WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI BUT CLOSER THAN YOU THINK by Marisa Masterson

 If I mention men claiming land in the 1850s, does it bring to mind Nebraska or even Wyoming? How about if I write West of the Mississippi? Do you think about the Great Plain or the Dakotas? 

West of the Mississippi includes Minnesota. This very northern state might not be an author's first choice for a historical western novel, but Minnesota was being settled in the years just before the Civil War. Perhaps because of my family's history with that, I chose it as the setting for my next novel, Regina's Replacement.

Example of a Minnesota Sod House

My great grandfather was born in soddy in Minnesota. His father died before the land was "proved up", but his mother stayed on. She lived there until the five years passed and she owned the claim. Then she sold it and moved back to Dodgeville, Wisconsin with her three children. 

My story has a much more romantic ending. But there are problems for a young widow. The woman, Regina, leaves Virginia soon after a battle is fought not far from her farm. She arrives by steamboat, but not a boat that traveled on the Mississippi.

As I researched, I found an area about one hundred miles outside of Minneapolis. The land claimed by people there was around a very large lake, Lake Minnetonka. Steamboats traveled across the expansive body of water, bringing people and goods to spots around it. 

Governor Ramsay Steamboat

One such boat, the Governor Ramsey, sailed in and out of Excelsior, the first white settlement on Lake Minnetonka. Excelsior was settled by a group of pioneers from the East who formed the Excelsior Pioneer Association. They came together, ready to set up a town and bought land for around $1.25 per acre.

Farm near Excelsior, MN, 1864.

Excelsior in 1861-1862, about eight to nine years after it was settled, became the setting for my novel. Imagine the farms, mostly growing potatoes. With the Civil War, a few farmers listened to the call for northern farmers to grow typically southern crops like tobacco. That's what my heroine does in Regina's Replacement, though her husband thinks it's a crazy idea.

Lithograph created to sell a Minnesota farm in the 1800s.

 

Of course, with my heroine living in that area around 1862, a serious problem arises. The Dakotas had been moved to a reservation. There they were left to starve by an inhuman Indian agent. No wonder the Dakota War happens in 1862. Does it reach Excelsior? 

Read Regina's Replacement and find out...

Visit a time when Minnesota was land still being claimed and settled...

Joshua Gibson had enough courage to save his uncle. He’s not brave enough to show his face in town after being badly burned in the rescue.

Regina Richardson decided marriage to a stranger was better than living through a war that had nothing to do with her. After Union troops brought a battle near to her farm, she grabs at the chance to marry a man in Minnesota. Only, she discovers the man has never lived in the town where she’s told to go.

A desperate aunt and uncle see this as a God sent opportunity for their hermit nephew. Will Regina find the love of her life or will she end up with one more burden to bear?

And what about the man killed at Joshua’s farm the night that he was burned? How will the couple protect themselves when Joshua and Regina have no idea that revenge stalks them?

EVER UPWARD! by Marisa Masterson

 Excelsior! It means every upward. Great words for the beginning of a new year. But, also those words were the focus of a certain group of pioneers I've recently been researching. 

A man named George Bertram founded a town (or at least envisioned one) on the shores of Lake Minnetonka about 100 miles outside of Minneapolis and called it Excelsior . The next year he helped a group of settlers from New York and New England to form what was called the Excelsior Pioneer Association. In a state dominated by Scandinavians, these Episcoplians decided to farm and live around  large Lake Minnetonka.

One thing I found intriguing about this group was that they claimed both a lot in town and up to 160 acres of farmland. All for a cost of only $1.25 per acre. So they were connected to both the land and the village.

As far as buildings in town, Trinity Church and the school were the early focus. The settlers started by meeting for services in homes before building a log church two years later.  Next they put up a school. They had no mercantile until 1860, but this group still managed to keep a town going. All of this was laid out along the lakeshore rather than in the usual grid used by towns.

One thing that intrigued me was the public commons set aside by the group. That's an older custom in England, where the village green or commons was dedicated for public use so people in a town could allow their animals to graze. I couldn't find out through research why this association felt a public commons was needed. Makes me wonder...

Farm outside of Excelsior, 1864

Now, what am I doing with this research? I'm sending a mail-order bride from the South to cold Minnesota in late 1861. Too bad her groom doesn't meet her. What's a woman to do then? Why, rely on the kindness of strangers, of course. And it just so happens that one kind stranger has a nephew who needs a wife...

Burned and heartsick, Joshua Gibson hides away from the world. Only the animals on his farm and the leather which he works keep him from madness. Unfortunately, the townspeople don't believe that. They're convinced that the fire burned away all traces of sanity in him.
Regina Wilson needs a man. The good women of the town come to her aid when the mail-order bride arrives to discover that her groom is dead. The problem, as the ladies tell her, is that only one bachelor is available--Goofy Gibson.

Will Regina hibernate with her forced husband or will her presence bring new life to the farm and to Joshua?