The First Borden Murders

 

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

If you’ve heard of Lizzie Borden—raise your hand!

Most of us probably have—at least by the oft-quoted schoolyard rhyme about the woman who delivered forty whacks of an ax to her mother, then another forty-one to her father. However, Lizzie was not the first Borden whose name was associated with murder. Four and a half decades before the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden (father and step-mother of Lizzie), the first Borden murders occurred.

Lizzie Borden

 

Lawdwick Borden’s First Marriage

 

On March 14, 1812, Lawdwick Borden entered the world—the brother of the man who would become Lizzie Borden’s grandfather. From a well-to-do family, he eventually opened a planning business to compliment his brother, Cook’s, lumber business.

 

At twenty-one years old, Lawdwick married the first of his four wives. His union with Maria Briggs started happily enough, though that happiness wouldn’t last. Within their brief five years together, they brought two children into the world—and lost both in less than a year from each of their births. And in their fifth year of marriage, Maria died also. So by age 26, Lawdwick had already suffered the loss of a spouse and two children—all to illnesses.

 

But that wasn’t where his losses ended. Indeed, things were about to get quite a bit worse.

 

The Horrific Second Marriage

 

Six years after Maria died, on March 16, 1843, Lawdwick married Eliza Darling—his second wife. Within a year and a half, they welcomed their first child, Maria, to the family. Two years later, along came their second daughter, Eliza, and two years after that, their son Holder completed their family. This should have been a joyous time for the growing family, but Lawdwick’s wife suffered with “melancholy” after her children’s births, likely a case of what we call postpartum depression today.

 

If you’re not aware, many women suffer some small form of the “baby blues” after giving birth. This is usually a brief period (two weeks or less) of mood swings, trouble eating, trouble sleeping, mild anxiety, crying, and other such symptoms. But sometimes the blues don’t abate within a couple of weeks. Today, we know this as postpartum depression, a condition marked by depression and severe mood swings, trouble bonding with the new baby, the mother’s withdrawal from family and friends, excessive crying, extreme irritability, anger, and even hopelessness. In truly severe cases, the mother can fantasize about harming herself or her baby—or even make such attempts.

 

News article announcing Eliza's murder of her children
and her own suicide.

The articles I have read on Eliza Darling Borden didn’t detail her symptoms, but I can imagine she must have been plagued by all of these and more to do what she ultimately did. Around the time that Holder was six months old and little Eliza was two, their mother was in the grip of a madness she couldn’t break free of. On a given morning, she waited for their young maid to leave the house on an outside chore. At that time, she took little Eliza and Holder to the cellar of the house at #96 Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts, and drown her two youngest children in the cellar’s cistern. I have found no details as to why Maria was not also drowned that day, but the oldest daughter survived.

 

After drowning her children, Eliza took one of her husband’s straight razors and did herself in by cutting her own throat. Some accounts have her taking her life in the same cellar where her children died, while others say she walked back upstairs before ending her life.

Eliza Borden's grave marker.

 

Later Marriages

 

I have to give Lawdwick Borden credit. After losing two wives and four children—two by murder—I am not sure I would have had the strength to marry again. But Lawdwick did. His third wife was yet another woman named Eliza! (Did I mention I couldn’t have married again? I really  don’t think I could’ve married another by the same name)! The third wife—and second Eliza—died also, leaving poor Lawdwick to marry his final wife, Ruhama. 

 

Lawdwick and Ruhama shared a number of years together before his death on October 6, 1874. She survived him by about five years, ultimately succumbing to cancer in 1879.

 

The Surviving Child

 

You might be wondering what happened to the surviving child of Lawdwick and Eliza Darling Borden. Maria went on to lead a full life, marrying twice herself. Her first marriage lasted only a handful of years and ended in divorce. However, her second marriage to a man named John Chace, produced two children, one of which survived into adulthood. The other died early from illness. Maria lived out her days in Fall River.

 

The House Next Door

 

Interestingly, Maria was a just an infant when her father took a portion of the land where his house was situated and build a second home. The home’s address was #92 Second Street, Fall River, Massachusetts. In the early days after it was built, that house was occupied by Charles and Hannah Trafton, who welcomed Charles Jr. to their family. But only shortly after Charles Jr’s birth, Hannah succumbed to tuberculosis and the baby died of an unknown illness. Charles Sr. married again and lived in that house next to Lawdwick’s family until 1872—when the house was sold to Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie and Emma Borden. 

 

Check back next month for more about the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in that very house.

