On this Monday in 1862, the U.S.-Dakota War erupted in southwestern Minnesota. Sarah Wakefield and her two young children were taken captive by Dakota warriors while traveling the government road on the Sioux reservation.…
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A little celebration today: I just completed another major portion of my novel-in-progress about Sarah Wakefield. Onward and upward!As a little marker in this climb, I thought I'd share with you this photograph of Sarah's…
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Sarah Brown WakefieldFor those of you who enjoy photographs and are interested in the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, here's a heads-up! I've just started "Sarah Wakefield Fictional Biography Project," a Pinterest board where I'll…
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This is a fun photo from today's Brookings Register, the newspaper in the town where our family resides. It shows Brookings as it appeared sometime during the 1890s. We were able to locate our house…
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I spent much of my time in Rhode Island researching 19th-century textile mills. Though Sarah Brown Wakefield (the subject of my fictional biography) grew up in a farming family, the North Kingstown area of her…
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A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Rhode Island to do further research into the early life and times of Sarah F. Brown Wakefield, whose fictional biography I'm now writing. Though the evidence is…
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Henry Sibley oversaw the military commission.On this date, November 5, in 1862, a military commission concluded the trials of more than 300 Dakota men and condemned them to death for participating in the US-Dakota War…
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Note: This is a continuation of a post of last week titled, "Introducing Sarah Wakefield, My Friend and Hopefully Yours (Someday)." Sarah Wakefield Early on August 18, 1862, when war broke out in and…
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Finally: I’m ready to cross the line between researching my historical novel and writing it. I’m not completely done with my research, but I know enough now to put pen to paper. Getting to this…
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A couple of weeks ago, I shared some reflections on my recent research swing through Minnesota, a trip in support of a historical novel I'm working on that is related to the U.S.-Dakota War of…
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