INTRODUCTION
1. Thelma Portch, first interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1984.
2. Ibid.
3. M. Cummings, The Lamplighter (1854; reprint, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988), 6:104.
4. Thelma Portch, second interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1986.
5. Darillyn Bahr, “Coast to Coast,” School Research Report, Wilbur, Wash., 1977.
6. T. Portch, second interview.
7. T. Portch, first interview.
8. Ibid.
1 | ON FOOT TO NEW YORK
1. “Tramp to New York,” Spokane (Wash.) Daily Chronicle, May 4, 1896, p. 2.
2. Ibid.
3. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.
4. “On a Long Walk,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 5, 1896, p. 3.
5. Ibid.
6. Letters from the Thelma Portch Collection. These include 1893 letters to Helga from her children, some undated letters and notes, and notes from Helga giving the date of Henry’s death.
7. “Are Walking for Wages,” Walla Walla Union, May 17, 1896, p. 4.
8. Nels Siverson, neighbor of the Estbys at Mica Creek, oral interviews, 1986, 1993. Nels’ father, Martin Siverson, was Ole’s best friend. Nels had been told the story by his father who had watched them start their walk from Mica Creek.
9. “Are Walking for Wages,” Walla Walla Union, p. 4; “Two Women’s Long Tramp,” New York Herald, December 23, 1896, p.10; “From Spokane to New York: Two Women Tramps,” Lebanon Daily News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
10. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
11. “The Story They Told,” San Francisco Examiner, December 23, 1896, p. 4; “A Long Journey,” Fort Wayne Gazette, November 19, 1896, p. 1; “Women Walkers Reach Plymouth,” Plymouth Republic, November 19, 1896, p. 6.
12. “Women Pedestrians,” Daily Sun Leader, August 27, 1896, p. 4.
13. “The Estbys Reach New York,” Spokesman-Review, December 24, 1896, p. 2.
2 | MOTHERHOOD ON A MINNESOTA PRAIRIE
1. Ida Estby, daughter of Helga and Ole, Oral History at Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Wash., 1973. Ida was a young girl when she watched the great Spokane fire destroy the heart of the business district in 1889. Because of this, she was included in a collection of transcribed oral interviews. The material provided valuable information on the Estby family far beyond her observation of the fire.
2. “History of Manistee County,” (Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society files, 1996), 8.
3. Ida Estby, oral history interview.
4. Doug Bahr, “Grandma Walks from Coast to Coast,” Eighth grade Essay, Almira, Wash., 1984. Not until after the walk across America, did the fact that Ole was not Clara’s father become well known throughout the family. In her twenties, Clara formally changed her last name from Estby to Doré, which led to speculation from family members that this might be the name of her biological father. Her stated reason for the change was for “business purposes.”
5. Census Records, Minnesota, 1880; Doug Bahr, “Grandma Walks”; T. Portch, interviews. During Clara’s childhood, Helga listed her birth as November 26, 1877, in census and family records, making her look like a legitimate child of her marriage with Ole.
6. J.D. Holmquist, ed., They Chose Minnesota: A Survey of the State’s Ethnic Groups (St. Paul, Minn., 1981), 221. In July of 1877, the government granted land patents to Ole and sixty-four mostly Scandinavian settlers, including two women, on fertile lands near the tributaries of the Lac qui Parle River in western Minnesota.
7. Thelma Portch, first interview by author Almira, Wash., 1984.
8. Thelma Portch, second interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1986.
9. D. Bahr, “Grandma Walks.”
10. Thelma Portch, family artifacts, Helga Estby notebook.
11. Ida Estby, oral interview.
12. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1918), 342.
13. M.S. Brinkman and W.T. Morgan, Light from the Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture (St. Cloud, Minn.: North Star Press, 1982), 14.
14. C.D. Ruud, “Beret and the Prairie in Giants of the Earth,” Norwegian American Studies 28 (1975), 217–245.
3 | THE CRUCIBLE YEARS
1. J. Narvestad, The History of Yellow Medicine County (Granite Falls, Minn.: Yellow Medicine County Historical Society, 1972).
2. A. P. Rose, An Illustrated History of Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota (Marshall, Minn.: Northern History Publishing Company, 1914), 123.
