Emily Miree was born at Fort Snelling in 1836. At that time, the fort was part of Michigan Territory. Today it is part of Minnesota. Within a couple of years surrounding her birth, dozens of famous people passed through the fort. Abraham Lincoln was a spy in the Black Hawk war in 1832. Jefferson Davis eloped with Zachary Taylor’s daughter in 1835–both men were also at the fort. Eliza Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, visited her son in 1837. He was a lead miner in nearby Galena, and took her to see the falls of St. Anthony above Fort Snelling. Dred Scott met and married his wife at Fort Snelling during this time. John Jacob Astor owned American Fur Company, which was a huge presence in the area around the fort. William Clark, of Lewis and Clark, was Indian Agent for the territory.
Baby Emily, of course, was unaware of history unfolding around her. Her father, Alexander Miree, was the postmaster at Fort Snelling. Her mother, Samantha (Lockwood) Miree, was the sister of James Henry Lockwood, a prominent leader in the territory. Lockwood owned a store in Prairie du Chien, near Fort Crawford, a few miles down the Mississippi from Fort Snelling. He was a judge, lawyer, merchant, and postmaster in Prairie du Chien. Emily lived with her uncle and his family when she was fifteen while her mother went on a honeymoon trip with her second husband, James Churchman.
Churchman went to Valparaiso, Chile, as an ambassador for President Lincoln, a personal friend. Afterwards, he took his family to California. Samantha and James’s daughter, Nina, was an actress and dancing instructor. She was also one of Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. Emily married Edward Williams and became my great-great grandmother. I am currently researching and outlining my next book about Emily and her family.
For 22 years, November has meant report cards and parent conferences. Since this is my last year of teaching sixth grade, I feel a bit nostalgic and want to offer some observations and advice for parents.
Every culture has superstitious beliefs. As a child, I was encouraged not to step on sidewalk cracks lest I break my mother’s back, to throw spilled salt over my shoulder, and not let black cats cross my path. While researching my book Aloha Spirit, I learned about Hawaiian superstitions because one of my characters is very superstitious. Her precautions against spirits and for luck are a combination of Catholic, Hawaiian, Chinese, and European since that is the culture of Honolulu, where she lives.
Everyone has stories. As I get older, the stories of my youth become more and more interesting to my sons. They can’t imagine a world without electronics, without cell phones, without CD players. To me, it’s daily life. To them, it’s a family story. The challenge for me is to tell them every wonderful (to them) detail while I still can and they are interested.
Fort Snelling is in Minnesota, but I am researching a time when it was part of the Michigan Territory, just after the Black Hawk War ended in 1832. My interest was piqued by an ancestor of mine who was born at the fort in 1836. Her father was the acting sutler at the fort. Her mother, Samantha Lockwood, was the sister of James Henry Lockwood, a prominent citizen in nearby Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. During the middle 1830’s, Zachary Taylor, future president, was a colonel in the regiment at the fort. Jefferson Davis, future Confederate president, served under him. Taylor’s daughter, Sarah, was the maid of honor at Samantha Lockwood’s marriage. Then Sarah fell in love with Jefferson Davis. Her parents disapproved, so they eloped. Sarah died of malaria three months after her marriage. After Samantha’s daughter was born in 1836, her husband disappeared and she married James Churchman, a circuit lawyer who was friends with Abraham Lincoln. Churchman and Lincoln were both on the circuit at this time in this area.
And the winner is…House of Hades by Rick Riordan! Some students voted for it because Hunger Games, its opponent, had won before and they wanted to see a book win for the first time. In order to showcase the diversity of reading interests for my sixth graders over the years, here is the list of winners for every year I’ve held the contest to choose their favorite novel.