Portland Area Historical Society meeting set for November 17th
The Portland Area Historical Society will host Sunfield novelist Tom Huggler at its November 17 meeting at 6:30 at the Senior Citizen Center in downtown Portland. Huggler will speak on “The Making of a Historical Fiction” while sharing the story behind The Woman She Left Behind, his Civil War novel based on true events of an area pioneer widow who traveled alone for 600 miles into a Missouri battlefield to find her dying son.
In the spring of 1862, Rachel (Van Houten) Barnum, who lived on Shaytown Road in Sunfield Township, left three other children with her farm’s hired man to look for Dwight, a 2nd Michigan cavalryman dying from disease or a war wound.
Stuck in Cairo, Illinois, while the swollen Mississippi set new records for flooding and the war raged downstream, Rachel feared she wouldn’t reach Dwight in time to save him.
Huggler’s research into what happened included retracing Rachel’s journey by horse and buggy, train, and Mississippi riverboat. He will share details and read passages from his 400-page novel, copies of which will be available for purchase.
The free event is open to the public.
Courtesy Photo: Local writer Tom Huggler, who has written 20 books of nonfiction and two novels, holds a copy of his latest historical fiction.
Comments