Researching Oregon

 by Rain Trueax

Whether writing an historical, contemporary or paranormal novel, research will be involved. There are multiple ways to approach this. Whatever way, mining for information will be involved. Generally speaking, especially with historicals, the writer will learn a lot more than they can ever use. Such details set a scene because no romance is intended to be a history book-- even though historical nuggets are much appreciated by historical readers. The more an author knows, the more it can underlay the story without interfering. It deepens characters-- even minor ones.

My books, historical, contemporary or paranormals, have so far all been set in the American West, in places where I have either lived or spent a lot of time. A writer does not need to live somewhere to get information on what its like. Some very good books have been written purely on research. I find though for myself, having spent time there, I'll have small details, like what the air smells like, which add to my enjoyment in the writing and hopefully for the reader. 

An example of what I mean is my Oregon historicals. The fictional family's journey began along the Oregon Trail. As a native born Oregonian, who grew up in the Columbia River Gorge, I'd heard the stories all my life. Still, to write about it for a romance took a lot of research. The Oregon Trail is rich with journals from those who kept a record of their experiences. There are many history books and now with the internet, even more data can be acquired as to what it took to come to the West and what it might've cost the first families.

Since I live where some of the families had direct stories from their relatives, I had that for an additional resource. Although, I had first written the book when I was in my 20s, I kept rewriting it through my life as new things would come up, and I'd see further insights into my characters. 

One of the events I had described, I learned actually happened to the family who settled our farm in Oregon. I am glad I wrote it before I learned that, but learning it felt like an additional gift from the Muse. I was listening and on the right track.

To give the Trail more life, over the years, we had driven various sections. One such adventure, the Barlow Cutoff (at the time, a two rut, dirt, rock, and wagon road around Mt Hood) with an old station wagon, our baby and three-year old. Stopping to eat a picnic lunch along one of the rivers is the kind of experience you don't forget and again becomes research. Of course, there are museums in Oregon with details that further bring the pioneer's experiences more life. 

When the fictional family got to Oregon, I based the second romance in the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon. The family next headed east for the two romances in the John Day country.

For me, the land is always an important character in my books. I want it to seem real to the point of feeling the storms, the sun, hearing the sounds, smelling the scents. Those details enrich my writing-- although I try not to let them overpower the stories.
 

 photo taken at Fort Dalles Museum

Eastern Oregon, where the next three novellas will be based (the first out hopefully this summer), is full of history, ghost towns, old forts, cemeteries, mines that sometimes are still active, small towns and the struggle some found to make a life in a rugged land. Some of the early pioneers built fortunes. Others found death or poverty. Researching its history can be difficult because so few people lived there. The maps are amazing with obvious guesswork long before satellites. Trying to find where a stage road traveled can lead to multiple maps and supposed paths. 

As a third generation Oregonian, I have lived most of my life west of the Cascade Mountains but vacationed extensively in the eastern part of the state. I also benefit from having a family history that involved Eastern Oregon. 

Grandfather's father immigrated from Scotland to Oregon where my grandfather was born. Unusual at it time, he and my great grandmother divorced. From what I know, she left and he remained in Baker City where he operated, but maybe didn't own, a tobacco and chocolate store. When he had a stroke, at only 45, my grandfather left his then Portland home to be with him. After a week, my grandmother, a fairly young bride at that time, followed. Their experience in Baker City colored their whole married life.

It was in 2007 that I had a desire to go to Baker City and find my great grandfather's tombstone. I felt he'd been estranged from everyone else, felt a little sad at that and wanted to pay my respects. With research, you can find such burial places with the internet. That was the same year that I also visited as many Oregon mining ghost towns as I could fit in. A bit later, I was contacted by someone whose family had known and liked my great grandfather, adding a few more details to the little I knew of him-- internet again. 

The next family stories involving Eastern Oregon began a few years after his father's death, when my grandparents took their three daughters to east. For his work, and her cooking for the big crews, they would get a cabin and the chance to own land in the Condon area. It was a hard scrabble time with the girls outsiders in a one room school, living in a cabin with a dirt floor and newspapers to line its walls. Still, the kids made the most of the experience, and I collected the stories.

Knowing the stories from a personal angle, whether its immigration, relationships lost, the kind of work that was available for ordinary folks, all finds its way into my books. Those little stories add enjoyment to writing, rather like taking a pan to a stream, shaking out the sand and ending up with a gold nugget. As an additional bonus, the details are those that no one else is likely to find-- at least in the same way.