3. G.O. Sandro, The Immigrant Trek (Minn.: Self-Published, 1929), 44.
4. J. Narvestad, The History of Yellow Medicine County.
5. M.S. Brinkman and A.W. Morgan, Light from the Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture (St. Cloud, Minn.: North Star Press, 1982), 18.
6. L.G. Davis, A Diphtheria Epidemic in the Early Eighties (Sleepy Eye, Minn.: Minnesota Medical Report, 1934), 435.
7. Circular No. 1, Minnesota State Board of Health, 1880.
8. Ibid., 5.
9. Ibid., 7.
10. Yellow Medicine County 1887 Court Records, Homestead sales.
11. Thelma Portch, second interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1986.
12. R.P. Herriges, Fire on the Prairie: Memories of Lac Qui Parle (Madison, Minn.: The Heritage Press, 1980), 37.
13. “Black Friday,” Canby News, May 15, 1885, 4.
14. “Minnesota Storm Damage,” Canby News, June 24, 1885, 1.
15. T. Portch, second interview.
16. Settler’s Guide (Spokane Falls, Wash., 1885), 56.
17. Ibid.
18. Thelma Portch, family artifacts. Helga kept both an advertiment for carpenters and an advertisement for “Residence Lots Cheap” from the Spokane Falls Evening Chronicle of September 21, 1886, in a scrapbook of memorabilia.
19. J. Rasmussen, New Land, New Lives: Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest (Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1963), 7.
20. Spokane City Directory, 1888.
4 | SUPRISES IN SPOKANE FALLS
1. Spokane Falls, Washington Territory: The Metropolis of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho 1889 (Spokane, Wash.: Union Pacific Railroad, 1889), 6.
2. “Spokane Tribe History,” http://www.wellpinit.wednet.edu/spokan/history/timeline.php [November 3, 2001].
3. Ida Estby, daughter of Helga and Ole, Oral History at Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Wash., 1973.
4. Darillyn Bahr, “Coast to Coast,” School Research Report, Wilbur, Wash., 1977.
5. J. Fahey, The Inland Empire: Unfolding years, 1879–1929 (University of Washington Press, 1986).
6. J. Rettman, “Prostitution in Spokane, WA: 1889–1908,” (master’s thesis, Eastern Washington University, 1994).
7. Spokane County Court Records, Lawsuits: 1890–1920.
8. “Lawsuit announcement,” Spokesman-Review, September 23, 1888.
9. A. Trodd, Domestic Crime in the Victorian Novel (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989).
10. Spokane County Court Records, Lawsuits, 1916. Helga was involved in a second lawsuit in 1916 that required her to elaborate on her first lawsuit against the city after a taxicab accident left her with permanent injuries. This provides rich information on the accident on Riverside Avenue during 1888.
11. Ibid.
12. Spokane County Court Records, 1889; Arlene Coulson “Research notes on Helga Estby’s Family,” Whitworth College History Project, 1986.
13. “The Jury in the Estley [sic] Suit,” Spokane Falls Review, February 21, 1889, p. 4.
14. Spokane County Court Records, Mortgage Book, 1889.
15. Spokane County Court Records, Lawsuits, 1890.
16. Ida Estby, oral history interview, 1973.
17. Ibid.
18. Spokane County Court Records, Lawsuits, 1916.
5 | FRONTIER VICES AND THE MOVE TO MICA CREEK
1. C. Schwantes, “Spokane and the Wageworkers’ Frontier: A Labor History to World War i,” in Spokane and the Inland Empire: An Interior Pacific Northwest Anthology, ed. D. Stratton (Pullman, Wash.: Washington State University Press, 1991), 125.
2. E.T. Becher, Spokane Corona: Eras and Empires (Spokane, Wash.: Self-Published, 1974).
3. J. Rettman, “Prostitution in Spokane, Washington: 1889–1908” (master’s thesis, Eastern Washington University, 1994).
4. Ibid.
5. “Call Grand Jury,” Spokesman-Review, December 11, 1903, p. 1.
6. Ida Estby, daughter of Helga and Ole, Oral History at Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Wash., 1973.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Spokane County Court Records, Mortgage Book, 1892.
