Jeff Sauve, editor of the Northfield Historical Society’s first booklet in the Northfield History Series will be signing copies of “Pioneer Women: Voices of Northfield’s Frontier (1856-1876),” in the NHS Gift Shop during Winter Walk, Thursday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 9 p.m.
This booklet offers readers a glimpse of Northfield before and up to the infamous attempted bank raid by the James-Younger Gang in 1876. It also gives voice to four industrious, adventuresome and courageous individuals: Esther Wood, Emily Willey Skinner, Emma North Messer and Fannie Ames Loyhed. Copies of the booklet are for sale in the Gift Shop and online.
Sauve, who serves as associate archivist at St. Olaf College, spent the past 18 months researching and preparing the manuscript. With permission from the Northfield News, three pioneer accounts published from 1915-1935 in the Northfield News and the former
Northfield Independent are reprinted with extensive notes. Additionally Sauve discovered Messer’s previously unknown account published in a defunct San Francisco magazine from the early 1920s.
“Women’s voices have largely been silent in local histories of a century or more ago. Rarely extolled for their own achievements or perseverance, pioneer women are more often identified with the accomplishments of their fathers or husbands. That is the case, too, with the women whose observations are featured here: They were known first and foremost as the wife of a sod-busting farmer (Wood), the wife of a prominent merchant (Skinner), the daughter of the founder of Northfield (Messer), and the daughter of the mill owner (Loyhed),” Sauve explains.
They were much more than that, however—as their firsthand accounts demonstrate. Paying exquisite attention to everyday detail, the stories offer clear and charming perspectives on pioneer life along the Cannon River, such as: Esther Wood recalled arriving in Northfield in 1856: ‘There is no road; do you know where you are going?’ He said, ‘I am following some blazed trees.’ I did not know what that meant, so, as I did not allow my husband to know anything that I did not know, I insisted upon an explanation.’
Understanding Northfield’s past and interpreting its meaning for future generations has been a mission of the NHS since 1975. Recognizing the goals of this publication series, the family of the late Barbara A. Will has bequeathed her memorial funds to assist in publishing this and future booklets in the history series. She and her husband, Robert Will, were both instrumental in NHS’ founding and strongly support NHS’ mission. The advent of the Northfield History Series will provide readers a richer comprehension of
people and events that have shaped our community’s history.
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