My sister Becky took this picture of me along with other pictures and posted it and the following on Facebook after our trip on the Mississippi area of St. Paul.

“Now where the heck is Cindy Stupnik looking for plots? She is smack dab in front of Pike Island and can’t decide if she should go to her right and visit St. Anthony Falls or head left to Fort Snelling. There are people to discover at both places. People that will settle the western frontier as well as Clearwater, Minnesota, “Hub of the Universe”! Tales to be found and tales to be told….. and some are true. Adventure awaits….”

Early in the week, my sister Becky and I took a trip up and down the Mississippi River by St. Paul, MN.  This has been on my bucket list for quite awhile. We had a grand, albeit slow, journey suitable for history buffs.  Mondays are $10 so it is a reasonably cheap ride. On top of that, when do we ever get such beautiful weather in June–mid 70’s?  The sun refused to shine, but we were comfortable and happy to see some of the original and oldest parts of  St. Paul.

I mistakenly thought we would also be heading further south to Ft. Snelling and the Sibley House on the Minnesota River.  Despite this, we learned so much. I’ve read Maud Hart Lovelace’s Early Candlelight ‘s novel a number of times, and she describes the area so well.  Like DeeDee, the protagonist, I wanted to also look up the bluffs on the Minnesota to where  Ft. Snelling stands.  Another famous spot, down and across the river, is the Henry Sibling House and the Fairbault House, to name just two, which are some of  the oldest structures in Minnesota.  I have visited both Fort Snelling and the Sibley Historic Site, but I wanted to see  it all from below on the river.

Unfortunately, our cruise’s itinerary did not include these sites so I have to rely on my memory. Goodreads says:  “This historical novel set at Old Fort Snelling in the 1830s is a rich and romantic re-creation of the early settlement period in Minnesota’s history.”  This is a work of fiction.

Last week, I read a non-fiction, autobiorgraphic work,  Early Days at Red RIver Settlement and Fort Snelling by Barbara Ann Shadecker Adams.  She, too, writes about this early day before Minnesota became a state in 1859. Her perspective is from her own experience set in the same time about 1830’s but from her own memory.   She, too, talks about the people and places that give life to this early time in Minnesota.

So, I’ve mentioned places like Fort Snelling,  the Sibley and Fairbault houses, the Red River Settlement, and the Minnesota and the Mississippi Rivers. Now let me mention another person–Pig’s Eye. Both books talk about him.  Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant was a retired fur trader who took up settlement on the banks of the Mississippi where St. Paul begins.  Neither author show him much respect, to say the least.  He supplied booze to anyonewho had money to buy.  The site Minnesota Fun Facts reads, “’Pig’s Eye’ snuck over territory lines and found this rather convenient spot from which he could sell bootleg whisky to soldiers and Indians without ‘the pale of law.’ In 1838, Parrant erected a cabin at the mouth of the cave [on the Mississippi River] to sell liquor from.” Locals called the area “Pig’s Eye Landing” based on Parrant’s popular tavern.   Despite his lack of character development,I had fun seeing this area, the future St. Paul,  on our cruise.

Pig’s Eye cave 

So why all this interest in this part of the state and these white settlers who came to the newly opened area west of the the great river first?   It was a drop off point. From St. Louis north, the Mississippi River carried many  pioneers on its back to step off on its shores. Others from points east also rode the steamboats north and south to find  new homes.

Here travelled my characters into the area for my next novel, a prequel to the other two that are part of the Minnesota Main Street Women’s series.  I decided to write a prequel because Clearwater and Minnesota had a few first women settlers, one is my protagonist is.  I hate to leave you hanging for another year before you know she is. First, I wrote about Jennie Phillips, the woman druggist in Clearwater.  Her story takes place in 1895, and you can read for yourself the story line on my site.  The sequel was about Maude Porter, one of the first girls born in the village who stayed put–never married and never moved out except for when at the age of 102-3 she went into a nursing home.  Her storyline is set in 1909-10.  Now, DRUM ROLL, I am writing about Maude’s mother, Abigail Perkins Camp Porter.

