Today, I’m
so pleased to welcome author Velda Brotherton to A Writer’s Life. To welcome
Velda and readers and as a part of the Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop, I’ll be giving
away an e-book of Velda’s latest release, WILDA’S OUTLAW. Talk about a great series, Velda has come up with one that appeals to me. And I suspect the series contains many fairy tales redone with an Old West Victorian flare. Here's Velda to tell us about the background for her first book in the Victorians series, WILDA'S OUTLAW.
By Velda Brotherton
What
Englishman George Grant expected to find in Western Kansas when he arrived in
Hays City in 1872 was health-giving air. That's what he'd been told. Luckily
for the land salesman, it had rained that spring and the endless prairie grasses
were tall and green. What Grant breathed when he stepped from the train he
later described as champagne air, dry, rarified and invigorating. Since I was
raised in Kansas, I'd say he was lucky it wasn't a hot wind swirling dust.
The
atmosphere in Kansas may have been pure, dry and exhilarating, but what Grant
didn't expect was one of the wildest towns in the West. Its lawbreakers had
thoroughly defeated the great Wild Bill Hickok, who as marshal of Hays City had
shot up a bunch of soldiers from the Seventh Cavalry stationed at nearby Fort
Hays. As a result Hickok was run out of town, leaving it pretty much lawless. Street
shootings were a daily event. Calamity Jane was a regular visitor. She could
swear, shoot and hold her liquor with the best of men. She was genial and
immoral and well liked, and never failed to start trouble the minute she showed
up. She enjoyed hurrahing, firing off wild shots and tearing up any saloon
unfortunate enough to catch her attention. The infamous Buffalo Bill Cody
killed buffalo and peddled the meat from door to door.
Into
this atmosphere the ambitious George Grant and his companion and private
secretary, a young man by the name of Mr. Edwards, arrived with high hopes of
building a new town along the Southern Pacific Railroad. And he had something
in mind for making himself a tidy sum of money in the process. The government
had given the railroad 20 miles of land along its right-of-way, and the land
was for sale. In theory the more towns the railroad served, the more money
there was to make.
Grant
immediately saw the potential. Though 50 years of age, he was a dignified and
vigorous man who carried his six-foot frame gracefully. His head of white hair
and full, neatly trimmed beard gave him the appearance of someone of great
importance. It was easy for him to sell anything to anyone.
His
intent? To form a colony of Englishmen for those young men in England who could
not make a living in their own country. Because England was overcrowded with no
land available, young men had little future there. Also there were those second
and third sons of royalty who could not inherit the family fortune because it
all went to the first born son. Their allowances, as we'd call them today, gave
them only enough to exist in England. In America they would be able to buy land
and to live well. Here they became known as remittance men.
Grant
decided to name the colony the Victoria Colony, for the queen. And those who
bought land there would continue to keep their English traditions. There would
be no going West for these young men. In theory, the families would carry their
country to America with them.
The
first emigrants set sail aboard the steamship Alabama on April 1, 1873, from
the harbor at Glasgow. Mr. Grant and his first colony of Scots and English settlers
arrived at Victoria in 1874. In the group were 38 men, women and children and
several head of Black and Red Aberdeen Angus Bulls, some sheep, and all
supplies that would be needed upon their arrival. The Bulls were later placed
on Grant's ranch and used to cross breed the long horn cattle from the area.
Victoria became the birth place of the Aberdeen Breed in America, and Grant was
credited with creating the breed.
Had
the Victorians chosen to homestead, too many rules would apply. Leaving America
and going abroad for long visits wouldn't have been allowed and they would have
been required to become American citizens. And then there was that British
pride. It went against the grain to aggrandize the Yankees. The young men were
encouraged to go out and make money, then return to England to spend it. It was
believed they would all become rich men at the expense of the Americans.
In
this rugged western wilderness, trains ran irregularly and rarely at night for
fear of Indian attack. Beyond Hays City the prairies stretched flat and smooth,
and empty of human habitation, becoming one with the distant blue sky. On the
creek banks, tall crimson grasses waved. Sunflowers grew along the railroad
tracks. Antelope and buffalo grazed on the short green grass. Prairie dog towns
churned up the earth. Only an occasional barely-livable dugout could be found in
a hillside or in the creek banks, rusted stovepipes sticking out of the earth,
the only sign they were there.
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| Lady Godey's Victorian Fashions for 1874 Imagine being kidnapped dressed like this! Put her on a horse? Well, for a while. |
In
the first of the series WILDA’S OUTLAW, The Victorians, Wilda and Rowena Duncan
and their cousin Tyra arrive a year later. Lured to America by Lord Blair
Prescott, who chose Wilda for his bride and promised to care for the other two
girls, all orphans. He promised to build a castle for his bride. After a
year-long trip by ship, boat, stagecoach and train, the young ladies disembark
in Victoria. They are weary, hot and frightened of what might come next, for
their train had been robbed by outlaws only a short time before their arrival. This
is Wilda's first encounter with the handsome, green-eyed outlaw, Calder Raines.
A man she will soon cajole into kidnapping her to save her from the unkind and
embittered Lord Prescott.
About the author
 |
| Velda Brotherton, Author |
Velda
Brotherton writes of romance in the old west with an authenticity that makes her
many historical characters ring true. A knowledge of the rich history of our country
comes through in both her fiction and nonfiction books, as well as in her writing
workshops and speaking engagements. She just as easily steps out of the past
into contemporary settings to create novels about women with the ability to conquer life’s
difficult challenges. Tough heroines, strong and gentle heroes, villains to
die for, all live in the pages of her novels and books.
Thanks
to Velda for sharing her story with us today. I love the idea of a series of books in which the main characters are Victorians from the UK who've come to the Wild West. WILDA'S OUTLAW sounds like a book I
have to read as soon as possible, so I’ll be toddling off to load it onto my
kindle now. I hope you’ll do the same.
Thanks
for stopping by!
7 comments:
What an interesting post. I had no idea that the English tried to establish "English" towns in the Old West. How successful were they in staying "English" and not becoming American?
Velda, thanks for sharing this fascinating story of the Englishmen who wanted a Victorian town in Kansas. I look forward to reading WILDA'S OUTLAW.
Stephanie, I might laughingly tell you to read the book, but I'll reveal that this experiment failed, though many of the English remained in the West as westerners while the rest returned to England. Thanks for dropping by.
I'm pretty sure I had bridesmaids gowns that looked like those, and I would have been happy to have been whisked away by a handsome stranger to get out of wearing the hideous things! Good luck with your book, Velda!
Velda became my hero and one of my favorite authors when I read TRAIL TO FOREVER. Then I met her and became one of her most avid admirers. It's good to see the beat goes on.
My daughter and her family used to live in Victoria, now they're in Hays. We're only 60 miles from Hays. On year at a Rotary conference in Hays, a local historian treated us to the story of the English in Victoria. It was a great program. Good luck with your book, Velda, I'll have to check it out.
Velda, thanks for the information. I knew about the cattle but not about the settlement. People do get some strange notions, don't they? But that just makes for interesting storytelling. :)
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