Our Friends, the Enemy

Five years ago when I was doing research for my historical romantic suspense series, Intrigue under Western Skies, I discovered one of those tidbits I knew had to be used in one of the books. The series is set in Nebraska during the 1880s, so any time I ran across any mention of Nebraska history, I took notice. Little did I suspect that I’d find a connection between my home county in Georgia to the Nebraska prairie. But it wasn’t until I’d published three books, the plot came to me, and gave me a chance to recognize one of the unsung peacemakers of the post Civil War era.

The people for years after the Civil War were just as divided as today. Hatred was just as strong as before the war. Then P. H. Fitzgerald, a former Union soldier and Indiana publisher, had a vision of a town where soldiers of both North and South would settle. The idea was that if they became neighbors, they’d forget their differences. He located a stretch of land straddling Wilcox and Irwin Counties in South Georgia. The land was warm and plush and cheap, dotted with small farms of corn and cotton and peach orchards. This is the Wilcox County courthouse where the trial is set in Book 4, Escaped. 

In the late 1880s, a famine swept parts of Nebraska, and Mr. Fitzgerald had his former Northern ex-union soldiers willing to move South and help settle a new town alongside the locals. He set up a Colony Company and sent out a call for donations, then purchased 40,000 acres between the Ocmulgee River and the community of Swan. Tracts of land were doled out to the settlers, tradesmen and farmers alike.

Oh, and Mr. Fitzgerald offered his sponsors an invitation to come and check out the land for themselves. Enter my hero, Jake, who is sent by his boss to scout out the land for the Nebraska settlers. Juliette, my heroine, lives with her family at the north end of this land, near Oscewichee Springs. This is an old abandoned farmhouse located in the area like Juliette's home. 

During my childhood, my family and friends would go to the springs nearly every weekend for picnics and swimming. There was a big dance hall there in those days. During the 1880s, it was totally wild, of course, but I know the area well enough to describe how it must have been. The springs were ice-cold. In fact, the area, called Forest Glen, was so thick with trees and vegetation, once you turned off onto the dirt road on the way to the springs, the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. The water was crystal clear and bubbled from the springs along a gently flowing stream with shallow wading spots and deep swimming holes, the banks moss covered. It was a delightful place during the hot, muggy summers. Here is the Ocmulgee River located about a mile from my childhood home.

Mr. Fitzgerald’s dream came true, and Fitzgerald, Georgia, was incorporated in 1896. Called the Colony City, it still has the Blue and Gray Museum in operation. The streets are named for both Union and Confederate generals, and Lee and Grant Streets intersect at the main business district. The town's motto is "Our Friends, the Enemy"

How I wish we had peacemakers like Mr. Fitzgerald today, and people of differing political beliefs who could live together and love their neighbors.

Interview with Arthur Wilcox

It’s nice to meet you, Arthur. I enjoyed getting to know you in A Perfect Weakness. You stood out to me for several reasons and I wanted to feature you here on Stitches Thru Time for others to meet.

Thank you, Mrs. Thomas. Happy to help. Needed a bit of a break. Won’t be taking my tea for a while yet.

How long did you work as a groom at Ashford Hall?

About seven years, I reckon. Started as a stable-boy when I was 12. Bit older than most but when my pa died I had to find work. Lord Renshaw, the late baron of Ashford Hall, was kind enough to take me on. Not many big houses take on local help for fear they’ll run off home or spread rumors. But the Hall’s been good to me and my family so there won’t be any of that going on, not by us anyhow. 

What did you think about an American coming to inherit Ashford Hall? And what was your first assessment of Lord Turner when he arrived?

First I thought he wouldn’t come at all him being from America and all. Thought it would be too far and we’d be on our own. But he did come and I thought better of him. I was supposed to be with the coach that went to fetch him from the station when he first arrived, but I was sick that day. Didn’t meet him until later when I went to tend to Fortis for him when he came home from Fairview. And he was good enough to let me see the library. I knew then he’d be a good master, bit unusual but good. And I thought he seemed a bit sad.  

Your goal of becoming a physician is both lofty and—frankly—almost impossible for someone of your station in England at this time. What obstacles did you have to overcome to even get started?

To be honest, I never dreamed I could. As you say, ma’am it’s near impossible for someone like me. I kept it sort of secret for a while, since my mum saw me as head groom at the Hall one day. And I didn’t have any books neither, no way of learning anything. But then Lord Turner stepped in, and I began to see it as real.

You kept a very special secret for Penelope Howard. We won’t disclose it here, but please tell us why you remained faithful to her secret for so long.

And it’s still to be a dead secret, Mrs. Thomas, so I thank you for not mentioning it. Miss Howard is a good woman. She helped us when my pa died, took our situation to Lord Renshaw, and got me and my brother, Joseph, jobs so we wouldn’t starve or get sent to the workhouse. So I’ll go to my grave with her secret. She’s one of the kindest women I know.

While Dr. John Turner will win the girl in the end (it is a romance, after all), in one very significant way you were the hero of the story. You took drastic and decisive action that undoubtedly saved many lives. Where did you find the courage and wisdom to do what you did?

Aw, Mrs. Thomas, you’ll be speaking of the well. I don’t think of myself as being courageous or very wise when it comes to it. It just needed to be done no matter what happened to me. Right then, the village was more important than anything else.

