Why Historical Fiction?

The book series about Hattie began innocently enough. It wasn’t initially envisioned to become even one book. But as I followed the genealogy craze of recent years, it led me to stare at a blank, mysterious section of my family tree. I had only a slight inkling of where to look to solve the mystery. The best clue was a tidbit my accomplished Oklahoma grandmother had written about her own grandmother, who was supposedly a well-educated teacher from Utica, NY. With a name, a goal and a dose of curiosity, I began to search in earnest.

By 2009, a compelling, significant character named Hattie Sheldon became real as my hunt progressed. How much could actually be found about her, I asked myself constantly? Thanks to the internet, I soon grasped that evidence about her existed, but it required more legwork than I had envisioned. The hunt was on. Over the next four years, I found myself in deserted cemeteries and unexpectedly serious libraries. On top of that, I scoured scores of Cherokee history books and sat for blinding hours at microfiche readers. There were some truly lonely & dusty searches in library basements and withering hours at the computer. But I was finding more than I even imagined I could. Encouragement also came through the realization that, in the past, such an effort could have taken decades. All told, it took me six years. The time for Hattie to emerge from obscurity had come.

Historians, authors and researchers worldwide make exciting discoveries every day because of the amazing availability of digitized data now online. Yet, Hattie Sheldon’s motivating saga couldn’t reach its potential merely through the tracing of statistics and genealogy. It had to be pieced together methodically from other sources that revealed her emotions, temperament, fortitude and resilience. I found that her actions and reputation were interspersed with other people’s in many places, including the correspondence of her friends, reports by her boss, and mentions by historians who wrote about the Cherokee Nation.

After mining for years across history, distance and time, I finally constructed a timeline of Hattie Sheldon’s life by undertaking careful research through the following sources:

  • The Alice M. Robertson Collection, McFarlin Library Special Collections, University of Tulsa. The Congresswoman’s collection is contained in sixty two boxes.
  • American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions archive, 1810-1961. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
  • Park Hill, the notable, out-of-print 1948 book by Oklahoma historian Carolyn Thomas Foreman.
  • Oneida County Historical Society’s document collection, Utica, N Y.
  • Hattie’s actual letters in an article published by the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, A Tie Between Us That Time Cannot Sever: The Latta Family Letters, 1855-1872.
  • Home Mission Heroes: A Series of Sketches, The Trow Press, Copyright 1904 by the Literature Department, The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. Republished by Harvard Book Store.
  • The Lord’s Vineyard by F. F. Latta, Shafter, CA. 1940 & 1956. A publication of the Washington County Historical Society, Fayetteville, AR.
  • The Congregationalist and Christian World, The Pilgrim Press, Boston & Chicago. May 13, 1915.
  • Fold3, the web’s premiere collection of original military records.
  • The Chronicles of Oklahoma, a quarterly publication of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Established 1921.
  • United States Federal Census.
  • New York State Census.
  • The Arkansas News (1836-1860).
  • Private family correspondence and reminiscences.

Even though this is a lengthy list, for Hattie Sheldon’s life story to gain emotion, texture and credibility, it had to touch readers who must find her believable. For 82 years’ worth of living to reach them personally, her story needed events, emotions, conflicts, victories, decisions and relationships. Therefore, as an author, my challenge was filling the gap that existed between the revealing evidence about her life, the record of her notable achievements, and the well preserved documents written both by and about her. What could bridge the statistics and infuse them with life so that her inspirational example could be shared, so that I might employ it to encourage others?

The answer to that question came by viewing Hattie’s story through the prism of history. Documented information about places, political developments, cultural mores, lifestyle patterns, the focus of news, and the availability of transportation set me on a path of picturing Hattie’s steps. Eras of history had to be studied and carefully woven into her life’s accomplishments. Likewise, I took the liberty of inserting Hattie into known historical occasions, circumstances and events.

To find such information, I hit the road. My travels took me from the Library of Congress in Washington, DC to archives at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT, to Hattie’s hometown of Utica in central New York State, to her forefathers’ village of Bernardston in western Massachusetts, as well as eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Future blog posts will detail the atmosphere, findings and excitement of each place. It was as if I collected puzzle pieces, one by one, that had been strung along a very lengthy trail.

My conclusion was that Hattie Sheldon lived an impactful life worthy of sharing. Bold choices changed her life and gave her an unexpected opportunity for leadership. My aim is to apply her life story and its place in history to motivate new generations of people.