Many people don't know much about Eastern Oregon's history, as it was sparsely settled and changed a lot. My experiences there have been enriched by camping as well as visiting ghost towns like Whitney, Shaniko, Bourne, Susanville, and many more. Those towns lived for a time. Some, like Whitney grew up providing a service-- it was a logging town, which had a peak of 150 residents and more or less died when the mill burned. Some of these old towns still have people living in the shacks-- and many were shacks even when the towns flourished. When there, you can feel the hopes and dreams, the disappointments, and sometimes the successes. Eastern Oregon is full of homes that were abandoned when bigger ranches took over smaller ones. Every one has a story, The ravens and magpies will try to tell you about them if you listen.

Surprisingly, some of the mining claims are not only active today but can be purchased-- sounds like a great idea for a contemporary sometime :).

Color photos all ours with black and white ones from my family albums.

I need to go back to the upper John Day for these next books, which will be set in the Blue Mountains and the 1880s. I will use everything I know from my own life in those books-- as I always do. Researching for any of my books involves family stories, travel, museums, books, and the internet. It's a writer's life, which I much enjoy, as it makes research necessary when it is also much fun to learn about others-- especially those who came before us.  

Amazon Links for Kindles and paperbacks:
Round the Bend
Where Dreams Go
Going Home
Love Waits  

Other Sale Sites:
Round the Bend
Where Dreams Go
Going Home
Love Waits

Laundry in the 1800's by E. AYERS

As I face my own dreaded pile of laundry, knowing it will take up a good portion of my evening and probably part of the next day, I thought of a fun bit of trivia to share. Okay, anything is better than shifting those piles from floor to washer followed by moving to the dryer. Then as soon as the buzzer sounds we must run immediately to hang or fold everything, because we all know it will wrinkle in a matter of seconds or so it seems. We face that detested chore as a time crunch. But what did people do in the west, or in most of America, during 1800's?

Laundry doesn't seem to clean itself. The laundry fairies have refused to come to my house since the day I married, and that happened to all those gals back in the 1800's who left the comfort of the east and moved west. They had to do their own laundry. And one of the first things they learned to do was keep whatever they were wearing as dry as possible. So before they tackled the wet, messy job, they reached between their feet to the back hem of the skirt. Grabbing the hem, they pulled it forward and up where they tucked it into their waistband..Then they might put their smock over it.  That's not going to show in the advertisements because it wasn't very proper. and parts of their legs or ankles might show.

Since laundry swells daily, it needs equipment to keep it from becoming out of hand and multiplying too quickly. In the 1800's, that meant a laundry bat, a washboard, a tub, water, a fire to heat the water, and a bar of soap. Clothes were shaken to remove any dirt that might fall away from them and then they were dropped into the hot water and rubbed with a bar of soap before being rubbed on the washboard, maybe with more soap. If you were lucky you might have another tub to rinse them.

So what's the laundry bat used for and what is it? It's a stick that is flattened on one end - think of a very short oar. It was used for plunging the dirty laundry around in the very hot water and lifting the item out without burning your hands. Think about those sheets and other large items. It was also handy if the clothes were washed in the river or a pond. They could put those filthy pants on a stone and beat them clean with the bat.

You washed the least dirty items and unmentionables first in the tub. And those unmentionables were never hung in "public." Often they were placed on a rope that was hung in the house. And you hoped that hubby never saw them because a man, even a husband, should never see such things if you were lady. You washed the dirtiest last, otherwise you'd be depositing more dirt on the clothes then you were removing.

Monday became washday. It was a leftover tradition from Europe that went back to Roman days where often the women got together on Monday in the town square and at least tried to chat or have fun while doing this all-day chore. And of course, it was source of pride to have clean laundry, and enviable if yours was whitest.

Laundry soap became readily available in flakes around the time of the Civil War. It was just soap that was flaked from a large block of soap and packaged in boxes. But it was the names on the soap and the pretty pictures that captured the attention of women. Blocks of soap still remained very popular through the 1950's. Wouldn't it be nice to use soap with names like Sunlight? Having a catchy name on laundry detergent is still important today. And much like today, there were additives that could be placed either in the soap or the water such as starch or bluing. Permanent press had not yet been invented so they had to iron everything, and starch made everything look crispy and nice when it was ironed. Bluing made the whites look whiter. Although going back a few hundred years, they added a yellow color to the laundry soap to give things a creamy look. Apparently that was more in vogue than white.

Even in the 1970's, I can remember adding starch to the rinse water of my husband's shirts. Then instead of drying them, I would roll them up and place them in the bottom of the refrigerator to be ironed the next day. Ugh! What a chore.