 

It’s Your Turn: Were you aware that the murders of Lizzie Borden’s parents were not the first suspicious deaths in the Borden family tree? In your opinion, what is the saddest part of the original Borden murders?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

 

Love and Order: A Three-Part Old West Romantic Mystery

Available now from your favorite bookseller

 

Wanted: 

Family, Love, and Justice

One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.

 

Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter. 

 

When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True Crimes: The Murder of Chico Forster

 

See all the books in the
True Colors Crime Series

I was very blessed some months back to be given the opportunity to write the final installment of Barbour’s True Colors Crime series. The Scarlet Pen will be the 12^th and final novel in the series, and it will release July 1 this year. If you’re not familiar with this series, it is about true crimes—serial killers and other historical wrongdoings—from the annals of American history. In order to write that story, I had to research the serial and spree killers of the 1800s and choose one on which to base my story. After some debate, I settled on a serial killer from 1876, Stephen Dee Richards (He’s not the topic of today’s post—I’ll give you more info on him in later months). But I found it quite interesting to dig into the dark history of historical true crimes—so I thought it would be fun to share some of the other interesting unlawful events I found in my research.

 

Today, I’ll share with you the unusual story of Francisco Forster and Lastania Abarta.

 

Forster, affectionately known as “Chico”, was quite the Casanova in the Los Angeles area in the 1870s and 1880s. The son of Southern California’s wealthiest land baron, Chico was known to be a womanizer who’d already fathered two children out of wedlock. Forster liked to frequent a Los Angeles pool hall and tavern owned by the Abarta family, where beautiful Lastania played the guitar and sang for the customers. It was there that Lastania caught Forster’s eye, and he took great interest in her.

Chico Forster

 

On March 15, 1881, Lastania sang at a party thrown by Pio Pico, California’s last Mexican governor. Pico had recently lost a sizeable tract of land to Forster’s land baron father, a point that irritated Pico to the core, I’m sure. Being in love with the son of the man he’d lost that land to, Lastania opted to add a bit of insult to his injury. She changed one line in the lyrics of the final song she sang that night—changed the words in such a way that it took a sizeable dig at the party’s host. No sooner did she sing the changed lyric than she ended the song, ran off the stage, and straight into the arms of her beloved Chico. The crowd never had a chance to react before she was gone.

 

Lastania and Chico ran to the Moiso Mansion Hotel where Chico had reserved a room. There, he made love to Lastania, taking her virginity but promising to marry her in the process. By the following morning, Lastania was grieved by her choice to give herself to this man before they’d been wed, so Chico promised to leave immediate to find a priest and rectify the situation. Ashamed, Lastania hid herself away in the hotel waiting. But too much time passed, and Chico never returned. So calling for her sister, Hortensia, the Abarta sisters searched the city and found Chico…gambling his money away on horse racing.

 

Irate, the pair of sisters dragged Chico into their carriage to get to the Plaza Church and be married. Only Chico didn’t want to go, so he jumped out of the conveyance halfway to their destination. Both young women followed, calling after him. When he finally stopped and turned to face them, Lastania withdrew a pistol from her skirt pocket and shot Chico through the eye, killing him instantly. It was broad daylight, and there were several witnesses to her crime, so she was arrested and put on trial.

 

I’m sure you’d expect it was a “slam-dunk” case. This jilted lover made no attempt to hide herself before shooting Chico, nor did she deny having shot him. Yet Lastania Abarta was acquitted of the murder of Chico Forster in a most unusual means.

G. Wiley Wells

 

Former consul in Shanghai, G. Wiley Wells, and former city attorney, John F. Godfrey, were hired as Lastania’s defense team, and they made the case—with forensic evidence and expert witnesses—that she’d suffered from “female hysteria” at the time of the murder. In other words, an insanity defense, but not based on insanity due to shame and humiliation over her actions—but insanity due to her female biology. 

John F. Godfrey

 

If you were to read the medical journals and texts of the era, you would find that doctors and scientists thought women were so fragile that being deprived of sex…or being oversexed…would lead a woman into “hysteria.” (I suppose they thought there was a “happy medium target range” the men must hit to keep their women in “proper balance.” LOL) They also thought that the rigors of a college education could stunt the growth of the female reproductive organs. (Oh, the ridiculousness! Hahaha) Yet, it was such ideas on which the defense team based their case.

