One More River to Cross , livre ebook

Cover
Endorsements
“Jane Kirkpatrick has turned a scrap of history into a story of courageous women strong enough to meet the challenges of nature—and of men. Starting with a footnote about a group of pioneers in 1844 caught in snows of the California Sierra, Kirkpatrick weaves a tale of extraordinary women (oh, and a few men too) who fight blizzards and starvation to save those they love.”
Sandra Dallas , New York Times bestselling author
“What an incredible journey this novel is! Without ever trivializing or sentimentalizing the harshness of the circumstances, Kirkpatrick centers her novel on the bonds of community, family, and friendship that sustained these strong, complicated women through a harrowing winter trapped in the Sierra Nevadas. There’s not a false note in this book. It’s moving and beautifully told, and I absolutely loved it.”
Molly Gloss , award-winning author of The Jump-Off Creek and The Hearts of Horses
“I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. Jane gets the facts as right as they can be got out of the stories of the various participants in the experience of the winter of 1844–45 in the Sierra Nevada of California. Anyone can tell you what it was like—dirty and hungry and cold and lonely. Jane puts the heart-pounding, breath-taking, adrenaline-soaked feelings into the thoughts and the mouths of the people who lived the experience as real-time commentary on the events. The thoughts and words may not be exactly what those folks were thinking and feeling, but I believe in my heart they could be.”
Stafford Hazelett , editor of Wagons to the Willamette
“Award-winning western writer Jane Kirkpatrick tells the remarkable story of survival of the Murphy-Stephens-Townsend Overland Party of 1845, the first to bring wagons through the Sierra Nevada into California. Unlike the great loss of life suffered by the tragic Donner Party the following year, all fifty members of the party survived, despite harrowing ordeals in mountain snows, often with nothing to eat but tree bark. As with so many of Jane’s books, she tells the story of the women who are so often ignored in western histories—giving birth along the trail; enduring their own illnesses to comfort near-starving children; taking charge in emergencies, such as helping rescue a drowning man or a stranded horse; and resisting men who try to shout them down when they insist on being heard. And don’t overlook Jane’s acknowledgments at the end where she says she hopes this story ‘might celebrate the honor of self-sacrifice, the wisdom of working together, and the power of persevering through community and faith.’ This wonderful new book accomplishes this, and more.”
R. Gregory Nokes , author and former editor for the Oregonian
Also by Jane Kirkpatrick
Everything She Didn’t Say
All She Left Behind
This Road We Traveled
The Memory Weaver
A Light in the Wilderness
One Glorious Ambition
The Daughter’s Walk
Where Lilacs Still Bloom
A Mending at the Edge
A Tendering in the Storm
A Clearing in the Wild
Barcelona Calling
An Absence So Great
A Flickering Light
A Land of Sheltered Promise
Hold Tight the Thread
Every Fixed Star
A Name of Her Own
What Once We Loved
No Eye Can See
All Together in One Place
Mystic Sweet Communion
A Gathering of Finches
Love to Water My Soul
A Sweetness to the Soul
N OVELLAS
Sincerely Yours
Log Cabin Christmas
American Dream
N ONFICTION
Promises of Hope for Difficult Times
Aurora, An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft
A Simple Gift of Comfort
A Burden Shared
Homestead
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by Jane Kirkpatrick Inc.
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1949-4
ISBN 978-0-8007-3706-1 (casebound)
Scripture used in this book, whether quoted or paraphrased by the characters, is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
This book is a work of historical fiction based closely on real people and events. Details that cannot be historically verified are purely products of the author’s imagination.
Published in association with Joyce Hart of the Hartline Literary Agency, LLC.
Dedication
Dedicated to Jerry
For showing me how to cross rivers
and keep going
Map
Epigraphs
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is that little voice that at the end of the day says “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Mary Anne Radmacher, poet and artist
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
But westward, look, the land is bright!
Arthur Hugh Clough, “Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth”
Contents
Cover
Endorsements
Also by Jane Kirkpatrick
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Route of the Stephens-Murphy-Townsend Party
Epigraphs
The Stephens-Murphy-Townsend Overland Party
Prologue
Part 1
1. Sanctuary
2. Consideration
3. Decision Points
4. Judging
5. Separation
6. Departure
7. The Language of Snow
8. Assessments
9. Protecting Treasures
10. Faith and Forward
11. We Are Here, I Am Here
12. Settling
13. Little Gifts
14. Bonjour and Farewell
15. Yuba
16. Landscape Hurdles
17. Strength of Spirit
18. She Stays at Home
19. To Carry On
Part 2
20. Forward
21. Plans
22. Where the Shoes Take Us
23. Confession
24. A Way Out
25. Filling Up
26. Contemplating Reunions
27. Character
28. Hello and Goodbye
29. Doing What We Can
30. Warmth
31. Now My Friends Are Here to Help
32. Breaking Bread
33. Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Love
34. One More River to Cross
35. Homecoming
Epilogue
Author’s Notes and Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions for Book Groups
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
The Stephens-Murphy-Townsend Overland Party
1844–45
Horseback Group
Ellen Murphy (Townsend)—spirited beauty; daughter of Martin Murphy Sr.
