How did you decide to write A Clearing in the Wild, the first book in the Change and Cherish Historical Series?
I’d visited the Old Aurora Colony Museum a number of times and found the lives of this utopian community of interest. But it wasn’t until I read a brief mention in a quilting book, Treasures in the Trunk, written by a friend, Mary Bywater Cross, that Emma Wagner Giesy came into my life. She wrote, “1853. Emma Giesy came as the only woman in a party of ten Bethel, Missouri, scouts to find an Oregon site for their communal society.” Little did I know that this sentence would take me from a communal world of nineteenth-century Missouri to one in the Washington Territory and eventually Oregon, introducing intrigue and unanswered questions along the way.
How much of this story is history, and how much is fictional?
“Between history and story lies memory,” one sage wrote. Our memories of events are retold like a story, but they claim us as history, as fact. So two people can be absolutely certain of an event but carry opposing memories of it. I try to remember that when I’m researching and discovering diverse accounts of similar events. I tried, through reading descendant accounts and historical material about the Bethelites and where they came from, and through letters left behind, to create an accurate account of the colony, the faith that defined it, and the place of women within it. I had to sort through many accounts of which scouts actually came west and who returned to help bring the large group out in 1855. Opposing accounts and names and numbers exist between eight and nine, not counting Emma. I finally settled on nine men and one woman, using material from Clark Moor Will, a descendant. I knew Emma was pregnant when they left Missouri and where Andrew was born. I have genealogy information about family lines, children, and so on, and kept that factual. Christian was considered the leader of the scouts, or spies, as they’re sometimes called. He had been a tinsmith and a recruiter, traveling outside Missouri to bring in new converts. Much has been written about Keil’s history and his views, which could be described as autocratic at times. (He once broke away from a church because they planned to pay the pastor a salary, and Keil felt the pastor should live by the charity of his parishioners.) Letters by Keil that were translated from the German reveal his views of Willapa, and the chaos that reigned once the group arrived there. The difficult winter of 1855–56 is based on these letters and other historical accounts, so as much as possible, I’ve remained true to the “shared knowings,” the facts that most people agree on, as I call them. He did limit the use of ammunition. He did require them to club fish to survive. The reports of others in the region at that time describe the German community as nearly starving to death that winter. Keil’s letters provide clarity about his worries of Indian wars and the seeming impossibility of the colony being successful if they remained at the scouts’ chosen site. He was quite vocal about his unhappiness with Willapa.
In the obituary of Andrew, we know he was born at Ft. Steilacoom. Catherina was born in the Washington Territory and not identified as having been born at Ft. Steilacoom, so by then the whole family was in the Willapa Valley.
Did Wilhelm Keil actually bring a hearse with his son in it across the continent?
Yes. No reporters or descendants dispute the relative ease of Keil’s journey west in 1855, even with the presence of Willie Keil’s hearse, and yes, they did use Golden Rule Whiskey to fill the casket. That something happened to change Keil’s buoyant mood once he reached The Dalles is also agreed upon, including the report of the arrest and circumstances of the trial. Historians and family members also agree on the strain placed on the entire group while at Willapa, though they chose to bury Willie there. There are two accounts of the dates of that burial: one in November, the other December. They did carry candles at dusk to place him in the ground. A highway marker notes the site.
What was the position of women in that German community?
At Bethel, women and men were separated during worship. They worked with men, however, in the fields, in the tanneries, or wherever they were needed. Men were the leaders, and Wilhelm Keil was the unchallenged leader of the colony from the beginning until its dissolution in Oregon in the 1870s after his death. As was traditional in most societies of the era—and especially so of German American communities—women supported men and did not assume positions of leadership within a community. But this should not suggest that they had no desires to be known, nor should it be assumed that women within a Christian community, such as Bethel, would not have been aware of efforts within the United States to raise the awareness of women’s rights, just as there were discussions related to slave and free men prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Missourians were well aware of the tension related to free states or slave states. Men who were unhappy with Keil’s leadership could leave; women had fewer choices and may have found more subtle ways to challenge that leadership, such as finding a way to participate in a scouting trip west. Women and men did mix at dances and at the many festival days for which the German community was well known.
Was Emma as independent as she seemed?
I think so. Certainly, she was as strong. None of the accounts dispute the hardships endured during those first winters in the Willapa Valley, which must have been extraordinary with an infant to care for and the knowledge that the small group prepared for the arrival of 250 people in just a few months. Winters in that region are legendary for the rainfall. The old growth timber that the scouts encountered soared hundreds of feet into the air. The scouts found isolation and timber, but harnessing both for their purposes proved a daunting challenge, and yet their decisions as portrayed at the end of this first book are accurate. Emma had to be a strong woman to find a new way to see the possibilities there and support her husband in the process.
