Shannon here: Patricia Lee shares her great grandparent’s tumultuous real life love story that inspired her The Call of the Frontier series, plus a chance to win a print copy of book 1, The Descendant’s Daughter, along with 3 other books in my Sept Book Bundle #2. Comment or answer the question in any post dated Sept 16th – 30th to enter the drawing. Deadline Oct 11th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Patricia:
When Love Isn’t Convenient
My great-great-grandfather met my great-great-grandmother in Athens, Iowa in 1846. He was a cooper, having learned the art of barrel making as a teenager at the Syracuse Salt Works in Cortland, New York. She was a seamstress, daughter of a church-planting pastor, entering her twenties alone. Their lives were on separate paths, but that all changed when they fell in love.
Cornelius Joel Hills dreamed of his own homestead as early as the age of seventeen, having helped his father develop a piece of land in Wisconsin. Cornelius set his sights on Oregon Territory. The government was giving away 640-acre parcels to couples who would move across the country, prove up a homestead, and settle there. What an opportunity for a single 30-year-old man. All he needed was a wife.
No accounts exist to tell me of their courtship other than he considered Sephronia Briggs a dark-haired beauty. Soon they were engaged, vaguely aware of the trial ahead—one of long distance, absence, and hope for the future.
After securing Sephronia’s pledge to marry him, Cornelius headed west. He joined a wagon train in the spring of 1847 with only his faithful mare and a dream. Several families had more wagons than they could manage, so he hired on as a driver. exchanging his skills for meals and a place to sleep under the wagon at night. Traversing the prairie took courage. At any point danger could overtake him. Sephronia would never know.
He rode into the Willamette Valley in November 1847 beneath a cloud-filled sky that sent bone chilling rain through his body. He stayed with the only nearby homesteader, Eugene Skinner, and his wife Mary. He would become a frequent visitor to the Skinner home because Mary took pity on a bachelor living under a lean-to during what would be a wet winter.
Staking his claim, he worked tirelessly to fence the acreage, build a cabin, and meet the requirements the government set to claim a homestead. Word came in 1848 that gold had been discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California. He joined other neighbors to travel south, hoping to find enough gold to help finish his homestead. Cornelius walked along the American River, using a spoon to dig. and collected several hundred dollars of gold nuggets in a day. He soon had enough to buy much needed farm equipment to transport home.
The Hackstaff, a sailing vessel from the east coast, was available. The group from Oregon pooled their money and engaged the ship. But the captain was not familiar with the Pacific coastline. The ship ran aground at the mouth of the Coquille River, three hundred miles south of the Hills homestead. Threatened by local tribesmen, the twenty-seven men aboard escaped over the side at night and fled into the forest, their chance of survival precarious. Sephronia would never know.
No food, no transportation, and no prospects of finding help, they left their farm equipment at the bottom of the sea and headed home on foot. A couple of the men carried rifles, so they shot the occasional deer, but snails were also on the menu. They wandered onto the Oregon-California trail and several weeks later arrived back in the Willamette Valley—tired, weak, and in dire need of a shave..
In his absence squatters had moved into his cabin. Cornelius enlisted the help of a nearby settler to prove his right to the land claim. He spent the rest of the fall and winter pf 1850 shoring up the property so that he could return to Iowa and collect his bride. Four years had passed. Would Sephronia be waiting?
She had kept her promise. They were married in Athens, February 19, 1851. Three months later
Cornelius formed a wagon train which included Sephronia’s family and two of his brothers. When Cornelius and Sephronia arrived at their homestead that fall, their first child, Mary, was expected. Seven more children would bless the couple. The Hills family became known throughout the Willamette Valley, their homestead divided among the children. As a great-great-granddaughter, I grew up on part of the original land one hundred years later.
I wrote their story in a two-book dual-time series, The Call of the Frontier 2 book series. The contemporary story is pure fiction. The historical side is based on an account told by Cornelius to his granddaughter, Hallie Huntington, my distant cousin. I read her account, added dialogue and setting, and made the story a novel. The true events were lived by the man, as unbelievable as they may seem.
Reader Question: Are there any interesting love stories in your family history? Tell us about them.
Sept Book Bundle Giveaway #2:
Ed’s Hopeful Journey by Pearl Ada Pridham, Women’s Fiction, PDF document
The Descendant’s Daughter by Patricia Lee US only, Dual-Time, print,
The Sister’s Plight by Patricia Lee US only, Dual-Time print
Gone to Texas by Caryl McAdoo, Historical Romance, eBook
About Patricia: Patricia Lee is the author of the Mended Hearts and the Call of the Frontier series. The
first is inspirational romance and the second is written in split time. She has written since she was six when she first learned what words could do. She lives in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon Territory) with her husband and two adult children. Learn more & connect:
Patricia’s Facebook Patricia’s Website
About the book – The Descendant’s Daughter (The Call of the Frontier – Book 1):
Halle Jayne Murphy can’t imagine change.
She loves her career. She shares an apartment with her best friend. She’s happy. She has lived an idyllic life in San Francisco growing up as the only child of Maisie and Fred Murphy. A graduate in architecture of the Art Institute, Halle works for one of the city’s historic home tours, a job that suits her.
But one Sunday while she’s working her mother slips at church and falls, the head injury claiming her life. At the memorial service the pastor presents an envelope of documents that he says will rock Halle’s world. Now officially an orphan, everything Halle believed about herself will soon prove to be false. Will she accept the challenge?
Garrett James has studied the life and adventures of his great-great-grandfather Cornelius Joel Hills, tracing his westward migration from Cortland, New York to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1847. Garrett has searched for clues that will lead him to a lost bag of gold Cornelius buried but never reclaimed. Garrett believes the answers lie in the old family mansion no one seems to want. He decides to let himself into the house with a hammer and nails, only to discover the long lost owner has finally arrived.
Will this pixie of a girl allow him to look for answers or has he stumbled upon a greater treasure?
Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Interested in Patricia’s other titles?
Get your copy/copies now!
The Descendant’s Daughter Patricia’s Books
Come back Sept 25th for Susan Barnett Braun!
This is amazing! I grew up in Eugene, OR.
Great placer to be from.
I bet it would boggle Eugene Skinner’s mind to see the city today.
My parents met in California. My mother is from Spain and my father is from Germany. They had their 60th wedding anniversary this month.
Sounds like an amaing story
My dad’s father and his first wife had 8 kids together. She died when the youngest was only 2 weeks old. He met my dad’s mom when she was working at the local grocery store, trying to support her son after she divorced her abusive husband. She was 19 and he was 44, but they married and had four more kids together. My dad was the youngest. He lost his father to cancer when he was a senior in high school and took care of his mom for the rest of her life because she never remarried. Apparently, she was very resentful when he married my mom and was never very nice to her, but my mom never once said anything to my dad about it. I lost my dad to cancer in 2017 and my mom is 81 and still going strong.
Quite a testimonial.Hugs
I came to US on March 15 (which is my husband’s birthday). Of course we didn’t know each other yet, but I joke that I am his birthday present 🙂
Good story
Good story
I have a winner for my Sept Book Bundle 2. Sandie Schrager won the drawing! I appreciate Patricia for being my guest and everyone else who stopped by.