Eventually women were lucky enough to get a new fangled tool called a wringer. Oh what a treat! Now they could feed that laundry though the wringer and get most of the soapy water out before going into the rinse water and then the wringer could be placed on that tub and it would wring the water out so that items could easily be hung. Of course, you didn't want your fingers caught in that wringer, also called a mangle! Fingers might get broken or horrendously squashed. You had to pay attention. Maybe that was easier to avoid when it was hand cranked, but technology wasn't too far behind.

Actual washing machines began to crop up in the later 1800's. But the earliest ones were hand cranked and were still in use through most of the 1900's anyplace where electricity didn't exist. But those city folks who had electricity could also use a home-style washing machine that ran on electricity - that I do remember. And I remember that the clothes had to be fed through the rollers. A grandmother had one. I was fascinated with it because what we had at home was a white metal box. And I remember my mom complaining when we were lacking electricity because snow had taken the lines down, and if she had kept her old washer, we could still wash clothes. That meant the chore would have fallen on my dad - I think I know why he got rid of it.

REVIEW OF THE PINKS

Today, I’m filling in for Celia Yeary, who is recuperating from back surgery.

Alan Pinkerton (left) with
President Lincoln

Those of us who love history are familiar with the story of Alan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency—which led the way to the United States Secret Service. Pinkerton agents were respected by citizens and feared by criminals. In THE PINKS, Chris Enss adds to the knowledge of Pinkerton agents by writing about the women agents and spies.

Kate Warne

Kate Warne was the first woman detective in the United States. I had heard of her and that she also acted as a spy during the Civil War. Kate also dressed as a Union soldier and saved President Lincoln's life.

Angus Macfadyen as Allan Pinkerton,
Martha MacIsaac as Kate Warne, and
Jacob Blair as William Pinkerton

There was even a television series in which she and Alan Pinkerton’s son William were the main characters. Kate had sister agents, and I was not familiar with their names.

Chris Enss is the author of many books about women in the United States, especially in the West. I have several of her books. Her HEARTS WEST tells the story of true mail-order brides, successes and failures.

THE PINKS is a book both readers and authors will find useful and interesting. I recommend it highly.

TEXAS JOHN SLAUGHTER AND HIS VIOLA Part 2 by ARLETTA DAWDY

READERS MAY WANT TO GO BACK TO MY BLOG ENTRY OF MARCH 6 FOR PART  1 

A MELTING POT

 The Slaughter family and ranch community grew over the years with more and more children and whole families joining the fold, Indians, Chinese, Mexicans and Blacks joined as well, whether adult or child. It seemed the Slaughters had very open arms. Among the more unique residents of San Bernardino were two former Slaughter slaves. “Bat” or John Baptiste Hinnault was a childhood companion who followed Slaughter driving cattle to the Territory, working as trail cook or otherwise serving ranch needs. The other was John “Sweeny” Swain who arrived in Tombstone with JHS in 1879 and worked at times on the ranches, in the mines and as a janitor at the County Courthouse.

MORMON HOUSE

Still another addition to the community involved a convicted polygamist Ammon Meshach Tenney; he was pardoned by President Grover Cleveland in 1886 after serving two years plus in a Michigan prison. He’d been a missionary in Arizona previously but the story of how he and his two wives and children came to San Bernadino isn’t apparent. Their house was built smack on the border with one wife and children living on the US side and the second on the Mexican side!

APACHE MAY

Of the nine or more children the Slaughters raised none was closer to John’s heart than Apache May or, as John called her, Patchy. Author Barr gives great details about the child and her bond with JHS. In the winter of 1895 and spring of 1896, two families were decimated by renegade Apaches, the last such raids in Arizona history. In one instance, a young girl’s dress was ripped from her. In another, an old GOP campaign flag was torn from the modest cabin of a young goat herder.

The renegades were hiding on the ranch when a military patrol came in search. John and his team knew all the watering holes and hiding spots where the renegades might be found and led the way. The adults fled, leaving children behind, including a little girl less than two. She was asleep, wearing a dress made from remnants of the dress and political banner. She went to John, taking a place in his arms and heart.

Apache May dressed as found

Patchy and Vi

Patchy with John

Given the name for her heritage and the month she was found, Patchy lived a brief life. She preferred to remain outdoors, clamoring for John and was generally unruly. One sweet picture shows her strapped to Vi’s back and staring at the camera when she was still very young. 

Others show her with John or with other of the Slaughter kids. In 1900, Apache May and others were playing with fire when her dress caught and she was severely injured; she died within days, leaving a very despondent family behind. Her story became a large part of the Slaughter saga.

