perfect point in time to capture the American West and translate it to those back east in a way that approximated its larger than life majesty. Bierstadt traveled with surveyors and advance parties during the Westward Expansion of our country, in the 1850's at the dawn of rail travel and before photography had its full capacity. 

His art was so captivating it helped persuade the American people of the value of acquiring and settling these lands.His detailed paintings inhabited canvases often twelve or more feet across and six to eight feet tall, inviting the viewer to step into a scene that they could almost touch and taste and feel. How does one translate the size of a redwood tree to one who has never seen its spectacle? Or the peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, the panorama of the Great Plains? Bierstadt reproduces in almost photo realism the tiniest detail such as trout in a translucent pool, the individual leaves on a tree, and the shimmer of sunlight on water, all the while immersing the spectator in a scope that overwhelms the senses. 

Outlet at :Lake Tahoe by Albert Bierstadt

Another of the important Hudson River School artists includes Frederic Edwin Church. Church was born into privilege as the son of a jeweler and banker. His father's largess convinced the acclaimed aforementioned Hudson School founder Thomas Cole to take Frederic into his tutelage, and soon the student proved himself an artist of international merit. Church painted not only the New York and New England landscapes, but went on to accompany naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt to South America. He is known for the scope and exactitude of his landscapes. Later, he would travel to Greenland to paint great icebergs in the North Atlantic, and later still, the Holy Land and the ancient world.

Niagara Falls by Frederic Edwin Church 

I can almost feel the mist rising off the falls, smell the fresh air gusting up from the plunge, hear the roar of the tons of water pounding the river below. The play of light in the hazy sky and through the translucent water, the artist's depiction of sun refracting in the water droplets suspended in the atmosphere almost defies human capacity. It would be many years before a camera could approximate the same affects. 

The Catskills by Asher B Durand

The last artist in my spotlight is Asher Brown Durand. In addition to being an engraver and portrait artist, Durand earned a stellar reputation as a naturalist landscape artist, depicting "masterpieces of organic verisimilitude." Taking great influence from the European masters, Durand also received enlightenment from the plein air experience, leaving the controlled production of the studio to capture landscape art as it really was, painting in nature. His dark to light dynamic creates a drama that draws the eye to focal points and shimmering points of interest in his compositions. Up close, you can see the moss growing on old roots and lichen clinging to tree trunks. No detail is lost. 

In my new novella releasing October 1 with Barbour Books' collection Lessons on Love, a Hudson River town is my setting during this approximate time period when these artists roamed the foothills and valleys and mountains of undeveloped New York State. "Something Old, Something New" tells the story of Gilda Jacobs, a young Jewish schoolmistress who must partner with Joshua Blake, a protege of New York revivalist Charles Grandison Finney, to meet the Christian curriculum requirements of the largely Dutch population of the town. It was a joy to imagine the lush natural beauty of Gilda and Joshua's world through the lens of these New York State artists. 

Kathleen L. Maher’s first crush was Peter Rabbit, and she’s loved conflicted heroes ever since. She has two novellas in BARBOUR BOOKS' collections: Victorian Christmas Brides and Lessons on Love. Winner 2012 ACFW Genesis Award. Author of Sons of the Shenandoah Series: The Abolitionist's Daughter and The Chaplain's Daughter.
Kathleen and her husband live in an old farmhouse in upstate NY with their children and a small menagerie.

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Arson Takes a City

Cara Grandle here,

This is the second post in a series of four covering crazy disasters, some more natural than others, that folks had to deal with as they worked to carve out a settlement or homestead in the mid-1800s.

Last month we covered locusts and all the crazy destruction they brought. Now we’re going to talk fire.

Fire has been an issue to lots of big cities.

Fire is something we still deal with nowadays. Think of all the systems, people, and equipment that is dispatched when one home burns, let alone a whole forest or town.

There have been so many fires over the course of history you can look up a list of great city fires in Wikipedia. A Wiki page! Ugh. That is too many losses, yet they still occur.