10. Donna Miscovitch, notes from an interview with ninety-six year-old Amy Fundin who grew up on the Estby land after they lost the farm. Atwater, Calif., 1995.
11. Ida Estby, oral history interview.
12. Women’s Club Authors, Down Memory Lane (Mica Community Publication, 1979).
13. “Walked Here from Spokane,” Sun, May 2, 1897, p. 1.
14. Ida Estby, oral history interview.
6 | FINANCIAL FEARS AND A FAMILY DEATH
1. Letters from the Thelma Portch Collection. The letters from her children, some dated in 1893 and sent to Wisconsin, were treasured by Helga all of her life. Some are undated and without a postal address and could have been sent during the time when she walked for four hundred miles prior to 1896. No records in Wisconsin and Michigan have been found confirming her parent’s residence or death during these dates. Helga may have been visiting her family or a previous friend from Minnesota.
2. D. Stratton, ed., Spokane and the Inland Empire (Pullman, Wash.: Washington State University Press, 1991), 131.
3. Ibid.
4. Arlene Coulson, “Research notes on Helga Estby’s family,” Whitworth College History Project, 1986. The Spokane County Land Department records of mortgages and deeds include a series of Deeds and Loans that reflect this cycle of using loans to repay old debts; these are all included in “Mortgage Records,” a series of books. On January 29, 1889, the Estbys borrowed $60 from H.L. Richardson on their Spokane Falls Saunders Addition 21, 22, 23 (Book T, p. 270) that was satisfied on October 28, 1889 (Book W, p. 467). On the day this was satisfied, Ole borrowed $250 from Adolph Munter against the same property; this was satisfied on June 14, 1890 (Book 13, p. 302). On the day this was satisfied, he borrowed $600 from H.L. Richardson against the same property; this was satisfied on April 23, 1891 (Book 13, p. 302). Four days later they took out a “Chattel Mortgage” with G.W. Frosh. Records only say “loan satisfied” (Book S, p. 129). On March 14, 1892, another “Chattel Mortgage” with J.E. Foster shows no record of this loan being satisfied (Book N, p. 524). However, on this same day, mortgage records show that they borrowed $700 from R. Livingstone, Trustee, Oregon Mortgage Company on the Lockwood (Mica) homestead, 160 acres (Book 41, p. 157); records only say “loan satisfied.” Ten days later, on March 24, 1892, they borrowed another $235 from J.E. Foster on the Lockwood homestead (Book 33, p. 412); this loan was satisfied on July 2, 1894 (Book 33, p. 412). In the margin of this loan record is a note indicating Helga Estby was given power of attorney from Ole to sign. This may have been during the time he was injured and incapable of coming into the Spokane County Courthouse. Four days later, on July 6, they borrowed $1000 on their Lockwood homestead. This loan was never satisfied and was the source of their fear of losing their home and farm.
5. “Walked Here from Spokane,” Sun, May 2, 1897, p. 1.
6. Letters from the Thelma Portch Collection.
7. Arlene Coulson, “Research Notes”; Doug Bahr, “Grandma Walks from Coast to Coast,” Eighth-grade Essay, Wilbur, Wash., 1984. Family oral history includes mention of the death of the Estby’s first son believed to be born in Minnesota and named Ole after his father.
8. A. Raaen, Grass of the Earth: The Story of a Norwegian Immigrant Family in Dakota (St. Paul Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1950), 80.
9. Thelma Portch, second interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1986.
7 | THE WAGER
1. “Women Globe Trotters,” Weekly Bedrock Democrat, May 25, 1896, p. 1; “Walking for Pay,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, November 18, 1896, p. 1.
2. “From Spokane to New York,” Deseret Evening News, July 11, 1896, p. 5.
3. “Are Walking for Wages,” Walla Walla Union, May 17, 1896, p. 4.
4. “Lives Wrecked by Wheeling,” Examiner, July 1, 1896, p. 1.
5. Montgomery Ward & Co., Catalogue No. 57, Spring and Summer 1895, Unabridged Facsimile (New York: Dover Publications Co.).
6. “Women Globe Trotters,” p. 1.