Thank you for spending a few moments with us today. I hope you’ve sparked a bit more interest in A Perfect Weakness among the readers here. It truly is a special story!

  

Jennifer A. Davids is a self-professed book nerd. The shelves of her office are overflowing with books and there are stacks of them by her bedside. When she's not reading, she's dreaming up a new story to tell her readers. She lives in Central Ohio with her husband, two children, and two cats.

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Author Interview with Piper Huguley

I got to know Piper Huguley back in 2012 when we became critique partners, but it wasn’t until the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference last week that I got the pleasure of meeting this outstanding writer in person. Here she is at the M&M book signing.  

 

And here we are.

I invited Piper to visit stitchesthrutime and tell us about her writing journey from concept to best-selling author to signing a three book contract with Samhain Publishing.

 

What inspired you to start writing in the sub-genre of Inspirational African American history?

Well, I’ve been doing market research for most of my adult life, and I could see that these books were missing. I read widely in the inspirational historical markets and always knew that there were other people in other places and times who were Christian, but I never saw their stories for sale. I kept waiting for someone to provide those stories. It didn’t occur to me until a few years ago (duh!) that given my unique background, I might be the one to do it. So I gave it a try!

You have the talent of going into the soul of your characters, making them relatable, likeable, and memorable. How do you create such deep characters?

 

Thank you, Elaine! I like to read a lot about people’s psychology. I think that gives me a jump on things. I like to go back into their personal history and think about their upbringing, siblings, parents, what forces shaped them to be where they are when the story begins. These aspects, the basic Nature vs. Nurture qualities are what can cause them to fall in love or make them feel inhibited about love, if they have come from bad experiences. In a romance, they are looking for that other person to complete what they missed.

You deal with some dark issues in your books, but your writing is sprinkled with humor. How does humor play into your stories?

A prevailing attitude about African American history is that it must have been a downer to have been a Black person. Terrible things happened, but we must remember, African Americans were survivors. And survivors have to be strong and have a well-balanced approach in all things. The balance includes the times when people fell in love, enjoyed one another and laughed with one another. By taking joy in one another, they survived.

 

Besides writing, you’re a college professor at Spelman College. How do you manage two professions and still have time for your family?

 

Part of the day job has been building up my historical knowledge as a backdrop to teach the American Literature of the 19^th and 20^th century. It’s what I do. And when I’m not in the classroom, I can write. Over the years, my writing has been off and on. The most recent off time was while my son was young. I waited until he was nine to get back to the writing I had started when I was pregnant with him. When I came back to my writing, I was a different person and couldn’t write the contemporary stuff I had been working on.

 

Do you have ideas brewing for another series after the "Home to Milford College" and "Migrations of the Heart"?

I do. Several. There are several time periods in African American history where stories have not been told. This is why I am trying so hard to encourage others to join in. There are a lot of stories that need to be told.

What do you want readers to take away from your books?

We are all God’s children and are equally precious in His sight. African Americans lived, loved and survived to form an integral part of the American story and have lessons to teach and stories to tell.

 

Well said, Piper. Here’s the blurb for Piper’s upcoming release, The Mayor's Mission.

 

Milford, GA 1868: Milford College is in trouble.

Mayor Virgil Smithson has been away to the constitutional convention in the newly established state capitol in Atlanta for almost five months. He’s late in getting back home. Worried about her husband, Amanda Smithson manages the crowded and growing school by herself. She’s hired an old school chum from Oberlin to help her teach the older students. However, he’s a tad too affectionate with Amanda for Virgil’s liking.

And more problems: The Milford daughters-in-law arrive in town, determined to wrest what they see as their rightful inheritance from the Smithsons.

Just when it all seems impossible to resolve, the Smithsons must endure another crisis that threatens to tear them—and the dream of their school—apart.

When life becomes difficult, it will take all of God’s love and mercy for the Smithsons to come together and fight. It will be the mission of the major and his wife to do what it takes to nurture the new and coltish educational tradition that they began together. And to keep their love alive.

 

Piper G Huguley is the author of the “Home to Milford College” series which follows the building of a college from its founding in 1866. The Preacher’s Promise is book one in the series. On release, the prequel novella to the “Home to Milford College” series, The Lawyer’s Luck reached #1 on Amazon Bestseller status on the African American Christian Fiction charts. Huguley is also the author of “Migrations of the Heart,” a five-book series of inspirational historical romances set in the early 20^th century featuring African American characters. Book one in the series, A Virtuous Ruby won the Golden Rose contest in Historical Romance in 2013 and was a Golden Heart finalist in 2014. Book four in the series, A Champion’s Heart, was a Golden Heart finalist in 2013. The first three books in the series will be published in 2015 by Samhain Publishing.

She blogs about the history behind her novels at http://piperhuguley.com. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son.

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Milford, Ga. 1866: Amanda Stewart promised her dying father to use her education to uplift their race and teach newly freed slaves. When she arrives in Milford, Georgia, blacksmith and town leader, Virgil Smithson, tells her female teachers aren’t welcome there. But Virgil made his own promise—he told his dying wife that their daughter would learn to read and write. In Amanda, Virgil meets a woman whose will is as strong as the iron he fashions. These combatants must put aside their personal feelings to learn God has His own plan that comes from the promises they made to their loved ones.