Many of the fires before the 20th Century had a lot in common. The buildings were all made out of combustable material and the sidewalks that were used to keep the people from walking in the “mud” were also made out of easily burned material. (See my post on The Great Manure Crisis Here.)

The Great Chicago fire of 1871 is one such fire. But an interesting fact that earned a space on this blog isn’t about the fires themselves, but about how they were started.

Many of the big city fires started as an act of arson.

Arson?

Somebody started it on purpose.

Da, da, daaaaah.

Can you hear the Perry Mason theme song in the background?

Why would anyone want to burn down a town? What would be their motive? Was the intention to burn a city? 

Well, I have a least one answer to those questions and it involves the San Francisco Fire of 1851 as an example.

Picture the times:

1851 California, less than a year after it became the 31st state, the gold rush that started in 1849 is in full swing. Those folks hunting treasure had been pouring into the city for two full years. The harbor was packed with ships that had been dry-docked, run aground, left to rot, or used as stores. They sat crowded alongside the ones in use.

Many convicts shipped from England to Australia were coming into the city via boat as an alternative to serving out there full sentence. Many of these men banded into gangs called the Sydney Ducks. As a group, they usurped political power, corrupted officials, conducted secret trials, lynchings and deportations. Things were so bad that they were the catalyst for the first Committee of Vigilance of 1851. Needless to say these men were trouble with a capital T.

And what do you get when you mix crowds of people, gold, hard times, and ex-cons? Thieves and opportunists.Fellows who would do anything to make a future better than the one they could expect.

So these unsavory men, who where no longer interested in the back breaking labor of mining, needed money.

They would find a hotel with lots of customers, or at least one wealthy one, suspected of keeping their coin with them. They would enter the building, find a hidden corner, start a fire, and then rob the guests after they escaped the hotel for safety.

There was so much of this going on, that even though they never proved it they believe this was how the San Francisco Fire of 1851 began.

On May 3rd at 11pm, a fire broke out in a paint and upholstery store that was located in the space above a hotel. Winds picked up. The fire burned for 10 hours burning 2000, yes 2000, buildings, businesses, and homes covering a very populated 18 blocks. The destruction claimed three-quarters of the city. Nine lives were lost.

All because of greed. So on top of natural disasters, crazy weather patterns, and things like locusts, the settlers had to face greedy men.

But they always began again. I like that reminder. It’s never too late to start over.

Interesting side note:

One of the hotels that was claimed in the fire was owned by Domenico Ghirardelli, who after the loss, would go on to found the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. (A win for Chocolate lovers everywhere.)

I love that starting over for Mr. Ghirardelli brought about such a long lasting legacy. Have you ever faced a natural disaster or man made disaster? Have you ever been pressed into a “We will rebuild.” Season? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Next month we’ll talk about the effect of cooooold, cold weather. The lyrics to that song, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” comes to mind. And also Psalms 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Until next time, blessings on your new year!

If you've made it this far, I'd like to tell you about something new. I started a podcast. If you are a podcast listener and you need a dose of joy-meets-common sense, come on over to Life Caraphrased. 

CaraGrandle is a Historical Romance Novelist who prefers to write about the early settlers of the Pacific Northwest. Think trappers and loggers and scroungy-backed woodsmen. She is represented by the Steve Laube Agency. Cara leads the author4TheAuthor writers group on Facebook, home to 190 writers. Together they're pressing back on busy and making a space for their dreams. 

Cara is currently out on submission. Follow her journey on her Facebook author page.

Prayers much appreciated. Smile.

Christmas on a Plantation

By Michelle Shocklee

Christmas has come and gone once again. I hope you and yours had a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! As the author of historical fiction set on a Texas cotton plantation, I can't help but wonder about Christmastime back in the 1850s and what it was like for the occupants of the plantation, especially the slaves. Did their celebration include any of the traditions we enjoy today? Were they allowed to celebrate at all? A little research revealed some interesting tidbits I'd like to share with you. 