7. Ibid., p. 1.
8. See Patrick Geddes, a Scottish biologist, who wrote The Evolution of Sex in 1889 and argues for a typology of biologically determined sexual temperaments as a function of natural law.
9. Harvey Green, The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America (Pantheon Books, 1983), 114.
10. Sheila M. Rothman, Women’s Proper Place (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1980), 24.
11. Ibid., 24.
12. Ibid., 34.
13. “From Spokane to New York: Two Women Tramps,” Lebanon Daily News, December 19, 1896, p. 1; “Women Walkers Arrive,” New York Herald, December 24, 1896, p. 7.
14. “Women of the Week,” World, April 26, 1896, p. 24.
15. “Tramp to New York,” Daily Chronicle, May 4, 1896, p. 2.
16. The 1896 Spokane City Directory lists Bertha as a domestic and Olaf as a gardener at the home of Isabel and Lewis Rutter, a prominent banker in town. It was common in Spokane for wealthy families to hire Scandinavian young people to work part-time in their homes. Clara may have also worked there to complete high school in the city. Both Bertha and Olaf returned to the homestead while Helga and Clara were still in New York in 1897.
17. “Tramp to New York,” p. 2.
18. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.
19. “Walk to New York,” Spokesman-Review, May 5, 1896, p. 5.
20. “The Jury in the Estley [sic] Suit,” Spokane Falls Review, February 21, 1889, p. 4.
21. “From Spokane to New York,” p. 5.
22. H. Green, The Light of the Home (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), 29.
23. Ibid., 57.
24. Nels Siverson, neighbor of the Estbys, interview, 1986.
25. Spokane City Directory, 1895.
26. “Are Walking for Wages,” p. 4.
27. Thelma Portch, first interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1984.
8 | UNDAUNTED BY RAIN, SLEET, AND SNOW
1. Nels Siverson, neighbor of the Estbys at Mica Creek, oral interviews, 1986, 1993. Dr. L. Hustved, Secretary of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, St. Olaf College, Minnesota, interview, 1996. Dr. Hustvedt stated unequivocally that Helga’s choice to leave home would ignite strong disapproval among their Norwegian neighbors. The belief that women belonged in the home was paramount in the 1890s among Norwegian families, nor should one “draw attention” to oneself as Helga needed to do to raise money along the route. Her actions would be considered “outrageous.”
2. “Are Walking for Wages,” Walla Walla Union, May 17, 1896, p. 4.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Women Globe Trotters,” Weekly Bedrock Democrat, May 25, 1896, p. 1.
6. “Umatilla Reservation and Its Inhabitants,” Pendleton Tribune, March 26, 1898, p. 5.
7. C.A. Angelo, Sketches of Travel in Oregon and Idaho (Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1988), 48.
8. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.; “Women Walkers,” Plymouth Republic, November 19, 1896, p. 6.
9. “Women Globe Trotters,” p. 1.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. “It Continues to Rise,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 3, 1896, p. 2.
14. “On a Long Walk,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 5, 1896, p. 3.
15. “For Equal Suffrage,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 6, 1896, p. 3.
16. “On a Long Walk,” p. 3.
9 | HOT, HUNGRY, AND HOPEFUL
1. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.
2. “Women Pedestrians,” Daily Sun Leader, August 27, 1896, p. 4.
3. “From Spokane to New York,” Deseret Evening News, July 11, 1896, p. 5.
4. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
5. T.T. Williams, Refuge (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), p. 70.
6. “From Spokane to New York,” p. 5.
7. Ibid.
8. John S. McCormick, “Temple Square,” Utah History Encyclopedia, http://historytogo.utah.gov/slcl.html [2002].
9. “From Spokane to New York,” p. 5.
10. Ibid.
11. “Women Should Have Leg Freedom,” The Chicago Tribune, November 1, 1896, p. 1.
12. Ibid.
13. M. Knauff, “The Move Towards Rational Dress,” http://www.mpmbooks.com/amelia/rational.htm, [October 17, 2001].
14. “Women and Short Skirts,” Sun, April 30, 1897, p. 3.
15. J.J. Lorence, Enduring Visions Readings (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993), 87.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
10 | NIGHT TERRORS
1. “Fair Tramps from the West,” Lebanon Evening News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
2. Ibid.
3. “Walked from Pacific Coast,” New York Twice-a-Week World, December 24, 1896, p. 6.