 

They presented the stained sheets from the bed on which Lastania and Chico first made love—to prove that she’d lost her virginity to the man. They also brought in no less than seven expert medical witnesses to discuss the delicate matter of female hysteria before the twelve male jurors. In these testimonies, the all-male panel of jurors heard how irregular menstrual cycles could disease the mind and bring on the dreaded hysteria. But it was the final witness, Dr. Joseph Kurtz, who finally nailed this coffin closed once and for all. In his weighty testimony, he stated that “Any virtuous woman, when deprived of her virtue, would go mad.” At that, the spectators in the gallery applauded. The jury took only 20 minutes to weigh the three weeks of testimony in the case and find that Lastania Abarta could have been nothing other than insane to have killed her lover as she did.

 

After the trial’s end, Abarta left Los Angeles never to be heard from again.

 

It’s Your Turn: Do you find learning the facts of true crimes from the past interesting? Why or why not? What are your thoughts on the case of Chico Forster’s murder?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

 

COMING JULY 1, 2021—THE SCARLET PEN

Step into True Colors — a series of Historical Stories of Romance and True American Crime
Enjoy a tale of true but forgotten history of a 19th century serial killer whose silver-tongued ways almost trap a young woman into a nightmarish marriage.
In 1876, Emma Draycott is charmed into a quick engagement with childhood friend Stephen Dee Richards after reconnecting with him at a church event in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. But within the week, Stephen leaves to “make his fame and fortune.” The heartbroken Emma gives him a special pen to write to her, and he does with tales of grand adventures. Secret Service agent Clay Timmons arrives in Mount Pleasant to track purchases made with fake currency. Every trail leads back to Stephen—and therefore, Emma. Can he convince the naive woman she is engaged to a charlatan who is being linked a string of deaths in Nebraska?

Haunted and Creepy Hotels—With Giveaway By Donna Schlachter

When we travel, we like to think that wherever we lay our head at night, we’ll be safe. Particularly when we’re in a strange city. However, in this spookiest of months, we’ll see that even the nicest hotels have their grisly secrets. 

St. James Hotel, Cimarron, NM

The St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico, has a storied past. Built in 1872 by a man who traveled west to find gold. When he didn’t, he went in search of riches through offering accommodations, food, and entertainment to local miners, ranchers, and businessmen. Henry Lambert, owner and proprietor, was notorious for living the fast and loose life, and encouraged folks to settle their arguments with a gun. Many famous and infamous gunmen of the late 1870s and 1880s stayed here, including Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and Jesse James. A famous saying in the town was, “Who got shot at Lambert’s last night?”

When the hotel was renovated in 1901, many bullet holes were found. The only thing separating the customers sleeping upstairs from certain death was a double layer of hard wood. Even today, evidence of the Wild West days can still be seen in the dining room ceiling: twenty bullet holes.

The notorious “WAC Murder” of 1943 in the Indianapolis Claypool Hotel has never been solved. Maoma Ridings, serving as a corporal in the Women’s Army Corps, went on leave on August 29th and checked into the Claypool. She’d told friends she had a date scheduled. Around 8:00 p.m. that evening, a housekeeper went into the room to turn down the bed, and found Ridings’ body on the bed. Subsequent investigations revealed there was less than forty cents in Maoma’s purse, which wouldn’t cover the cost of the room, so robbery was the presumed motive.

Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis

However, a bellboy reported delivering ice to the room around five that evening, and he noted a woman dressed in black sitting on the bed when Ridings answered the door. This was the last sighting of Ridings before her death. 

Ridings was no stranger to this hotel. Whenever she had leave, she checked in, then spent the weekend partying. There were several reports of her being seen with a woman dressed in black in the months prior to her death, but no identification has ever been made.

And on a spooky note, while police were investigating the murder in the room, the telephone rang. When they answered, the caller hung up. Upon further investigation, they identified this person as the man she was waiting for. However, his alibi panned out and he was never formally charged. The case remains unsolved.

Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel, Florida

Thomas (Fatty) Walsh died in March 1929 after checking into the Coral Gables Biltmore in Florida. He’d gotten into a fight earlier in the day with the hotel manager, Eddie Wilson, who shot him to death in the middle of the casino. The manager was never charged, and corrupt law enforcement officials allegedly helped him escape to Cuba. 

Perhaps because Fatty was gunned down and nobody ever convicted for the crime, stories of his spirit haunting the hotel are many, and most involve the 13th floor suite. Elevators travel there unbid. In one case, a couple hit the button for the fourth floor but ended up at the 13th instead. When the woman, thinking it was her floor, stepped out, the doors slid shut and returned her male companion to the lobby. She reported hearing unexplained sounds and smelling cigar smoke in the otherwise empty room.