Plantation Frolic on Christmas Eve. Frank Leslie's Illustrated newspaper, 1857.
(Photo: Library of Congress)

If you were a white plantation owner, your celebration would include a huge feast with roasted turkey and goose, fish, venison, vegetables that were grown on the plantation, and all manner of sweets. A grand tree would be decorated, with wrapped presents beneath its boughs. Friends and family from neighboring plantations would be invited to share in the celebration, often staying overnight. Of course, house slaves would be there to serve you and see to your every need. A good time would be had by all.

Christmas in the quarter looked a bit different.

Like Rose Hill, the fictional cotton plantation in my book, The Planter's Daughter, southern plantations had dozens and dozens of slaves living on the property. A typical week for the slaves involved six days of hard labor, with Sunday being the only day they were allowed to rest, do laundry, and perhaps visit relatives on a neighboring plantation. When Christmas Day arrived, however, many plantation owners allowed their field slaves to not only have the day off, but some went so far as to give their slaves the entire week off. I found this a bit surprising, considering the very nature of slavery and the poor treatment slaves endured the rest of the year. 

As it turns out, my suspicions may be justified. Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became one 

of the most famous black leaders of his day, wrote in his narrative:

From what I know of the effect of these holidays upon the slave, I believe them to be among the most effective means in the hands of the slaveholder in keeping down the spirit of insurrection. Were the slaveholders to abandon this practice, I have not the slightest doubt it would lead to an immediate insurrection among the slaves. These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity.

Unfortunately, he was right. Some masters used Christmastime and the promise of food, gifts, and time off to ensure obedience throughout the year. Any hint of rebellion or escape could result in the loss of holiday privileges or even a cancellation of Christmas entirely. Escape was always on the minds of the slaves and the slaveholders, and Christmas often presented the perfect opportunity to leave the plantation. Passes were sometimes issued as gifts, watchmen were occupied, and normal routines were interrupted. Harriet Tubman, the woman who escaped slavery and eventually helped many others to freedom using the Underground Railroad, helped her two brothers escape during Christmas one year. Their master intended to sell them after the holiday, so Harriet risked her own freedom and led them in a journey north, eventually making their way to Canada.

While writing The Planter's Daughter, I relied heavily upon an incredible research book titled I Was Born in Slavery. (To read my post about this little treasure, click here.) True narratives of life as a slave in Texas, many of these former slaves shared memories of Christmastime on the plantation. Millie Ann Smith was born a slave in Rusk County, Texas in 1850. She recalled that on Christmas Day, "Master would fetch us down flour, syrup, sugar, and fresh meat so we could have gingerbread cake." James Boyd recalled the "big dance" they would enjoy at Christmastime with music and singing. If the master was generous, a hog would be killed and set to cook in a pit in the quarter. Gifts were usually new clothes, shoes, food , hand-me-down toys, and even coins and were handed out by the plantation owner or a member of his family. Alcohol was also plentiful on some plantations, and some unscrupulous masters encouraged their slaves to drink heavily as a form of entertainment for the white people.

Many "marriages" took place during Christmastime on a plantation. Perhaps it was the festive atmosphere or the relaxed work schedule, but whatever the reason, many slaves chose to marry (not legally) during this time. Depending on the relationship between the slave and the master, some ceremonies were conducted inside the plantation home, often with the master of the house presiding.

It's easy to understand why the slaves looked forward to Christmas. Although they were subjected to the evils of slavery day after day, some managed to find real joy in the celebration. Former slave Charley Hurt said Christmas was the one day he was happy and could forget he was a slave. I can only hope he and all the others truly understood the source of that happiness and the real freedom we find in Jesus Christ.