This first woman in Clearwater, came in 1855 to become the housekeeper for the townsite hotel owners, one of which was Simon Stevens, a founder of the village and brother to the father of Minneapolis, John Harrington Stevens.  This book is still in progress–and I continue to research as I write.  Abigail’s story needs to be told as well as I can because as I dig, I find her remarkable because of the the strength, courage, and momentum she had to come nearly half way across the country to start all over again as a recent widow.  I can’t give away too much, but I promise I will stay true to her as another strong female protagonist.

I love what Ruth Benedict the anthropologist/scientist once said, “I long to speak out the intense inspiration that comes to me from the lives of strong women.”

This, too, is my desire, my direction, and my ultimate destination.

I like saying Merry Christmas, but I have some friends who have different religious convictions.  So this is for all of you and us.

This is my summary of the year.  I am not sending out cards this season for a number of reasons.  Much of my time this summer and fall was taken up by healing from knee replacement.    I went into rehab right out of the hospital to start the cycle of strenuous physical therapy.  I got home and continued.  I did well, and continue to do well.  Thank you to those who knew and offered hopes and prayers.  It all worked.  It honestly took the summer to get my brain somewhat back to thinking straighter, though.  Medications and healing really can take a toll. 

Then when I started to get better, I sold books and spoke at a few United Methodist events while spending the fall editing and citing my essay on Rev. Mary MacNicholl, the first woman in Minnesota to receive full-clergy rights in the Methodist Conference.  Frank and I took off to Blair, Nebraska, in October to meet and visit with a good phone friend, Muriel Neve, who was Mary’s good college friend at Drew Seminary.  When I returned home, I concluded my editing and citing the paper that ended up to be 66 pages, not including 3 citation pages.  It has been sent to its new owners, The General Commission on Archives and History for the Methodist Church in Madison, New Jersey, from which I received the grant to write about her life.  I am still working on the video that I produced.  I have it in that format, but I cannot seem to sync it with the music.  Hopefully, that’ll come soon.

I was “on” Christmas until last week when my husband was admitted to the hospital with extremely low hemoglobin counts.  Four days of being put to sleep, three times for tests including bone marrow,  a transfusion,  iron shots, and blood testing each day, and we are no closer to an answer.  Some guesses but no answers….. I am thankful he is home, but this year on our anniversary I have come to realize the real test of marriage comes in the vow “. . . in sickness and in health . . .”  Frank has had many health issues since he retired–almost all of them here in Central Minnesota. Hopefully, we will have answers soon.

For all of you, I hope for a blessed season, and I hope for all of us a great and greater new year.

I leave you with a Christmas poem that I published in Postcards from the Old Man a number of years ago:

Around December 14, Dad, and sometimes the rest of our family, went to find our tree. For years, we drove in from the country and bought from Ellis Kniss at the Kniss’ Fairway Store. Because the branches were wrapped, wired, and often covered in snow, we were always surprised with what we had purchased once we began to unwrap our symbol of yuletide cheer.

THE FOUNDLINGS     

My father’s search to find our tree

would often take him out to see

if they would have at Kniss’ Store

a Christmas tree like years before.

 

Up against the mart’s north wall

stood evergreens so lush and tall.

But on the ground my dad detected

a scrub—discarded and neglected.

 

A tree to touch his tender heart—

for orphaned man, his counterpart.

He dragged it home where we awaited

a tree to love—when decorated.

 

As it stood in stand, we realized

the tree was less than he’d surmised.

The bells and balls, a garland rope

just didn’t help. We gave up hope.

 

Out of ornaments; so what to do?

We finally admitted we were through.

Tinseled and lit, a star on top

that dried up tree was still a flop.

 

Now years later…in memory,

I think that I shall never see

a poem as ugly as that tree—

or one that means so much to me.

