Bold Spirit - Linda Hunt [0]
BOLD SPIRIT
Linda Lawrence Hunt, a former associate professor of English at Whitworth College, now directs The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship. An engaging speaker and award-winning freelance writer, Hunt traveled across America and to Norway to reconstruct the silenced story of Helga Estby’s epic journey. Bold Spirit won the 2004 Willa Cather Literary Award for nonfiction, the Washington State Book Award, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. She lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband Jim.
www.boldspiritacrossamerica.com
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JANUARY 2005
Copyright © 2003 by Linda Lawrence Hunt
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in paperback in the United States by the University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, in 2003.
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Map Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hunt, Linda, 1940–
Bold spirit : Helga Estby’s forgotten walk across Victorian America / Linda
Lawrence Hunt; foreword by Sue Armitage.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-42506-5
1. United States—Description and travel. 2. United States—Social life and customs—1865–1918. 3. Estby, Helga, b. 1860—Travel—United States. 4. Estby, Clara, b. 1876—Travel—United States. 5. Walking—United States—History—19th century. 6. Norwegian Americans—Biography. 7. Mothers and daughters—United States—Biography.
E168.H94 2005
973.8′7′0922—dc22
[B] 2004057372
Author photograph © Jim Hunt
www.anchorbooks.com
v3.1_r1
TO
THELMA PORTCH
AND
DOROTHY, DARYLL, DARILLYN, AND DOUG BAHR,
WHO BECAME KEEPERS OF THIS FAMILY STORY
AND TO
EVELYN CHRISTENSEN
ANOTHER ORDINARY WOMAN WHO
LIVES AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE
Contents
Cover
About the Author
Map
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword by Sue Armitage
Preface
Introduction
1 On Foot to New York
2 Motherhood on a Minnesota Prairie
3 The Crucible Years
4 Surprises in Spokane Falls
5 Frontier Vices and the Move to Mica Creek
6 Financial Fears and a Family Death
7 The Wager
8 Undaunted by Rain, Sleet, and Snow
9 Hot, Hungry, and Hopeful
10 Night Terrors
11 “New Women’s” Actions and Old Victorian Attitudes
12 An Electrifying Presidential Election
13 Earning Their Own Way
14 A Rush to the Finish
15 The Impossible Happens
16 Heartbreak at the Mica Creek Homestead
17 Homeward Bound
18 Lost and Found
A Reflection on the Silencing of Family Stories
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Foreword
The amazing story of Helga Estby’s walk across America, which you will read in the following pages, was almost lost from history. Even now, after all of Linda Hunt’s diligent research and imaginative retelling, there are aspects of Helga’s story that remain mysterious. Although some readers may be frustrated by these lingering mysteries, I suggest that they give us opportunities to think about what we call “history.” The historical record tells us about how people acted in the past, but it often does not tell us why. It is the job of professional historians to provide plausible reasons for the actions of the past. But the truth is that even the most famous and well-documented historical personages contain pockets of mystery and take actions that we do not fully understand. If this is true for the great and famous, think how much more likely it is to be true for an immigrant woman like Helga Estby. Think also about how many life stories of ordinary people have been lost to history because there are no surviving records. The truly amazing thing about Helga Estby is that she did something extraordinary, and her story still remained unknown—until now. Her erasure should prompt us all to think about how little of the past we really