Michelle Shocklee is an award-winning author of historical fiction and is a contributor in six Chicken Soup for the Soul books. The Widow of Rose Hill, Book 2 in the historical romance series The Women of Rose Hill, releases February 12, 2018 and is available for pre-order on Amazon. Book 1, The Planter's Daughter, is available now.  

Rachel Brooks Gleason, pioneer in women's healthcare

New York State is known for pioneering women who championed the cause of women's suffrage, women's education, and women's rights. Seneca Falls is to this day a pilgrimage for students of civil rights, for the groundbreaking work of Susan B Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and is considered the birthplace of women's rights. But a few decades earlier and in the same town as the first college to offer a baccalaureate degree to women equal to that offered to men, another pioneer for women took center stage. 

Rachel Brooks Gleason holds the distinction of being only the fourth woman in United States history to practice medicine. Born in Vermont in 1820, she later settled in New York and married Silas O. Gleason in 1844. This was during the period prior to Elmira Female College and women's colleges in general. Determined and resourceful, she studied her husband's medical texts at home, attaining enough of an academic background that she prepared herself for entry. Dr. Silas Gleason served as a professor at Central Medical College in Rochester, and through his influence she ultimately prevailed and won acceptance to the institute, graduating with a medical degree in 1851. This not only opened the doors to her, but also to other female students after her.

The Gleasons began their joint medical practice in the innovative movement of hydropathy, or hydrotherapy, a Victorian philosophy of healing arts that contended water held curative powers. They adopted the European model of water cure health resorts, founding one first in western New York, and ultimately settling at another they founded in Elmira, New York, in 1852. The dynamic couple served the Elmira Water Cure for forty years, building renown and attracting prestigious guests such as the aforementioned suffragettes, as well as a former Vice President of the Unites States, Schyler Colfax, Harriett Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom's Cabin fame, and several of Brigham Young's children. 

Rachel's pioneering for women's health concerns cannot be overstated. She was one of the first to insist that women were more effectively treated by other women, who naturally understood their needs better. Heretofore, many genuine, physical ailments were dismissed by male practitioners as "hysterics" or attributed to emotional strain. Rachel also embraced her role as educator, conducting health discussions from town to town and house to house in what she referred to as "parlor talks." She was widely received to lecture and also enjoyed success as the author of prolific pamphlets and books on women's health. She and her husband were ardently prolife. She required loose garments at the Water Cure for her female patients, believing that the restrictive clothing of the period caused many common maladies. Daily bathing was a requirement at the Cure, and short hair styles given for faster drying times. Caffeinated drinks, alcohol and tobacco were forbidden, while "taking the waters" through ingestion, immersion, and even mists and sprays was emphasized. 

Rachel Gleason was a mother of two, and a mentor to dozens of young women, eighteen of whom achieved an education in medicine because of her encouragement and financial support. She and her husband were influential in choosing Elmira as the location for the first female college. She was an ardent champion of the freedman, the invalid, and was ahead of her time on women's hygiene, diet and exercise. A progressive thinker in all of the noble ways of the 19th century reforms, she was also a woman of deep and profound faith, holding weekly bible studies for over twenty years.

One endorsement, from a world famous literary figure of the day who coincidentally lived and married in the same town, sums up who Rachel Gleason was, both professionally and personally. Samuel Clemens, more commonly known as Mark Twain, married into a prominent Elmira family, the Langdons.  Rachel delivered all four of Twain's children. Though his famed wit was known to poke fun at the philosophy of hydropathy, for Rachel he had nothing but praise and confidence. She traveled to Buffalo, NY to attend Olivia Langdon Clemens after the birth of Twain's son, and legend has it that he threatened to prevent Dr. Rachel from leaving when she naturally had to return to Elmira after several days. His affectionate name for her is fitting. "The almost divine Mrs. Gleason."

Kathleen Maher is a 21st Century girl with an old soul. She has a novella coming out in 2018 with Barbour's collection Victorian Christmas Brides. Her debut novella Bachelor Buttons, released in 2013 through Helping Hands Press, incorporates both her Irish heritage and love of Civil War history. She won the ACFW Genesis Contest for unpublished writers, historical category, in 2012. Kathleen and her husband share an old farmhouse in upstate NY with their children and a small zoo of rescued animals.