4. “Fair Tramps from the West,” p. 1.
5. C. Moulton, Roadside History of Wyoming (Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1995), 277.
6. Ibid., 243.
7. “Women Pedestrians,” Daily Sun Leader, August 27, 1896, p. 4.
8. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
9. “Walked from Pacific Coast,” p. 6.
10. P. Glad, McKinley, Bryan and the People (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964).
11. L. Ashby, William Jennings Bryan: Champion of Democracy (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 57.
12. Ibid., 62.
13. Ibid., 64.
14. Ibid., 61.
15. “Women Walkers,” p. 4.
11 | “NEW WOMEN’S” ACTIONS
AND OLD VICTORIAN ATTITUDES
1. “Untitled,” Greeley Tribune, September 3, 1896, p. 1.
2. Ibid.
3. “Women Walkers Reach Plymouth,” Plymouth Republic, November 19, 1896, p. 6.
4. “Walking to Win,” Des Moines Register, October 17, 1896, p. 2.
5. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.
6. Linda Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier, and Nancy Curtis, Leaning into the Wind (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), 18.
7. “Fair Tramps from the West,” Lebanon Evening News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
8. “Came from Spokane Afoot,” New York Times, December 24, 1896, p. 9.
9. J. Frost et al., “Why Did Colorado Suffragists Succeed in Winning the Right to Vote in 1893 and Not in 1877?” http://womhist.binghamton.edu/colosuff/intro.htm [June 2002].
10. Dictionary of American History, Rev. Ed., s.v. “Cripple Creek Strikes.”
11. “Women Walkers Reach Plymouth,” p. 6.
12. “Walked from Pacific Coast,” New York Twice-a-Week World, December 24, 1896, p. 6.
13. Dahn Shaulis, “Pedestriennes: Newsworthy but Controversial Women in Sporting Entertainment,” Journal of Sport History 26 (1), Spring 1999: 32. See this extensive research on the international phenomenon of nineteenth-century women walkers that demonstrated their strength and endurance through sporting contests and their eventual marginalization after years of competition because Victorian beliefs conflicted with the development of physical culture for women. In Shaulis’s journal article, he references Estby’s walk across America and refers to one other female pedestrian, Spanish immigrant Zoe Gayton, who achieved a transcontinental walk from California to New York accompanied by two men in 1891. For her achievement, she won a $2000 wager (New York Times, March 28, 1891).
14. Women’s Journal, December 30, 1876, p. 421.
15. “Pedestriennes,” 41.
16. Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1879, p. 9.
17. “Pedestriennes,” 43.
18. S. Stage, Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women’s Medicine (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979).
19. H. Green, The Light in the Home (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), 117.
20. P. Vertinksy, “Feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Pursuit of Health and Physical Fitness as a Strategy for Emancipation,” Journal of Sport History 16 (1), 1989: 13. This was also known as the “Age of the Womb” by some doctors who were quite concerned over women’s nervous ailments. As Dr. George Beard wrote in 1879, “It seems almost impossible for any woman to suffer from general neurasthenia without developing sooner or later some trouble of the womb or of the ovary.” When Helga needed to testify of her “problems to the womb” at her trial after the debilitating fall on Riverside Ave., her actions showed that a “semi-invalid” condition held no status for a busy mother. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892 creatively portrays the effects of the medical treatment given to wealthier women who required complete bed rest.
21. From a November 15, 1884, letter from Jane Addams to her stepbrother George, in G. Diliberto, A Useful Woman (New York: Scribner, 1999), 110.
22. J.J. Lorence, Enduring Visions Reading (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993), 85.
23. “Women Walkers Reach Plymouth Saturday Night,” Plymouth Republic, November 19, 1896, p. 6.
24. Ibid.
12 | AN ELECTRIFYING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
1. L. Ashby, William Jennings Bryan: Champion of Democracy (Boston, Mass.: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 62.
2. P. Glad, McKinley, Bryan and the People (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964), 176.
3. L Ashby, William Jennings Bryan, 64.
4. Ibid., 41–71.
5. Ibid., 53.
6. R. Edwards and S. DeFeo, “1896: The Presidential Campaign. Cartoons & Commentary,” http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/1896home.html [June 2002].