Elizabeth “Beth” Townsend—asthmatic, wife of Dr. John Townsend, Ellen’s sister-in-law
Daniel Murphy—hunter, struggling brother of Ellen
John Murphy—hunter, trained as Irish slinger, brother of Ellen and Daniel
François Deland—chef and French-Canadian servant
Oliver Manet—oxman and French-Canadian servant
Wagon Guards
Moses Schallenberger—hunter, 17 years old, brother of Elizabeth Townsend
Joe Foster—hunter, aid to Captain Stephens
Allen Montgomery—gunsmith, confident husband of Sarah Montgomery
The Wintering Women
Mary Sullivan—wears Aran wool sweaters, rounded braids at her ears, is Irish-Canadian—sister of John Sullivan and two younger brothers Michael and Robert
Maolisa (mail-issa) Bulger Murphy—housekeeper extraordinaire; mother of Elizabeth Yuba, BD, Mimi, and two others; wife of Martin Murphy Jr. (“Junior”)
Ailbe (all-bay) Murphy Miller—wife of James Miller, mother of Ellen Independence and four others, daughter of Martin Sr. Has premonitions.
Sarah Armstrong Montgomery—quilter and knitter, wife of Allen
Isabella Patterson—widow; hoping to transform her life; daughter of Isaac Hitchcock; mother of four, including Lydia
Ann Jane Martin Murphy—“round as a rutabaga,” wife of James Murphy, mother of Kate and Ide (ee-day)
Margaret Murphy—one of the two single Murphy aunts; sister of Johanna, Ellen, and Ailbe Miller and Murphy brothers
Johanna Murphy—the other single Murphy aunt; sister of Margaret, Ellen, and Ailbe Miller and Murphy brothers
Also at the Wintering Cabin
James Miller—hunter; husband of Ailbe; father of William and four others, including Ellen Independence
Patrick Martin Sr. (“Old Man Martin”)—weak left arm; father of Dennis, Patrick Jr., and Ann Jane
Seventeen children total including BD, scampish son of Maolisa Murphy; infants Ellen Independence and Elizabeth Yuba; Lydia Patterson; the Sullivan “little boys”
Cross-Country Men
Captain “Capt” Elisha Stephens—hawkish nose, elected leader of party, blacksmith, trapper
Martin Murphy Sr.—widower, praying leader of party, Irish/Canadian/Missourian
Dr. John Townsend—physician, entrepreneur, husband of Beth
Martin Murphy Jr. (“Junior”)—husband of Maolisa Bulger and father of Elizabeth Yuba
John Sullivan—assumes role of parent, Irish-Canadian, brother of Mary Sullivan
Bernard Murphy—son of Martin Sr.
James Murphy—husband of Ann Jane, father of Ide
Dennis Martin—has a lisp, rescuer, son of Patrick Sr.
Patrick Martin Jr.—son of Patrick Sr.
Old Caleb Greenwood—guide and trapper, pilot for the party
Britain Greenwood—buckskin-clad mixed-blood son of Caleb
John Greenwood—tobacco-chewing mixed-blood son of Caleb
Isaac Hitchcock—father of Isabella Patterson, grandfather and mountain man
Also four ox drivers
Prologue
Mary Sullivan stood outside the circle of men, watched through the triangle of elbows as they nodded and commented about the markings the Paiute drew in the dirt. Dust, the color of ash-laden snow, shrouded their brogans and britches as they stared at the desert lines indicating rivers, mountains, and lakes. Based on the scratching of a stranger, the men would decide their next course.
A dog barked. A child cried and was comforted.
One day, Mary vowed, she’d make her own choices, be clear about what mattered in her life, and hope to have the courage to act on that.
Part 1
1 Sanctuary

October 1844
For a second day, the company that seventeen-year-old Mary Sullivan traveled with found sanctuary beside a river edged with willows and rocks in the shadow of distant mountains. Their green-painted Schuttler wago n had passed through a long desert onto this place