In the Footsteps of Mark Twain

This article is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt

The calliope, an air-operated Tangley Calliaphone, played bright music from America’s past while the riverboat plowed through the muddy Mississippi. I sat beside my husband, who had joined me by plane at the end of my road trip traveling the Oregon Trail backwards on the way to a family reunion. A photograph from the trip shows us looking relaxed and happy. You’d never know that our toddler had just thrown a grand tantrum. After being strapped in a car seat for the better part of each day for a week, she'd had more than enough of our road trip. All she wanted was to run and play. Why wouldn't we let her?
Of such is life.

Mark Twain Riverboat at Glascock's Landing, Hannibal, Missouri; Image by Chris Light (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Freed from what should have been a pleasant cruise but had become a memory-maker of another kind, we returned to our accommodations at Hannibal’s Belvedere Inn. We’d chosen this Italianate mansion turned bed-and-breakfast for its vintage beauty. The palatial ceiling and incredibly tall windows in our room made me feel like a child at a grown-up tea party. They knew how to build a mansion back in 1859. 

After a night’s sleep and a breakfast buffet, we visited the boyhood home of Samuel Langhorne Clemmens (aka: Mark Twain). The picket fence surrounding the home would have needed whitewashing in young Sam’s day, of course. The home itself was modest but comfortable. Seeing the environment where young Samuel grew up connected me with a bygone era. I could almost hear the neighborhood kids playing on a summer day or shouting with joy while swimming in the river.

Boyhood Home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain); Image by Andrew Balet (Own work) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

We went across the street to see the childhood home of Laura Hawkins, an early playmate of Samuel's. Laura’s birthday fell on November 30th and Samuel’s on December 1st, so the families often celebrated together. She was Samuel’s childhood sweetheart and the inspiration for Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Laura didn't wind up with Samuel, however. She married a physician named James W. Frazer, and the couple had two sons. He left her a widow in her forties. In 1895, Laura signed on as matron of a home for orphans and the destitute. She and Samuel Clemmens were lifelong friends who stayed in touch with one another.

The Becky Thatcher House, Hannibal Missouri By Andrew Balet (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Laura Hawkins' account of going to school with her childhood sweetheart.

The day had grown hot and our feet weary, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went back to our room to rest. We had the usual tourist's restlessness, so before long we decided to take a walk around Hannibal. Because it’s that kind of place. No matter how big Hannibal grows, I suspect it will always feel like a small town. While on our walk, we noticed a house on a hillock standing out some blocks away. We started uphill towards it, but the heat and fatigue plagued me. I kept going anyway, intrigued by the commanding home.

We followed the last stretch of aging sidewalk to discover that we’d stumbled on a historic home open to the public. To our delight, the Rockcliffe Mansion had not been spoiled by renovation “improvements,” but had largely been left in its original state. We were not allowed to take photographs, lest our flashbulbs destroy the fragile antiques. Unspoiled treasures such as I have never seen before and may never again lay on every hand, down to exquisite wallpaper, tiffany windows, carved woodwork, light fixtures, statues, carpeting – the list is too long for me to describe here. 

Rockcliffe Mansion on the NRHP since September 18, 1980, at 1000 Bird St., Hannibal, Missouri on top of a rocky hill. The name Rockcliffe is very appropriate. Built by a lumber magnate, the home sat empty for over 40 years. The mansion is now a B&B in Mark Twain's hometown. Image by Smallbones (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Images of the interior of Rockcliffe Mansion. 