TERRITORIAL LEGISLATOR

In 1908/1909, John served in the 24^th Territorial Legislature representing Cochise County. Neither of the Slaughters liked living in Phoenix, away from the ranch. He did not serve another term, allowing them to return home. John built up several businesses in the Douglas area by investment in banks, mines real estate and butcher shops.

MEXICAN REVOLUTION

          By 1910, with revolution stirring in Mexico, the US military sought to establish a footing near the border aside from Camp Douglas. What began as a small patrol unit on the mesa above the pond and main house grew to a major encampment over the next six years.

TREACHERY

John’s health was failing as he approached his eighties, limiting his activities severely. He called back hisr former ranch foreman and Vi’s cousin, Jesse Fisher, to help. Jesse’s murder by trusted hands and one of the “Slaughter Kids,” hastened his decline  and the setting aside of his pearl-handled pistol.The couple left the ranch for an apartment in Douglas. Texas John Slaughter died in his sleep on February 16, 1922, less than a year after Jesse’s death. Viola survived the love of her life by another nineteen years, passing on February 27, 1941.

THE LEGACY

          John and his Viola had a wide-ranging impact on many lives, down through the generations of stories and traditions that passed on. The children and grandchildren of their foster and adopted children as well as others  came forward to offer a home to Viola. She maintained her independence, holding court with the many who visited her.

 San Bernardino Ranch was incorporated by Viola and the name changed to the John H. Slaughter Ranch. The ranch changed hands several times until bought by the estate of Floyd Johnson in 1978. It was Johnson’s wish to restore a western ranch for the children of the future to know their heritage. The ranch is now on the list of National Historical Landmarks.

            Movies, novels journal articles, biographies and much else has been produced about John and Viola, This year’s Kindle  release of famed western novelist William W. Johnstone’s series is just the latest to appear about an amazing couple of lovers, compassionate caregivers and entrepreneurs.  

References:

1.     Betty Barr, A JOHN SLAUGHTER KID, BrockingJ Books, Sonoita, Arizona, 2011

2.     John H. Slaughter Ranch website, www.slaughterranch.com

3.     https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Slaughter /

 Photos: John Slaughter Ranch and Google Images       

Arletta Dawdy lives in Northern California but travels extensively in CoChise County and other regions of the Southwest. She draws her stories from the wealth pof materials that cross her path, especially those of strong 19th century women, both real and imagined. Her books include Huachuca Woman, By Grace and Rose of Sharon. You can find her on Amazon, Facebook and her website: www.ArlettaDawdy,com.

THE FIRST U.S. POSTAGE STAMPS By Cheri Kay Clifton

As an historical western author, I write books that take place in the mid to latter 1800’s; consequently, I spend a lot of time researching everyday life back then.  Many of my blogs have been written about differences between common items of today and those our ancestors used in the 1800’s.  Often while going about my day, my curiosity arises about things I take for granted in comparison to what they were like in the 19^th century.

Hence, my subject for today’s blog … the postage stamp … something we all are using less in the 21^st century thanks to our cell phones, texts, fax, email, Skype, social media & online bill paying.

In the 19^th century, as our nation expanded, so did the need to expand and modernize the postal service. Increased immigration from Europe as well as increased expansion westward across the American frontier prompted the United States to update the way in which written communication was delivered.

Initially, U. S. postage rates were set by Congress as part of the Postal Service Act signed into law by President George Washington in 1792. The postal rate varied according to distance zones, which was the distance a letter was carried from the post office where it started to its final destination. There were double and triple rates as a letter’s size increased.

 The U.S. issued its first postage stamps in 1847. Before that time, the rates, dates and origin of the letter were written by hand or sometimes in combination with a hand stamp device. Postage could be paid in advance by the sender, collected from the addressee on delivery, or paid partially in advance and partially upon delivery.

The first general issue postage stamps went on sale in New York City, July 1, 1847. One, priced at five cents, depicted Benjamin Franklin; the other, a ten-cent stamp, pictured George Washington. Clerks used scissors to cut the stamps from pregummed, nonperforated sheets.

Only Franklin and Washington appeared on stamps until 1856, when a five-cent stamp honoring Thomas Jefferson was issued.

 A two-cent Andrew Jackson stamp was added in 1863. George Washington has appeared on more U.S. postage stamps than any other person. 

The first U.S. commemorative stamps were issued in 1893, honoring that year’s World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The subject of Columbus’s voyages to the New World and the size of the stamps were innovative, almost double the size of the previous stamps in order to properly show reproductions of paintings of Columbus’s voyages.

 Important to note historically, the first stamp honoring an American woman was the eight-cent Martha Washington stamp of 1902. 