7. L. Ashby, William Jennings Bryan, 69.
8. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
9. Ibid.
10. “Mrs. William J. Bryan,” New York Sunday World, August 23, 1896, p. 17.
11. “Women Walkers,” p. 4.
12. “More Pedestrians,” Des Moines Leader, October 15, 1896, p. 5.
13. “Walking to Win $10,000,” Des Moines Register, October 17, 1896, p. 2.
14. Ibid.
15. “They are Here,” Daily Iowa Capital, October 17, 1896, p. 5.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. “Two Women Afoot,” Davenport Democrat, October 24, 1896, p. 1.
13 | EARNING THEIR OWN WAY
1. “Two Women Tramps,” Lebanon Daily News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
2. P. Glad, McKinley, Bryan, and the People: Critical Periods of History (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964).
3. Ibid., 179.
4. Ibid., 170.
5. L. Ashby, William Jennings Bryan: Champion of Democracy (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1987), 67.
6. Ibid., 67.
7. Ibid., 41.
8. “Are Tramping to New York,” Chicago Evening Post, November 7, 1896, p. 1.
9. Ibid.
10. C. Schwantes, Coxey’s Army: An American Odyssey (Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1994), 13.
11. “Diphtheria in Chicago,” New York Twice-a-Week World, November 23, 1896, p. 1.
12. G. Diliberto, A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams (New York: Scribner, 1999), 17. Also, see Ronald White and C. Howard Hopkin’s Social Gospel: Religion and Reform in Changing America (Temple University Press, 1975).
13. “Walk for $10,000,” Chicago Journal, November 7, 1896, p. 1.
14. Ibid.
15. “Women Walkers Reach Plymouth Saturday Night,” Plymouth Republic, November 19, 1896, p. 6.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. “Walking for Pay,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, November 18, 1896, p. 1.
19. Ibid.
20. “On a Long Walk,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 5, 1896, p. 3.
14 | A RUSH TO THE FINISH
1. “Mother and Daughter,” Ohio State Journal, November 24, 1896, p. 3.
2. H.W. Brands, The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 160–176.
3. C. Schwantes, Coxey’s Army: An American Odyssey (Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1994), 45.
4. Ibid., 55.
5. Ibid., 237–38.
6. H.W. Brands, The Reckless Decade, 173.
7. C. Schwantes, Coxey’s Army, 177–185.
8. Ibid., 260.
9. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
10. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 5.
11. “The White House: First Ladies’ Gallery,” http://www.white-house.gov/history/firstladies [2002].
12. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times; Darillyn Bahr, “Coast to Coast,” School Research Report, Wilbur, Wash., 1977.
13. “Spokane Callers at McKinleys,” Spokesman-Review, December 1, 1896.
14. Ibid.
15. “A Long, Long Walk,” Alliance Daily Review, November 30, 1896, p. 4.
16. Ibid.
15 | THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPENS
1. “Walking for $10,000,” Harrisburg Telegraph, December 5, 1896, p. 1.
2. “Fair Tramps from the West,” Lebanon Evening News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
3. “Walked from Pacific Coast,” New York Twice-a-Week World, December 24, 1896, p. 6.
4. Ibid.
5. “Two Women Tramps,” Lebanon Daily News, December 19, 1896, p. 2.
6. “Afoot from Spokane,” Reading Times, December 19, 1896, p. 2.
7. Ibid.
8. “Walked from Pacific Coast,” p. 6.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “Came from Spokane Afoot,” New York Times, December 24, 1896, p. 9.
12. “Two Women’s Long Tramp,” New York Herald, December 23, 1896, p. 10.
13. “The Estby’s Reach New York,” Spokesman-Review, December 24, 1896, p. 2.
14. “Mrs. Estby and Her Daughter Walked Armed from Spokane,” World, December 25, 1896, p. 2.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
16 | HEARTBREAK AT THE
MICA CREEK HOMESTEAD
1. Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 236.
2. Ibid., 234.
3. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
4. Ibid.
5. “Auction,” Standard Union, January 12, 1897, p. 1.