We toured all the areas of the mansion except the parts that were off-limits. Rockcliffe Mansion offers bed and breakfast accommodations. I'd like to go back and sleep there someday, although like many homes steeped in history, it has a reputation. You see, this was Hannibal's haunted house and informed the description of the "ha'nted house" in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Mark Twain stood on a special platform built over the Rockcliffe Mansion’s main stairway landing in 1902 and gave a speech to the town’s worthies. Looking out over the foyer from much the same place that he stood, I could almost see his admiring audience, dressed in their best, listening, smiling, laughing. Mark Twain knew how to entertain a crowd. The realization that it had been his final visit to Hannibal brought a lump to my throat. Wealth, fame, fulfillment in work, an audience most writers can only dream about – he had it all. It hardly seemed fair. The sum total of even a celebrated man’s existence fades with time. 

Jesus’s words came to me then. "Don't lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don't break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” Matthew 6-19-21; World English Bible.


This is why I write, to proclaim that our mortal life is not all there is, that it doesn't end with the grave, and that human souls are more important than treasures that one day crumble to dust.

About Janalyn Voigt

My father instilled a love of literature in me at an early age by reading chapters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Robinson Crusoe and other classics. When I grew older, and he stopped reading bedtime stories, I put myself to sleep with tales I 'wrote' in my head. My sixth-grade teacher noticed my interest in storytelling and influenced me to become a writer.

I'm what is known as a multi-genre author, but I like to think of myself as a storyteller. The same elements appear in all my novels in proportions dictated by their genre: romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy. 

Visit http://janalynvoigt.com

Hills of Nevermore by Janalyn Voigt

Can a young widow hide her secret shame from the Irish circuit preacher bent on helping her survive?
In an Idaho Territory boom town, America Liberty Reed overhears circuit preacher Shane Hayes try to persuade a hotel owner to close his saloon on Sunday. Shane lands face-down in the mud for his trouble, and there’s talk of shooting him. America intervenes and finds herself in an unexpectedly personal conversation with the blue-eyed preacher. Certain she has angered God in the past, she shies away from Shane.

Addie Martin, another widow, invites America to help in her cook tent in Virginia City, the new mining town. Even with Addie’s teenage son helping with America’s baby, life is hard. Shane urges America to depart for a more civilized location. Neither Shane’s persuasions nor road agents, murder, sickness, or vigilante violence can sway America. Loyalty and ambition hold her fast until dire circumstances force her to confront everything she believes about herself, Shane, and God.Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Hills of Nevermore explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.

Learn More About This Book

Cooking on the Oregon Trail (A Slice of Life)

This post is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt, author of the Montana Gold historical fiction series.

Cooking on the Oregon Trail 

A madonna of the prairies 
by Hiram Campbell Merill (b. 1866); Ivory, Percy Van E. (op. 20th c.)
Image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Imagine, for a moment, that you have just walked or ridden in a jostling wagon for twenty miles while watching over your children's safety and caring for a baby. The wagon train with which you are traveling rolls to a stop. Your muscles ache, the baby is fussing, and you're so exhausted you'd rather sleep than cook over a campfire. But you love your family. Your husband needs to tend the oxen and possibly fish or hunt to provide fresh meat. The chore of keeping all those bellies filled with nourishment belongs to you.

Oregon Trail Provisions

The Emigrants

Hatch, George W. (ca. 1805-1867); Fisher, Alvan (1792-1863) 

Image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Before you left St. Louis, the city known as the gateway to the Oregon Trail, you and your husband packed your prairie schooner full of provisions for the journey. Although food comprises half of the goods in your wagon, you found it hard to fit all your supplies in a bed measuring ten feet long by four feet wide and three feet deep, And your wagon weighed perilously close to its maximum load of 2,000 pounds. That left you no option to walk during the first part of your journey, a problem that proved painful as your feet became accustomed to walking so far. You had to cook, then, too.