Native Americans were depicted on several earlier stamps' but the first to feature a specific person was Pocahontas on the 1907's five-cent stamp.

The first to honor an African American was in 1940 commemorating Booker T. Washington.

Not of historical importance, but I would like to add my favorite commemorative stamp, the 29-cent stamp featuring Elvis Presley, issued in 1993 on what would have been Elvis’s 58^th birthday.  The public was invited to vote for the “younger or the older” Elvis for the stamp’s design. No surprise, the youthful Elvis stamp won and it has become the best-selling U.S. commemorative stamp to date.

With advent of all the faster and easier ways of correspondence and communication, the postal system has come to be referred to as “snail mail.”  Another Internet slang term, “Papernet” has also been used for postal mail.

The handwritten note or card goes back to what often is referred to as “simpler times.” However, it is still used by many of us wanting to take the time and effort to express our heartfelt thoughts, sympathy, congratulations or gratitude to someone.  After writing the recipient’s address on the envelope, then sticking a specially selected postage stamp on the top right-hand corner and slipping the card in the mail box, we hope the delivery of our snail mail will be the next best thing to showing up in person.

Born in Nebraska, I loved researching the Oregon Trail, historically known as the "Gateway to the West." My passion for those brave pioneers, Native Americans and 19th Century America led me to write the epic western historical Wheels of Destiny Trilogy.

"I feel the Old West is a major part of our heritage and we should enjoy learning about it.  Hopefully, by reading the fictional genre I write, my readers will not only enjoy the story but the historical background as well."

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George Washington -- President and Whiskey Distiller

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

By 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion threatened the stability of the United States while it was starting to develop and forced President Washington to personally lead the United States militia westward to stop the rebels........

The Whiskey Rebellion, also known as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791, during George Washington's presidency. The so-called whiskey tax was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. It became law in 1791 and was intended to generate revenue for the debt incurred during the Revolutionary War. The tax applied to all distilled spirits, but American whiskey was by far the country's most popular distilled beverage in the eighteenth century, so the excise tax became widely known as a whiskey tax.

Western frontier farmers were accustomed to distilling their surplus rye, barley, wheat, corn, or fermented grain mixtures into whiskey. These farmers resisted the tax. In these regions, whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while the federal government maintained that the taxes were the legal expression of Congressional taxation powers.

Throughout Western Pennsylvania counties, protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax. Resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise. The alarm was raised, and more than 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville. Washington responded by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels, while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to enforce the tax. Washington himself rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency, with 13,000 militiamen provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The rebels all went home before the arrival of the army, and there was no confrontation. About 20 men were arrested, but all were later acquitted or pardoned. Most distillers in nearby Kentucky were found to be all-but-impossible to tax—in the next six years, over 175 distillers from Kentucky were convicted of violating the tax law. Numerous examples of resistance are recorded in court documents and newspaper accounts.

The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the will and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws, though the whiskey excise remained difficult to collect. The events contributed to the formation of political parties in the United States, a process already underway. The whiskey tax was repealed in the early 1800s during the Jefferson administration.

President Washington wanted to resolve this dispute peacefully. In 1792, he issued a national proclamation admonishing westerners for their resistance to the operation of the laws of the United States for raising revenue upon spirits distilled within the same. However, by 1794 the protests became violent. In July, nearly 400 whiskey rebels near Pittsburg set fire to the home of John Neville, the regional tax collection supervisor. Left with little recourse and at the urgings of Secretary Hamilton, Washington organized a militia force of 12,950 men and led them towards Western Pennsylvania, warning locals "not to abet, air, or comfort the Insurgents aforesaid, as they will answer the contrary at their peril."

The calling of the militia had the desired effect of essentially ending the Whiskey Rebellion. By the time the militia reached Pittsburgh, the rebels had dispersed and could not be found. The militia apprehended approximately 150 men and tried them for treason. A lack of evidence and inability to obtain witnesses hampered the trials. Two men, John Mitchell and Philip Weigel, were found guilty of treason, though both were pardoned by President Washington. By 1802, then President Thomas Jefferson repealed the excise tax on whiskey. Under the eye of President Washington, the emerging United States survived the first true challenge to federal authority.

George Washington’s Rye Whiskey is distilled at George Washington’s reconstructed distillery at Mount Vernon from a recipe discovered by scholars examining the distillery ledgers for 1798 and 1799. It is distilled in limited quantities and only available for purchase in person. In 1797, urged on by his farm manager, James Anderson, Washington ramped up production and it produced 600 gallons in 1799. The year Washington died, the distillery produced nearly 11,000 gallons, making it the largest whiskey distillery in America at that time.