 

Cindy

 

Sorry, I had to take down my video because YOUTUBE and movie maker in Microsoft were incompatible.  I will let you know soon when I will reload.

 

Today, December 5th, 2019, my Mary MacNicholl video will premier at 5 pm CDT.  The title is “Mary MacNicholl: A Woman with Vision.”  I had no extra help creating the video from powerpoint but it meets the needs for the grant I received from GCAH of the International United Methodist Church.   I also sent a 65-page essay, with a 3-page bibliography to Drew, New Jersey, their headquarters.  I want to thank those who helped me (and everyone else who had to listen to me whine about it)  with this large project.

 

As I continue to research my next novel in the series Minnesota Main Street Women and attend various selling and signing events for my previous books, I think of how to answer those who do not know that the historic village of Clearwater, Minnesota, began beyond Nelson Brothers, below the hill,  and tucked under the Highway 24 bridge many  people travel to get from Clear Lake,  to Annandale, or Interstate 94.  Would a brown historic sign on the Interstate help those interested to know more about this quaint town?

Simon Stevens’ house in Clearwater.

Even when people know that Ole Man River rolls by this lovely village, they probably don’t know the history surrounding the area. Many are surprised that Simon Stevens, one of the founders of Clearwater, was a younger brother to Minneapolis founder Colonel John Harrington Stevens.  Of course, the name John Harrington Stevens isn’t just on the tip of their tongues either.  Both were mover-shakers-promoters in Minnesota, seeing the potential of milling around bodies of water like the Mississippi and Lake Minnetonka. Nothing remains of his house, but history and maps tell us he settled on section 1, somewhere near the Plastic Plant and the Lyons’ Club, off County Road 75. Here is another tidbit:

 

Star Tribune, 7 Jun 1876, Wed, Main Edition

Three unidentified women by Cedar Point

One book buyer, after browsing through my historical Around Clearwater and seeing the picture of three unidentified women  asked, “Where is Cedar Point?”   My answer was a bit ambiguous.  How do you explain what used to be is no longer there?  When I was younger, I might have told him to take Highway 152 north, turn right across the bridge, and drive down the dirt road past Michaels’ house. At the fork, turn right and go just a few hundred feet to see the river and the village island. This was Cedar Point, and little was left of the early settlers’ beloved spot. Now, I had to tell him to head north on County Road 75, turning east once past the dam. Maps on my cell show it is now called Franklin Rd. Go with the curve of the road a half-mile or so and take the road that leads to the right.   Now private property,  the little village park sat where half-million-dollar or more homes now stand.  Beware;  Locals aren’t necessarily invited to have a picnic on the owner’s property.

Clearwater has many historic homes, businesses, and landscapes waiting to be explored. I’m pondering where to go next?

Book clubs and other groups:  I’m waiting for an invitation to come to your group.  Just send me an email.  I love talking about Minnesota Main Street Women.

Cindy

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t express the truth I find in this statement. As a researcher and writer of history, I get lost in the search. Sometimes, friends or relatives say, “GET WRITING!” But I love the sojourn of finding and learning so much the I wallow in its security. Sometimes, like right now, I make promises to return to my desktop “to begin” my new story as soon as I get whatever finished.  As of this minute, I am in the cleaning and re-organizing process of my computer room. The dust is thick, the papers are stacked high, the room with that overpowering blinking blank screen is hard to find. I know and appreciate all those who have helped me on this journey–my sister, my husband, my children, their wives,  the grandchildren, my friends, and followers. Although defeat is a word I don’t mention, except when dieting, I will soon get back on that lonely trail to find my truth again.

I’ll be selling and signing my books at the Perfectly Unique Arts and Crafts Fair this upcoming weekend, Oct. 12. Come out in the mess of rain and SNOW to pick up some early Christmas presents. From 10-3 at the St Cloud River’s Edge Convention Center, downtown St. Cloud, MN, I’ll be sitting at my table waiting for you.