The guidebook you consulted suggested you bring flour, bacon packed in bran, sugar, coffee, tea, lard, beans, rice, and dried apples and peaches. The chickens in a crate lashed to the back of the wagon give you eggs. If you hadn't brought them along, you'd be obliged to pack eggs in your cornmeal to save them from breaking. You also brought along a milk cow and have suspended buckets of cream from the bottom of the wagon to churn into butter from the jostling of the journey. Seasonings you brought along include salt, pepper, vinegar, and molasses. You also indulged in packets of commercially-prepared crackers and dried vegetable cakes.

Preparing Food on the Oregon Trail 

Cooking the Hump Roast
Alfred Jacob Miller [Public domain ]
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

You sigh and get to work, first making sure one of the children carries water from the river near the wagon encampment to top off the water barrel strapped to the wagon and for tonight's cooking. The others you send off to gather edible greens or berries, if they can be found, and whatever is available to start a cook fire. That might be firewood, buffalo dung, or (as a last resort) sagebrush. Meanwhile, you open the mess box on the back of your wagon and pull out the beans you set to soaking this morning, a slab of bacon packed in bran to keep the fat from melting in the heat, some biscuits you baked yesterday, and cornmeal for hoe cakes you'll cook in the bacon fat.

You have no table to use in preparing your food but must make do with an empty crate turned upside down, the top of a trunk, or whatever other surface you can find or make. While cooking at the fire, you take care to stay upwind to avoid the fate of those unfortunate women whose skirts blew into the flames. You add molasses, brown sugar, and bacon to the beans and suspend the pot over the fire from a tripod or place it directly on the flames. While the beans are cooking, your hands keep busy forming dough for the hoe cakes, rolling pastry for dried apple or berry pie, and making bread for tomorrow's journey. 

The camp will be awakened by a gun fired into the air early in the morning, and you'll be expected to roll out with the wagon train shortly thereafter. There will be no time to cook,. This is your chance to prepare enough to eat for tomorrow's travel and to guard against an unexpected disaster, illness, or rain storm preventing you from cooking for a day or more.

You cook as much as you can to stave off the possibility of your family's going hungry before you run out of daylight or energy (or both).

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. This multi-faceted storyteller writes in the historical fiction, romantic mystery, and epic fantasy genres. Janalyn is a history enthusiast and romantic. These elements appear in everything she writes.

Beginning with DawnSinger, the epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Hills of Nevermore, the first installment in Montana Gold, a historical romance series set during Montana's gold rush, releases in 2017.

Deceptive Tide (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans, book 3), the final installment in a romantic suspenseseries set in an island paradise off the coast of Washington state.

    Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and her books.   

The Swedish Nightingale: Jenny Lind~and a Giveaway

 Jenny Lind, 1850. Public domain.

In 1849, few Americans knew who Johanna Maria Lind was, but in 1850 when showman P.T. Barnum launched her on an American tour, the nation was swept by “Lindomania”—a craze for the Swedish opera singer known as Jenny Lind. Her success was naturally due to her voice, so sweet she was deemed “The Swedish Nightingale.”

Barnum also promoted her proper, generous character, which made her all the more irresistible. Overall she created such an impression that to many, Lind became what Barnum biographer Bluford Adams called "the standard for measuring not just sopranos, or even women artists, but women" throughout the 1850s.

Lind (Oct. 1820-Nov. 1887) was born in Sweden, the illegitimate daughter of a bookkeeper and a divorced schoolteacher whose religious beliefs didn’t permit her to remarry until her first husband died (it eventually happened, and Jenny’s parents wed when she was 14). At age 9, Jenny was enrolled in Sweden’s Royal Opera Program. By 20, she was the prima donna at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and a court singer for the King of Sweden and Norway.

Within a few years, she was in great demand throughout Sweden and northern Europe. She auditioned at the Opera in Paris, but their rejection stung her so much that once she became an international celebrity, she refused all invitations to perform there.

Lind as Amina in La Sonnambula. Public Domain

In 1843, she toured Denmark and met author Hans Christian Andersen. He fell in love with her, but she didn’t return his affections. It’s thought three of his fairy tales were inspired by her: The Nightingale, The Angel, and Beneath the Pillar. Others suggest Lind also inspired the cold-hearted title character in The Snow Queen after she rejected him.

