The Life of Emma Giesy

My husband’s cousin, Carol, emailed me in response to my blog and so I asked her if I could share her comments with you:

We love to read also. I'm interested in history and especially like Jane Kirkpatrick's historical novels re early settlers in Oregon/Washington as it reminds me of what our own ancestors must have gone through - clearing the land, etc. After reading her series regarding Emma Kiesy I would like to go to the old cemetery and museum in Aurora, OR, but haven't managed to schedule the time. Of course this time of year it isn't much fun to be tourists out in the rain.



Re your blog, glad to share! As I hadn't read the books recently I looked them up so your blog can have more accurate information. Jane Kirkpatrick's "Change and Cherish Series" are the three books regarding the life of Emma Giesy. She and her husband came out from Missouri (don't remember the year) in the scouting party for William Kiel's colony. "A Clearing in the Wild" is about the place they settled in Willapa Bay, Washington State. Their efforts at Willapa Bay were a disappointment to the colony leader Wm. Kiel when he arrived the next spring and decided the site of Aurora, Oregon, was more suitable for the colony and settled his family and others from Willapa Bay there. In time more families from his colony in Missouri came to Aurora - named for Wm. Kiel's daughter. The other two books "A Tendering in the Storm" and "A Mending at the Edge" are the life changes Emma had to make and they were very difficult. The museum in Aurora has articles from the colony and many of the people mentioned in the books are buried in Aurora.

I haven't read all her books as our library didn't have them last time I checked, but they also had the "Tender Ties Series". It is about the life of Marie Dorion, the Iowan Indian woman married to Pierre Dorion, a scout for the Wilson Price Hunt party. They were with the Astor Expedition and came overland in 1810. Many of the stories take place in Oregon - Astoria, Willamette Valley, etc. Wonderful historical novels about real people. I've found many of them on the census records.

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Thank you, Carol for sharing.

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