6. “Walked Here from Spokane: Mrs. Estby Tells a Harrowing Tale of Eight Years of Tribulation,” Sun, May 2, 1897, p. 1.
7. Arlene Coulson, “Research Notes on Helga Estby’s Family,” Whitworth College History Project, 1986.
8. “Walked Here from Spokane,” p. 1.
9. Ida Estby, Oral History at Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane, Wash., 1973.
10. “Letters,” Family Artifacts, 1893.
11. R.N. Tooker, The Disease of Children and their Homeopathic Treatment: Textbook for Students, Colleges, and Practitioners, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Gross & Delbridge Company, 1898).
12. Thelma Portch, first interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1983.
13. Ibid.
14. “Women Travelers Ask for Aid,” New York Daily Tribune, May 2, 1897, p. 8.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. “Walked Here from Spokane,” p. 1.
19. T. Portch, first interview.
17 | HOMEWARD BOUND
1. “Coast to Coast,” Minneapolis Times, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
2. Ibid.
3. “Women Walkers,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4.
4. “Coast to Coast,” p. 4.
5. “Women Walkers,” p. 4
6. Ibid.
7. “Women Walkers,” p. 4.
8. “Coast to Coast,” p. 4.
10. Ibid.
11. “Women Walkers,” p. 4.
12. “Coast to Coast,” p. 4.
13. “On a Long Walk,” Idaho Daily Statesman, June 3, 1896, p. 3.
14. R.C. Sahr, Consumer Price Index Conversion Factors: 1800–2012. Political Science Department, Oregon State University, April 2, 2002.
15. “Two Women’s Long Walk,” San Francisco Examiner, May 5, 1896, p. 3.
16. “Are Walking for Wages,” Walla Walla Union, May 17, 1896, p. 4.
17. “Fair Tramps from West,” Lebanon Daily News, December 19, 1896, p. 1.
18. Lyndia Carter, “Ogden Defeats Salt Lake City in a War of the Wheels,” History Blazer, http://historytogo.utah.gov/ogdenwheels.html [December, 1996].
19. The mention of any Spokane connection has been discovered in only two newspapers in Indiana, and only one mentions a “wealthy Spokane suffragette”; all other newspaper accounts refer to a New York or eastern sponsor or “parties.” Women in the Washington Territory received the right to vote in 1883, but lost this when Washington became a state in 1888. Interest in women’s suffrage came in waves after this, with very limited interest before 1898 and a great surge beginning in 1907, which Helga supported. However, prior to 1896, some women committed to the temperance movement also met occasionally on the suffrage issue. One potential contact in Spokane was Dr. Mary Latham who testified in the lawsuit against the city during Helga’s illness. As early as 1890, Dr. Latham wrote a letter to the editor of the Spokesman-Review that referred to a request to promote suffrage in Spokane from a national leader of suffrage, Matilda Joslyn Gage. A prominent physician, married to another physician, she could have qualified as “wealthy” in Helga’s eyes. She had professional contacts in the East and could have connected Helga to the New York sponsor, however, no records indicate she continued as an active suffragette. Often women committed to women’s suffrage before 1898 waged their battles in the fashion of a “Still Hunt,” a private campaign that was not easily visible to outsiders. This tactic, advocated openly by prominent Pacific Northwest suffragist Abigail Scott Duniway, provided a discreet method of promoting women’s rights to the ballot. But it also leads to an incomplete record of local suffragettes. Nancy Engle’s excellent doctoral research on Spokane suffragettes speaks to this issue (“Debating Suffrage? The ‘Still Hunt’ in Spokane, 1898” in an April 27, 2001, paper). The most famous wealthy suffragette from Spokane, May Arkwright Hutton, gained enormous riches from her silver mining claims, but in 1896 she still lived in Wallace, Idaho, and had not yet struck it rich. The reference to Spokane may have been a reporting error, although it is conceivable that a woman in Spokane connected her to an Eastern party.
18 | LOST AND FOUND
1. Arlene Coulson, “Research Notes on Helga Estby’s Family,” Whitworth College History Project, 1986, Death Certificates.