Mendelssohn, by Childe. Public domain.

Andersen wasn’t her only admirer, famous or otherwise. She was briefly engaged to a tenor named Julius Günther, and composer Felix Mendelssohn was madly in love with her. Apparently, the married father of five was desperate for Lind to be his mistress and threatened suicide in an attempt to get his way with her.

She didn't give in. Nevertheless, they continued to work together and he began an opera, Lorelei, for her. Mendelssohn’s sudden death at age 38, in 1847, devastated her, and she founded the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation in his memory.

Lind retired from professional singing soon after, at age 29.

In 1849, P.T. Barnum approached her with the invitation to tour America. Deciding it would be a good way to earn money for her favorite charities, Lind agreed. Barnum got busy advertising, when she arrived in New York City's harbor in September of 1850, 40,000 people awaited her ship.

She sang at 93 venues, from concert halls to train stations, in America,  Canada, and Cuba. Tickets for some of her concerts were in such demand that Barnum sold them by auction. Barnum also marketed Lind-inspired products, like clothes, pianos, tokens, and chairs.

Lind earned $350,000, and Barnum’s wealth grew by $500,000 (in 2016 dollars, that’s around $10 million and $14.2 million).

By 1851, however, Lind had grown weary of Barnum's methods and severed ties with him. She continued to tour on her own for a year with conductor and pianist Otto Goldschmidt. Unlike her previous suitors, Goldschmidt won Lind’s heart, and they were married in Boston in 1852, at the end of her tour.

Lind and Goldschmidt returned to Europe in May 1852, settling first in Germany, then in England, where they lived out the rest of their lives. They had three children, and Lind continued to sing, teach and support numerous charities, including the children’s hospital in Norwich, England.

Jenny Lind by Eduard Magnus, 1862, public domain

Meanwhile, she made such a strong impression wherever she went that her name was given to a chapel, hotel, park, psychiatric ward, and pub in England. An Australian schooner named for her was wrecked on a creek on the Queensland cost…and the creek’s name was changed to Jenny Lind Creek.

In America, a California gold rush town was named for her, as was an elementary school in Minnesota. Streets in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California bear her name. She’s been honored since 1948 by the Barnum Festival, a national competition that crowns a soprano in her honor, held every summer in Connecticut. And of course, her name is still used to describe a popular style of baby crib.

**

YOUR TURN:

Had you heard of Jenny Lind? Or did you always wonder why a crib was named that?

BIO: 

Susanne Dietze began writing love stories in high school, casting her friends in the starring roles. Today, she writes in the hope that her historical romances will encourage and entertain others. A pastor’s wife and mom of two, she loves fancy-schmancy tea parties, travel, and curling up on the couch with a costume drama and a plate of nachos. Susanne is the author of over half-dozen historical romances; her latest, For a Song, is in Barbour’s The Cowboy’s Bride Collection. You can visit her on her website, www.susannedietze.com.

GIVEAWAY:

The heroine of For a Song, my new novella in The Cowboy’s Bride Collection, dreams of being the next Jenny Lind. 

I'll give away one copy of The Cowboy's Bride Collection to one randomly-chosen commenter. Contest runs through 11:59 pm EST Sunday, March 6, 2016. Winner announced here. Please leave a way to contact you in your comment.

The Cowboy's Bride:

Ride onto the open range alongside cowboys and cowgirls who embrace the adventures of living in the Old West from Kansas to New Mexico, Colorado to Texas. Whether rounding up cattle or mustangs, training horses, fending off outlaws, weathering storms, competing in rodeos, or surviving drought these cowboys work hard each day. But when hardheaded men have their weaknesses exposed by well-meaning women will they stampede away or will a lasting love develop? Find out in this exciting collection of nine historical romances.