This is a picture of young Lloyd Laughton in front of the Boutwell Hardware Store. Maude Porter is upstairs in her millinery store, creating her hats and wondering how long she can keep watch over the drunks going in and coming out of Quinn’s Saloon across the street. Read all about it in PINS & NEEDLES. My other books, SCRUPLES & DRAMS, and AROUND CLEARWATER, will be there as well.

just for you, Joanne.  I will take down as soon as you look it over.  feel free to give some feedback, but I am going to take it to a tech person to finalize.

 

http://www.cynthiafrankstupnik.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mary5-6.pptx

http://www.cynthiafrankstupnik.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mary5-6.pptx

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to my grandchildren’s open house events at their elementary schools.  The halls were hot with excitement…..seriously, hot!  All those little bodies, hand-in-hand with parents and welcomed by teachers and administration crammed the buildings. Youngsters and parents carried bags full of paper, folders, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, and Kleenex to organize their desks and supplement teacher needs.  Anxiously, my girls met all their teachers and got acquainted with their surroundings. When we left over an hour later to a much cooler outdoors, they retained that excitement; albeit, they felt a bit relieved that the unknown was out of the way now.

When I taught high school so long ago and later post-secondary, I remember those “first days.” New students mostly oozed hope for success, while those veterans of the system made promises for the betterment of everyone’s future. I, too, hoped for a good year, and I remember the heat that penetrated our old building on hot, muggy afternoons.

As I get ready for two upcoming presentations about Reverend Mary MacNicholl, the first woman fully-ordained in the Methodist Church in Minnesota,  I wonder about her excitement, apprehensiveness, and fear as she traveled from New Jersey to teach at the Navajo missions in New Mexico and later in Florida at another mission for Black girls. Up to her employment with the Methodist Missions, she had felt dismayed because she had had no offers for employment from local schools in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.  Money was tight during the Depression, and with WWII on the horizon, she needed to support herself.  I am sure she hoped she would be an effective teacher as well as getting prepared financially to attend Drew Seminary in the future.   Mary MacNicholl taught what she knew, and when she became a minister, she impressed and encouraged others to serve in any capacity they could.  I know of some who became ministers, nurses, social workers, and teachers, as I did, to help those who needed help and to serve in their communities.

If you want me to bring Reverend Mary’s story to your community,  any and all of my novels in the Minnesota Main Street Women series, or Around Clearwater,  contact me at books@cynthiafrankstupnik.

I am off to Buffalo, Minnesota, for its annual Arts & Crafts sale this Saturday 9-3:30 to sell and sign my books.  Last year, I was amazed and wowed with the many people who take on a great day of shopping and fun.  The weather looks great too.  August 2018 was hot–95–and humid.  I heard it will be low 80s and maybe a bit humid but more enjoyable for me sitting there and you walking and browsing.

If I saw you last year, I am in the same location–booth #3o3, to the side of the Sterling Drugs, on 1st Ave South. I will be sharing the booth like last year with another writer, Marlene Chabot, who writes mysteries.  I am nearly out of Postcards from the Old Man.  Yet,  I have Around Clearwater, the history of the people and places of the village and a great guide when reading my historical women’s fiction: Scruples & Drams, and my newly launched Pins & Needles, both part of the Minnesota Main Street Women series. Jennie Phillips, an apprenticing pharmacist and protagonist in Scruples, which is set in Clearwater, Minnesota, in 1895.  Maude Porter is the main character in Pins.  A milliner, leader of suffrage and temperance, and daughter of village founders Thomas and Abigail Porter.  These women are true characters and their stories are based on their personal histories with lots of fiction thrown in to tell their stories.  I have sales going on in all my books, and special deals if you buy two or three of them.

The sign below will be somewhere on my booth.

Hope to see you on Saturday.

Please sign up for my newsletter [wysija_form id=”11″]

 

Cindy