Category: Fact or Fiction

Part 1 of The Sojourners’ Quest, “Fact or Fiction,” discussed the hard facts of life for pioneers who crossed the American continent by wagon train on the Overland trails. In Part 2, we’ll consider three elements of fact or fiction in the story.

1. The Sojourners’ Quest opens with Irish-born heroine Sarah Byrne riding on the box of a Prairie Schooner with her employer, the Reverend Matthew Sinclair—a protestant clergyman—walking next to the wagon nudging his team of six mules forward. Which scenario would be most accurate—riding or walking?

Teams of six to twelve mules or horses or four to six oxen comprised the animals hauling the Prairie Schooners. Still, men, women, and children usually walked alongside the wagons due to the rough terrain and lack of suspension on the wagons.

Only the sick or weak would ride inside the Prairie Schooners. Sarah had walked most of the way, but her shoes were so thinly worn that they hurt her feet to walk in them. Unfortunately, ragged shoes and sore feet were facts of life for the emigrants who walked the two thousand miles across the continent.

2. The Sojourners’ Quest takes place during the summer of 1869. Hadn’t wagon trains become a thing of the past by then?

Not entirely, but they were on their way out. Between 1836 – 1869, more than 420,000 people traversed the continent on wagon trains. By May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad between New York and San Francisco gave people a different option. Though wagon trains operated through the 1880s, most people migrated west on the railroad. Steam locomotives could travel 40 miles an hour—4 days from coast to coast with less time in between. Wagon trains took 4 to 6 months, depending upon the weather.

Taking the wagon train made sense for Sarah, Matthew, and his two children. Matthew had books and heirlooms to carry. Besides, the first railroad to climb the steeper elevations connecting Denver with the mining communities wasn’t built until 1872 into Black Hawk through the steep and narrow Clear Creek canyon. The railroad didn’t stretch as far as Georgetown, Colorado, until August 1877.

Sarah and Matthew would still have had to get to Georgetown by Prairie Schooner once they arrived in Denver.

3. Early in the story, Sarah says of her life in Ireland, “How could any of us [women] survive the kind of poverty so devastating that it’s driven us to descend upon this United States in droves?” Several factors contributed to the mass emigration of men and women to the United States from Ireland in the nineteenth century.

The most significant influence for women like Sarah after the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and 50s was a change in the social and economic climate that discriminated against unmarried women, particularly those from the lower class. The combination of inheritance laws that favored the moneyed class and a lack of opportunities for employment made options for making a living nearly impossible.

Moreover, without a dowry, young women had no chance of marrying. Their families encouraged them to emigrate, and the majority worked as domestics in the homes of wealthier Americans, allowing them to earn a living. It would be a fortunate Irish maiden who also found love while serving in such a home.

(c) 2022 Donna Wichelman

The Sojourners’ Quest

Novelette Prequel to the Singing Silver Mine Series

Sarah Byrne left everything behind to escape the poverty of her Irish homeland. But will she make a better life in America and find love?

Born into the lower class of Irish society, Sarah Byrne had no dowry, no chance of marrying well, no way of earning a living to rise out of her miry bog. When best friend Mary insists she must emigrate to America to make better than butter and egg money and find a man to marry, Sarah risks her life on a disease-ridden ship to sail across the Atlantic.

But leaving the land and people she loves proves more difficult than she had thought as Sarah combs the streets of New York for a job, and everywhere she turns, the signs read, “No Irish Need Apply.” Her only option: become the nanny for two children of a widowed minister who has accepted a position in the Rocky Mountains.

But will Sarah have the strength to cross the Great American Prairie in a covered wagon during the dusty heat of summer? And will her grief-stricken employer ever return the profound feelings she has developed for him?

Find out how and where love blooms in this novelette prequel to the Singing Silver Mine Series, an exciting new Historical Romance series that will take you on a journey into our deepest longings for love and contentment.

This novelette is a Giveaway. You may click on the following link to receive your free copy. https://BookHip.com/BGKHGJN 

Donna worked as a communications professional before turning to full-time writing. Her short stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various inspirational and secular publications, and she has two self-published books available on Amazon.com. Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of her love of history and literature as a young adult while attending the United World College of the Atlantic—an international college in Wales, U.K.

She still loves to explore the peoples and cultures of the world and views her writing as a ministry, developing plots that show how God’s love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, forgiveness, and belonging in a world that often withholds second chances.

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