La Posada, Santa Fe, original house

And on a spooky, non-violent note, La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa, an historic hotel in New Mexico’s capital, has a ghostly story of its own.

The original owners, the Staab family, lived here in 1882. The couple had seven children, were popular in social circles, and wealthy. However, when their eighth child died shortly after birth, Julia fell into a deep depression. She had several more unsuccessful pregnancies, becoming more withdrawn, finally spending her remaining years in self-imposed exile in her bedroom, where she died in 1896 at the age of 52.

When the Staab House was sold and converted into a hotel, Julia’s former bedroom became Room 256. And while it appears Julia was dead, she hadn’t completely left the hotel. Various sightings of her in more recent years have scared staff, and voices have been heard when the room is empty. Perhaps one of the strangest reports is the telephone ringing in the room, even though the line has been disconnected.

Julia’s ghost has also been spotted in the dining room, and reports of glasses being knocked off shelves and unexplained gusts of wind blowing out candles. To this day, La Posada is still considered one of the most infamous haunted hotels in the US.

The Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

And finally, The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is considered the most haunted hotel in America. Reminiscent of the “Hotel California” song from the 70s, guests checked in but never left.

At least, not under their own steam.

However, in most cases, there was no disappearance, no unsolved mystery, and no murder. One of the spirits still haunting the hotel is that of an Irish stonemason named Michael, who died while building the hotel in 1885. Theodora, a cancer patient at the hotel when it was a hospital, died a natural death. She is reported to roam the hotel looking for her room key. And Norman Baker, attired in a white suit and lavender shirt, travels the halls as he probably did while alive.

All in all, while many spooky stories abound, hotels are no different than other structures when it comes to numbers of murders and reported ghostly sightings. They simply seem to attract more stories of horror and murder a la “The Shining” of Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado, fame.

Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, CO (Zach Connor www.zrcphotography.com)

But have no fear. You are no more likely to be killed—or to mysteriously disappear—in a hotel than you are from anywhere else. 

Giveaway: Leave a comment, and I will randomly draw a name to win a print copy (US only) or ebook version of The Mystery of Christmas Inn, Colorado.

References:

https://theghostdiaries.com/5-haunted-hotels-with-horrifying-unsolved-murders/

https://listverse.com/2015/07/30/10-creepy-hotel-mysteries-that-are-still-unsolved/

https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/st_james_hotel

https://www.stanleyhotel.com/tours.html



About Donna:

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.

www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com

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History of Smuggling in the American San Juan Islands

History of Smuggling in the American
San Juan Islands

The San Juan Islands, a remote island paradise in the Pacific Northwest seem serene but have a turbulent history.
Image by Janalyn Voigt (all rights reserved).

Mists often shroud the San Juan Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Washington state. Add to this an intricate network of waterways, hidden harbors, secluded coves, and an international border, and it's easy to see why smuggling became an important industry in the San Juan Islands.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Washington between the United States and Britain in 1871, the San Juan Islands became an American territory. Shortly thereafter, the United States imposed import duties on woolens, silks and other goods entering the San Juan Islands. Many local residents didn't take well to having to pay for something they'd long received for free, so they simply ignored the law.

In response to popular sentiment that the immigrants from China were robbing American nationals of jobs, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese workers from entering the United States for the next ten years. This gave rise to the smuggling of Chinese laborers to build railroads and work in the mines. Thousands of illegal immigrants were willing to pay $100 a head for transport from China.

Illustration, "Central Pacific Railroad–Chinese Laborers at Work." Public domain image.

Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly and Ben Ure, both notorious smugglers, operated from a base on Ben Ure Island just off Washington state's Deception Pass. Ure is said to have tied illegal Chinese immigrants into burlap bags, to be thrown overboard when customs agents approached. Dead Man's Bay off San Juan Island, came by its name because the tide often washed the bodies ashore at that location.

In 1890, high tariffs were placed on the importation of opium, which led to this drug becoming a profitable item for smugglers.And in 1919, the Volstead Act ushered in Prohibition, creating a market for bootlegged alcohol until 1933, when Prohibition was repealed and "rum running" ended. Cigars and wool were also smuggled to avoid tariffs and turn a profit.

Drug smuggling continues in the San Juan Islands, today. One of the most recent incidents occurred in August 2015, when a Coast Guard crew confiscated 24 kilograms of the drug, MDMA (known as ecstasy or molly), from a boat near San Juan Island in August 2015.

