Jane Kirkpatrick sent these salt and pepper shakers to me. They arrived yesterday. Aren't they a hoot? Jane has been a special encourager to me in writing my book. And the first person I turned to when I seriously considered changing the genre of my book. I know I can trust Jane's advice. I have struggled for three years attempting to write a creative nonfiction book with Ernest Christison as the main character. When I finished the rough draft, I felt like I had two books - one nonfiction and one fiction. It was disjointed; it had too many holes that didn't fit into literary nonfiction and I had too many questions to make a judgement for nonfiction.
Ernest's story wouldn't let me go, but another story began to overpower his story. Mary Watkins, a Quaker schoolteacher from Ohio takes on the cattlemen who hanged her husband. What a powerful story! I wrote a part of Mary's story as a short story a couple of years ago and started a novel about Mary last November during NaNoWriMo (write a novel in a month). As I struggled with how to fix the nonfiction book, I opened up the file of the novel I had started. Guess what? It was good. And I seriously considered what the book would look like as fiction. After talking with Jane, I had no qualms about putting the creative nonfiction behind me and writing a historical fiction novel with Mary Watkins as the protagonist. Ernest will also be a main character, so his story will be told, too. The story is true, the events are true and the dialogue and additional scenes will all point to the truth while adding depth to the characters. Fiction is a new world to me. Now I am reading Writing Fiction For Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and using his Snowflake method for writing a book. I am also reading books on characters and making them come alive. The only thing I don't have to learn about is the plot, that's already set!
P.S. If you haven't read any of Jane Kirkpatrick's books, run to the nearest bookstore or library! Jane writes historical fiction based on real women's lives. Her latest book is A Daughter's Walk based on the true story of a mother and daughter walking across the country in 1896. For more information, visit her website http://jkbooks.com
Tonight I will be a guest on GeneaBloggers Radio. The show is "Genealogy, Television and Black Sheep" hosted by Thomas MacEntee. I will be on the last segment, around 9:30 Mountain Time, talking about researching Wild West outlaws and Black Sheep in genealogy. Renowned genealogist, Megan Smolenyak, will be the lead speaker.
To read the Show Notes, visit GeneaBloggers Radio Scroll down to see the guest information.
To listen to the show, use the radio player in the right sidebar. Click the arrow to play. A commercial will play first.
I hope you enjoy it!
Gayle
Aspen Near Poncha Pass
The Arkansas River from the F Street Bridge in Salida
San Luis Valley near Villa Grove
150 years ago this week, one month after Kansas became a state, the western part of Kansas became Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. I thought I would celebrate by sharing a few of my favorite pictures I took last spring when my daughter and I took a trip to Salida.
My great-great-grandparents, Wilburn and Elizabeth Christison came to Colorado Territory with their six children in a wagon pulled by oxen in 1861. Wilburn voted in the first Territorial election held that fall, voting in the Lost Canyon precinct at Cash Creek. My husband's great-great-grandparents, the Eplers, also came to Colorado Territory, arriving by train in 1874 and settling in the newly-formed Elbert County. While the Christisons couldn't stay put in one place, my children are the 7th generation of John's family to live in Elbert County.
As you can see, I have many reasons to celebrate Colorado Territory's birthday.
Happy Birthday, Colorado!
I spent a couple of days in Salida this week researching criminal court records. The ice on the river fascinates me. This picture was taken near Cotapaxi where the sun must not hit the snow long enough to melt it.
In researching the criminal court records for Ernest Christison's cattle rustling book, I am studying court cases involving thirteen different men. It isn't as easy as going to one place to find all of the records. The actual documents from the court cases are housed at the Colorado State Archives in Denver, however, the Record of Court Proceedings is at the Chaffee County Combined Courts in Salida.
When I started researching the story, I started with the Record of Court Proceedings in Salida. I went through the book and found Ernest's court cases, wrote down the numbers and the proceedings, then I visited the State Archives to look at the actual cases. The staff at the archives became well-acquainted with me and the Chaffee County box of court records. I can almost hear their inaudible groan when I ask for that box. It is on the top shelf, needing a ladder to reach it, and it is overflowing with documents. After looking at Ernest's court cases, I started looking for court cases involving other names I'd found in my research. Eventually, I went through every court case in the box, looking for names I recognized and this led me to the thirteen-plus cases I am researching.
Last week I reached the point of writing about the court cases in the January term of 1884. I thought I had everything I needed, however, as I started writing I realized that I had the information from the cases, but not the dates when court proceedings took place. Because this involved the eleven prisoners who escaped from jail, I thought I needed to go back and go through the Record of Court Proceedings again.
Tuesday I spent three hours going through the Court Proceedings, writing down every proceeding that took place--continuances, jury selection, jury verdicts, sentencing, plea bargains, etc. This will really help in writing the trial portion of my book.
Before I went to Salida, several people mentioned they hoped I found something new. I didn't expect to find anything new, but I did! I found a final report from the Grand Jury concerning the deplorable conditions of the county jail at the time of the prison break. The jail was filthy, the sewage pipe blocked for five days, and the prisoners were only receiving two meals a day at 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. More details to help me write!