Would Emma have challenged Keil’s biblical interpretation of the role of women?
Here, too, I believe she would have. She may have known of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, where American women openly spoke and wrote of their beliefs and rights. There is evidence that her grandmother or perhaps a great aunt was the “Inspirationalist” leader whom men came to for religious advice over a number of years. Her parents had left their religious tradition to follow Keil. She therefore had a family model of a strong woman who felt called by God directly, not only through a male pastor’s direction, but also of a family who questioned traditional religious authority. Once Emma was in a new territory, given her intelligence, family history—her uncle was an ambassador to France, Germany, and England—and Keil’s absence, if she did not change how she made decisions and question traditional views, she may well have been unable to allow an Indian woman to nurse her child, for example, or support her husband’s spiritual trials in the way she did. I saw her as a kind woman, spirited, who only became challenging of Keil when he proposed barriers to what she wanted: to have her voice heard within the community as a unique child of God and to support her family without losing herself.
Were the secondary characters—such as the Woodards, Mary and Sebastian Giesy, Louisa Keil, Karl Ruge, and Joe Knight—actual people?
Yes. Genealogy records and census records, Pacific County Historical Society material, and material from the Aurora Colony Museum in Aurora, Oregon, offered information about who lived close to whom; who remained in Bethel, who left the Willapa Valley, and who ultimately went to Aurora, the site chosen by Keil once he left Willapa via Portland. Emma did have several siblings who will appear in the next book. Joe Knight did take his little side trip. Keil’s niece and brother did die in Oregon Territory. Karl Ruge, as the teacher, was especially important, I think, as Keil objected to education unless it was practical information. To my knowledge, there was no library—which is a common characteristic of many settlements—in Bethel or at Aurora, so Karl’s presence carried additional importance within the community. That Karl stayed with the Willapa group intrigues me, and he’ll add much to the continuing story.
Did you characterize Emma and Christian’s relationship from letters or diaries, or did you create it?
I had no letters or diaries to rely on in creating these characters, but I did locate a drawing of Christian made from a portrait, so I had a sense of what he looked like. A great-nephew, David Wagner, provided treasured photographs of Emma in later life. There is really little written record about any of the colony women, and most of what was written down about them was written down by men. I had to track her movements by researching Emma’s parents, brothers, her husband, and later, her sons. I don’t think of it as “making things up” so much as trying to get inside the minds of people to tell a truthful story. I speculated about whether Emma would have told her husband of her pregnancy or not, as he was the leader, and politically, it might have been better for him not to have known. I speculated about why she had even been allowed to go along. A descendant’s letter suggested that she and Christian had defied the leader, Wilhelm Keil, by getting married, and that he had “sent her along” perhaps as punishment. One comment suggested that “both had been exiled to the west.” Those letters opened the door to that possibility and thus made the difficulties at the Willapa site have more tension with the nearing arrival of the main party.
Were there any surprises discovered as you wrote?
One thing I noted is how interconnected the earliest settlers in the Oregon Territory were—and are to my own writing experience. In Pacific County census records, I came across the name Soule, which is a family name I also found when I researched A Gathering of Finches. When I posted my interest on a Web site in Pacific County, I heard from Pat Smith, a woman in Utah who had helped me research the Marie Dorion story in A Name of Her Own, as Pat is a descendant of Marie. It turns out that relatives of Madame Dorion made their place in the southern part of Pacific County. Of course, Astoria played a big part in the Tender Ties Historical Series, and once again, I found myself researching right across the Columbia from that city. I also found the history of Washington Territory and the governor’s hostility to natives especially interesting. The effects of the Treaty of 1855 in Oregon versus the trials in Washington also added to my collection of historical facts I’d never encountered before. I was surprised to encounter Ezra Meeker once again, a man whose 1852 diary inspired my Kinship and Courage Series and especially Book One, All Together in One Place. I am also learning a little more about quilting and am grateful for the creativity and patience of my quilting friends.
What’s going to happen in the second book?
Ah, that would be telling. But it is a series called “Change and Cherish,” so I can assure you that Emma’s journey of discovery continues. She’ll be “weaving” and “tying” again, faithfully believing that God provides her thread—as do I.
You may join Jane and view her schedule at her Web site, www.jkbooks.com. Jane is also available by phone for book group gatherings, presentations, or signings by e-mailing her at jane@jkbooks.com or writing to her at 99997 Starvation Lane, Moro, Oregon, 97039.