As long as there are taxes, laws, and a profit to be made from circumnavigating them, smuggling will go on, and the seclusion of the San Juan Islands makes them one of its favorite locations.


Deceptive Tide

When murder comes to a peaceful island paradise, what you don’t know could just kill you.

Piper Harrington, struggling to build a new life after her husband’s plane crash leaves her widowed, travels to a remote island in the Pacific Northwest to research a novel. She checks into a resort condominium near the Moran mansion on Orcas Island and soon encounters a wounded teenage girl who seems followed by trouble. Piper wants to help Lindy, but a series of unsettling events lead her to believe she has, herself, become the target of a stalker.

A spectral figure resembling the ghost said to haunt the historic mansion has her questioning her sanity. She has never felt more alone, even while two men vie for her attention. One has an air of charm, while mystery surrounds the other. Remaining heart-whole seems the only way to protect herself, but both become increasingly impossible.

Learn more about this series

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Look for her upcoming romantic mystery and western historical fiction releases. This multi-faceted author also writes in the fantasy genre. Beginning with DawnSinger, Janalyn's epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven, carries readers into a land only imagined in dreams.

Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to discover worlds of adventure in the great outdoors with her family.

Tragedy on the Tracks

by Linda Farmer Harris

I enjoy historical reenactments whether they're Medieval, Civil War, Heritage Celebrations, or Western Shoot-outs. I like being transported back to olden times. Jerry and I are members of SASS - Single Action Shooting Society. Our SASS identities are Lin Penlady and Jeremiah Prophet. We have lots of opportunities for period dressing.

SASS - Elk Grove 2012

I love trains, too. Put reenactments and trains together and that's definitely a win-win for me. In August, for our 49th wedding anniversary, Jerry's brother, Phil, honored us with tickets to "Tragedy on the Tracks" a Railfest Murder Mystery Train event presented by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

This interactive, on-board Murder Mystery Train, was written and performed by the Historic Narrators of the D&SNGRR. The play is based on an actual 19th century Colorado murder at the Bowen's Ranch and Bitterroot Mine.

Historic Narrators of the D&SNGRR

The murder occurred in 1811 on Bowen's Ranch just north of Cascade Canyon. At this time, the railroad was being constructed in the remote wilderness area between Durango and Silverton, Colorado. Bill Bowen's Ranch was a well-known stopping place along the Animas Toll Road. Bowen's store carried staples and supplies for prospectors and travelers. He added a rooming house and saloon when construction started on the railroad to Silverton. Bill and his wife, Jane, also operated the Westminister Hall, Silverton's first saloon. Jane was the town's first madam.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch deep in the mountains, the women who came to live and serve the travelers and prospectors soon discovered there was one way in and no way out. Things at the Ranch turned sour when Bill hired John Haley as the Ranch accountant and partner. Although business was booming, the books didn't reflect the revenue. Haley was drinking up the profits. Bowen also suspected Haley was embezzling from him.

That fall day the store and saloon were filled with customers. Haley and Bowen argued, it turned into a fist fight when Bowen threw Haley and his wife off the Ranch. Haley refused to leave, vowed to find a pistol and return.

Haley returned, hand in pocket. Bowen seeing the bulging pocket and, fearing for his life, raised his own gun and shot an advancing Haley three times. Mrs. Haley came at Bowen from behind with a butcher knife. Customers subdued her before she could strike him.

In a twist to a typical self-defense murder, Bowen stepped over Haley's body, walked out the door, rode to Durango, and turned himself in to the sheriff. In another twist to the story, none of the witnesses stayed around to testify that it was self-defense, including the "sporting women." Mrs. Haley was the only person left to answer the Sheriff's questions. Bowen was not charged in the death of John Haley.

Historic Narrators of the D&SNGRR - less one

Players left to right: Sheriff, Mr. Bowen, Conductor, Mrs. Bowen's Nephew, Mrs. Bowen, Mrs. Haley, Sporting Woman and alas, Mr. Haley.

The play's capture of the events and translation to the train instead of the Bowen Ranch was well done and worth a re-play next year. I recommend the adventure.

Lin and Jerry Harris taking part in the interactive 1811 murder mystery

Have you been involved in historical reenactments? Do you go to renaissance festivals?

Blessings,

Linda Farmer Harris

Lin and her husband, Jerry, live on a ranch in Chimney Rock, Colorado. She writes historical fiction for adults and children. Her enjoyment of genealogy and family history adds unique elements to her story. 

Her novella, The Lye Water Bride, is included in the California Gold Rush Brides Collection (Barbour, 2016)