TIPS FOR RESEARCHING CRIMINAL RECORDS:
1) Be sure to be looking in the District Court records. Criminal cases will be The People vs. whomever you are looking for.
2) Locate both the Record of Court Proceedings and the trial case documents. Find out if they are located in the same depository or different ones.
3) Look at cases around the same time as your case. Your criminal may show up in another case where he may be included as "et. al." Or the case may be related to the case you are researching that may clue you in to the bigger story.
4) Write down everything! Even if it doesn't mean anything to you.
5) If you know a lawyer, ask him or her about some of the terms or proceedings you don't understand. If not, do an on-line search for terms you aren't familiar with.
6) Did your criminal go to the state penitentiary? Find out where the prisoner records are kept. In Colorado, the State Archives has the Prisoner Index you can check on-line at this link. If you find your criminal, then you can visit or request the record which includes the mug shot, description of prisoner, and details of when imprisoned and when released.
Do you have more questions about criminal court records? Leave a comment with your question and I will be happy to answer it if I can!
Have you always wondered how to find out if your great-great-grandfather really did own a homestead like you've been told in that old family story? Or have you wondered who homesteaded the land you live on now? This information is available on the BLM Government Land Office Records website - one of my FAVORITE links to visit as a genealogist and a historian.
I happened to visit the BLM GLO Records website and discovered they have a Beta release of the 4th generation of their website. It now has map-based searches and I love it! Of course, it makes the workshop I gave at the Colorado Family History Expo obsolete since I went to much trouble explaining how to use Earthpoint and GoogleEarth to locate a homestead on a map, but I am thrilled! Here is the new homepage:
To test the site, I entered the name James Mahan in Chaffee County, Colorado in the search box. According to the story in Under The Angel of Shavano, in 1865 James Mahon traded a yoke of oxen to Wilburn Christison for his homestead on Cottonwood Creek (in the town of Buena Vista today). In the new website, I put a check mark in each box under "map" below Land Description and the land is marked as orange squares in the map below! The only problem I've found that I wish BLM would fix is it won't show allotments of halves, such as the north half of the soutwest quarter. When I check the first box, this message appears, "due to data limitations, we could not map the aliquots or lots of this land description." The map should show two more blocks west of the top block running south of County Road 350 and the west side is adjacent to County Road 353.
You can zoom in on the land to get better detail:
My parents, who live in North Carolina, visited me and my family last week. While they were here, I mentioned I would love to have a copy of Colorado As I Saw It by Harry Epperson. Dad looked it up on-line and found it at Old West Books and ordered it for me. This wonderful gift arrived today in perfect condition, making me very happy. But then I opened the cover and discovered 27 newspaper clippings from newspapers dated in the 1940's to the 1960's! The clippings are all related to the stories in the book, which was published in 1943. There are also obituaries for Harry Epperson (the author) and Thomas McQuaid. McQuaid told some stories in the book related to Ed Watkins. Amazing!
Click on the picture for a closer look at the newspaper clippings.
I made a quick trip to Salida on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday morning I talked with Joyce Reno, the Chaffee County Clerk. She answered my questions about land records and was very helpful. I was reminded again that when you can't find a record in one place, it might show up in another. Last month I had contacted the National Archives in Denver about land patents. The man who helped me said he'd look up the information, but later called to say he couldn't find the book. I mentioned this to Joyce and she said, "We've got it right here." It helps to know I've looked at all of the records and I'm not overlooking something with the land records.
In the afternoon, I visited the Salida Regional Library to look at the Bob Rush photo collection. I didn't find any photos pertinant to my presentation or book, but they were fun to look at! Most of the collection is available digitally on the Salida website.
As I was leaving the library, Jeff Donlan and I were talking. It dawned on him to ask if I'd talked to Dick Dixon. I said I hadn't, but he was on my list. Dick has written book about Turret and the Salida area. He also has a fabulous collection of Salida photos. Jeff picked up the phone and called Dick at the Mountain Mail newspaper office. Before I knew it, I was having the most amazing conversation with Dick at the newspaper office. Here was a man who knew the historical Salida people I've been living with for the past three years. It was wonderful to talk to someone who knew them as well as I did. Just like talking with an old friend. You will be seeing some photos from Dick's collection show up in my book. Isn't that exciting?I stopped at the Canon City History Center on my way home. And found some more great photos. It's fun to start collecting photographs for the book!
The book isn't finished yet. Working on the Ed Watkins presentation in Salida is helping me. I tend to tell the story in circles, I tell about one event then circle back to another. Putting the Powerpoint in order is helping me gain focus. And I'm picking up on a few things I hadn't caught before.
Jane Kirkpatrick sent these salt and pepper shakers to me. They arrived yesterday. Aren't they a hoot? Jane has been a special encourager to me in writing my book. And the first person I turned to when I seriously considered changing the genre of my book. I know I can trust Jane's advice. I have struggled for three years attempting to write a creative nonfiction book with Ernest Christison as the main character. When I finished the rough draft, I felt like I had two books - one nonfiction and one fiction. It was disjointed; it had too many holes that didn't fit into literary nonfiction and I had too many questions to make a judgement for nonfiction.
