Janet Fisher - A Place of Her Own: The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin

A P LACE OF H ER O WN

The Legacy of Oregon Pioneer Martha Poindexter Maupin

J ANET F ISHER

Copyright 2014 by Janet Fisher

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

TwoDot is a registered trademark of Morris Book Publishing, LLC.

Note: All photos from authors collection were digitized by Anvil Northwest, a graphic design company in Roseburg, Oregon.

Project Editor: Lauren Brancato

Layout: Melissa Evarts

Map: Melissa Baker Morris Book Publishing, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on file.

eISBN 978-1-4930-1097-4

To my earliest family on Marthas farm,

Martha, Mary, and Cap

To my parents who kept it,

Gene and Marian

To my family who came with me to keep it longer,

Carisa, Robin, Alex, Christiane, and Calliope

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

So many people helped make this book happen, whether helping me dig out information or advising on language or opening the right doors for me. I want each of you to know how much I appreciate everything you did. My newfound cousin Linda Maupin Noel generously shared the fruits of her genealogical searches into the Maupin family, while another newfound cousin Gloria Atwater shared her discoveries on the Poindexter side. These two helped provide a framework for Marthas life story, leading me into shadows of a past I never knew. Thank you so much, both of you.

In my continued search I found helpful people everywhere I went. A special thanks to Jenne Sue Layman, Carol Proffitt, and Lisa Smalley from the Ray County Missouri Historical and Genealogical Society in Richmond, Missouri, for providing material and camaraderie, Jenne even going to the old Maupin place with me. And special thanks to Glen Hill Jr., who provided information about Carroll County, Missouri, and drove me around that county where Martha first lived after trekking to Missouri with a couple of her brothers.

Many thanks to my first readers, who gave their time and talents to help turn a rough draft into a more polished work: Leslie Budewitz from one of my former Montana critique groups; my daughter Carisa Cegavske, who is a reporter for the local Roseburg newspaper, The News-Review; and longtime friend Judy Emmett, whod read for me when I last lived in Douglas County, Oregon.

The right doors began to open after I met New York agent Rita Rosenkranz at the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in Seattle and she agreed to represent me. With keen focus she helped me ready the work (which meant cutting a lot of words) and got the manuscript into the hands of Erin Turner, editor at Globe Pequot Press. Thank you so much, Rita, for making this happen, and thank you, Erin, for your clear editorial direction that made it work.

On the long road to publication I had many other helpers. I must thank members of my writing group from my days in Montana when I really began to hone my writing skills, especially my two critique groups there. Besides Leslie, already mentioned, I want to thank Debbie Burke, Sami Rorvik, Deborah Epperson, and Rena Desmond from one critique group and from the other, Olivia Diamond, Rod Rogers, David Myerowitz, and Todd Cardin. Great writers. Wonderful friends. And they never hesitated to tell me what was wrong with my stuffin a nice way.

Thanks to others who encouraged me along my journey, writers Stephanie Bartlett and Darlene Roth, readers Judy Ammerman and Patricia Kellam.

And Id like to mention another longtime friend and reader who didnt live to see this happen, though she never lost faith, and I wonder if she isnt smiling down on me now, Lorraine Walker. Thank you, Lorraine.

Others who helped specifically with Marthas book include James Phillips, Circuit Court Clerk of Clay County, Kentucky, where Garrett Maupin was born; Charles House from the Clay County Genealogical and Historical Society in Kentucky; Carole Mann, Deputy County Clerk in Greene County, Illinois, Marthas girlhood home; Peggy Camden at Greene County Historical and Genealogical Society in Illinois; Karl Moore at Illinois State Archives; Linda Kmiecik, genealogical researcher in Macoupin County, Illinois, next door to Greene, who helped search for Marthas family there.

Thanks also to Sandi Carter, a distant cousin and Maupin researcher I met online; George Engelmann, professor of geology and biology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha for information on the Platte River basin; historian John Hinz of Waverly, Missouri, for information on Missouri River ferry crossings. I wish I could thank Maupin researcher William Albertson again for the wealth of information he gave me before he died.

I also wish I could thank my late cousin Florence Maupin McNabb, one of Marthas granddaughters, for her research and writing that provided so many colorful details.

Closer to home, my thanks go to Karen Bratton, research librarian at my local Douglas County Museum of History and Natural History; Linda VanOrden at the Oregon Genealogical Society in Eugene; Cheryl Roffe at the Lane County Historical Museum; Kay Livermore from the Douglas County Genealogical Society; Sharon Leighty, program coordinator for the Oregon Century Farm and Ranch program.

These, and many others in courthouses and archive research departments and genealogical and historical societies across the country, all helped pull out hidden threads to create the tapestry representing Marthas life.

I also want to thank everyone at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in Seattle who helped create such a positive environment and all the attendees who encouraged me and helped me improve my pitch so I could better express the excitement I felt about Marthas story.

On the production side, thanks to videographer Geno Edwards at Anvil Northwest for his excellent work digitizing the old photos, especially the challenge of the damaged print of the old house. And thanks to project editor Lauren Brancato for making the birthing of this book such a delightful experience.

Of course thanks to all my immediate family who shared this journey with me. Thanks to my son-in-law Robin Loznak for his amazing photography, to my daughter Christiane for saying, Why dont you write about Martha? Carisa I mentioned before. And thanks to the grandchildren, Alex and Calliope, for their enthusiasm and sometimes advice. Even when Calliope was only five she told me I could not refer to the tree outside my window as the oak because there were two trees bound together. She accepted the double oak, and I revised accordingly.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, all, whether named or not. I do appreciate you very much.