2. Nels Siverson interview, 1986. See also the work of A. Anastasio, “Port Haven: A Changing Northwestern Community,” Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Bulletin 616, Washington State University (1960), 1–44. As late as the 1950s, in research on a Scandinavian community of Poulsbo, Washington, the key importance of family life was cited and there was disapproval of any wife not fulfilling perceived responsibilities. The Norwegian-American literature of the period presented a consistent theme of the patriarchal nature of the husband’s authority in the home (see J.N. Buckely, “Martha Ostenso: A Norwegian-American Immigrant Novelist,” Norwegian-American Studies and Records 28 (1979): 69–81). As one writer noted, “The Scandinavian husband’s authority in both Old- and New-World settings … was dominated by the father, whose authority over both wife and children in the home country was nearly absolute” (79). Ole’s inability to stop his wife’s action could be construed by his neighboring community as “abdicating his headship.”
3. “Walk to New York,” Spokesman-Review, May 5, 1896, p. 5.
4. J.J. Lorence, Enduring Visions Readings (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993), 83.
5. Darillyn Bahr, “Coast to Coast,” School Research Report, Wilbur, Wash., 1977, 14.
6. Thelma Portch, first and second interview by author, Almira, Wash., 1984, 1986.
7. D.C. Jack, Silencing the Self (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991).
8. A. Coulson, “Research Notes,” 1986, Mortgage Book.
9. T. Portch, second interview.
10. D. Bahr, “Coast to Coast,” 16.
11. H. Portch, interview with grandson-in-law by author, Spokane, Wash., 1994.
12. T. Portch, first interview.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Norma Lee, interview with granddaughter by author, Spokane, Wash., 1992.
16. T. Portch, second interview; Wanda Estby Michalek, phone interview with granddaughter-in-law by author, June 25, 1996.
17. D. Bahr, “Coast to Coast.”
18. Doug Bahr, “Grandma Walks from Coast to Coast,” Eighth grade Essay, Wilbur, Wash., 1984.
A REFLECTION ON THE SILENCING OF FAMILY STORIES
1. E. Stone, Black Sheep and Kissing Cousins: How our Family Stories Shape Us (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1988), 8.
2. Electronic-mail message to author from a confidential source reflecting on the impact of the silencing of family stories, Spokane, Wash., November 15, 2000.
3. See the pivotal work of Appleby, Hunt, and Jacob, Telling the Truth About History (New York: Norton, 1994) and E. Foner, ed., The New American History (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990). The Women’s West Conference in 1983 began a new era of historical inquiry and scholarship that led to the publication of Armitage and Jameson’s The Women’s West (University of Oklahoma, 1987) and a flood of research and publication on women’s lives. This emergence of a new western history now includes previously marginalized women from multicultural backgrounds and offers a far richer picture of women in the American West, as exemplified in the research presented at the Women’s Western History Conference in 2000.
4. J. Rosenblatt, “Charred Manuscripts Tell Zora Neale Hurston’s Poignant and Powerful Story,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, B4–5.
5. H.W. Brands, The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), x.
6. Webster’s New World Dictionary, 3rd College ed., s.v. “shame.”
7. L. Seppa-Salisbury, psychologist, interview by author, 1996.
8. D.C. Jack, Silencing the Self: Women and Depression (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), 11.
9. Ibid.
10. M. Houston and C. Kramarae, “Speaking from Silence: Methods of Silencing and of Resistance,” Discourse & Society 214 (1991): 388.
11. L. Rosenfeld, “Self-disclosure Avoidance: Why I Am Afraid to Tell You Who I Am,” Communications Monographs 46 (1) (1979): 63–74.
12. D. Goleman, Vital Lies, Simple Truths (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), 218, 244.
13. J. Bradshaw, Family Secrets (New York: Bantam, 1995).
14. L. S. Smart, “Parental Bereavement in Anglo American History,” Omega 28 (1): 49–61.
15. M. Vicinus, Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973).
16. L.S. Smart, “Parental Bereavement in Anglo American History,” 57.
17. Thelma Portch, first and second interviews by author, 1984, 1986; Wanda Estby Michalek, interview by author, June 25, 1996.
18. M. Vicinus, Suffer and Be Still.
19. Tillie Olsen, Silences (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1965), 35.