This is a WORK IN PROGRESS
Missouri Daughter will expand on the story of the Hales and Petrees of Andrew County, Missouri, telling the story of Mary Ann “Mollie” Hale Petree and her family as they experience life on their farm near Savannah during the tumultuous Civil War and the nearly three-year absence of her father, who is serving in the Union army. Before his departure, she sews the flag for him that you see here - and he carries it with him throughout the war.
After father James Calaway Hale departs, Mollie’s husband Bailis, at a mere twenty-three years of age, must take on the work of supporting and protecting not only his new wife and expected child, but also his mother-in-law and her three children - ages 14, 12, and 6. Later, after his brother Benjamin is drafted, he also has to watch out for Benjamin’s wife, Lucy, and their three children - ages 3, 2, and 7 months. He had already served his required six months in the militia, but he worries about what might happen to those he cares about if he, too, is drafted.
Together, Bailis and Mary Ann watch as their families, church, county, and country are torn apart by political divisions and disagreements. They face guerrilla threats, fighting in the nearby town, extra labor on the farm, illness and injuries, a shortage of supplies, a variety of disappointments, and family tensions, but through it all, their love endures - and they help their extended family persevere the trials and tribulations they face.
Missouri Daughter will include some of the letters written by James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree, but the historical fiction novel will also add a lot of “imagined” scenes and conversations, based the author’s historical research on the place and time period in which they lived.
See below for some “previews'“ of what I’ve written so far …
Opening Paragraphs of Chapter 1 – Mollie (Mary Ann Hale Petree) Nodaway Township, Andrew County, Missouri - September 1862 Mollie carefully sewed on the final star, wanting to be sure her tiny stitching on the flag would hold up under strain. Her father would be leaving tomorrow morning to join the Regiment in St. Louis, and she wanted to surprise him with this gift before he departed. She could only imagine where this little flag might go as he marched with the troops into battle, and she hoped both her flag and her dear, precious father would return home safe and sound. This past year had been a hard one for her family and for everyone she knew. There had been numerous attacks along the Kansas-Missouri border, with fighting between the anti-slavery Jayhawkers and the pro-slavery Bushwhackers growing in intensity, and now border ruffians were roaming the countryside, leaving everyone feeling on edge. It was even more difficult knowing that many of her relatives back in Tennessee – her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins she’d grown up with before moving here to Andrew County – were supporting the Rebellion. Recently, it seemed, each piece of news brought the war closer to home, and her peaceful, simple life on the farm was drifting further and further away. When the first news of shots fired at Fort Sumter had reached them, the fighting seemed like something happening in a distant land – something that could never touch her. So had those battles at places she’d never heard of – Philippi, Bull Run, Manassas. Grandma Brown back in Tennessee had written to them last year saying she felt confident, based on the talk she’d been hearing, that a compromise would be effected, and Mollie had believed her. It sure didn’t look that way now. Papa and Bailis had already served four months in the state militia – joining up with Kimball’s Regiment last October to help patrol Northwest Missouri and protect the area around St. Joseph. Now Papa was leaving again, and she wondered how they were going to get by without him. At least Bailis didn’t have to go with him this time – not for now, anyway. Ah, sweet Bailis! She hoped and prayed he would not have to go off to fight in this war – that he would somehow avoid being drafted. They had only been married since March, and now they had a baby on the way. She wanted him to be here with her to welcome their first child – and she wanted him there beside her to comfort her, protect her, and love her. She still remembered the Valentine poem he wrote her last February, and she recalled his treasured words.... A month later they had been married – the happiest day of her life. All their nearby friends and relations had gathered to celebrate, and Bailis’s sister Mary – Mollie’s best friend – had caught the bouquet. Mary had so many sweethearts, Mollie wondered how she would ever settle on just one. Most recently, their handsome neighbor Weeden seemed to be the apple of her eye. With the war exploding, though, a lot of those young men might soon be torn away – and some might never return. The thought brought tears once more to Mollie’s eyes and a sense of heaviness to her heart.
Excerpt from Chapter 3 – Bailis Petree Nodaway Township, Andrew County, Missouri - December 1862 As Bailis walked outside to get some more firewood, he looked out at the farm and breathed a deep, grateful sigh of relief. With Mc’s help, he had managed to finish harvesting the corn, soybeans, and sugar cane before the snow set in. They’d had a good crop of fruit this year and were able to get a good price on both their peaches and apples, they’d had enough sugar cane for Mollie and Elizabeth to make 20 gallons of molasses, and they had plenty of onions and potatoes stored up for the winter. The hogs were looking fat and healthy, the chickens were giving them plenty of eggs, and the cattle were producing milk that they could drink and churn into butter. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to hold all of this together until James returned. That is, if he didn’t get drafted. Please God, he prayed, let me stay here to take care of the family. He had already served four months in the state militia – Kimball’s Regiment, Company C – under Captain William Hobson. He and his brother Benjamin had enlisted together, along with lots of other men they knew from Andrew County. His company had spent most of its time helping to patrol in and around St. Joseph, Missouri, where there had been many clashes in town between Union supporters and secessionists during the early months of the war. Businesses had been looted and destroyed, schools shut down, and church congregations divided. An American flag that hung above the post office had been pulled down and destroyed by a secessionist mob led by St. Joseph’s former mayor, who was now serving as a Confederate Brigadier General. Neighbors had turned against neighbors, slaves were informing on masters, and passes were now being required to leave and enter the city. Bailis recalled how saddened he had been by St. Joseph’s transformation when he arrived and saw the city’s devastated landscape. St. Joseph had always seemed so grand to him, so impressive, with its luxurious, four-story brick Patee House Hotel; its fashionable clubhouse with frescoed ceilings, beautifully carved counters, and marble-top tables; and its large and imposing Odd Fellows’ Hall. That beautiful hotel was now occupied by the Union army, the clubhouse was serving as a horse stable, and the Odd Fellows’ Hall – like so many of the businesses in town – bore broken windows, battered doors, and defaced walls from the fighting that had occurred between Union and Rebel supporters. His arrival with the militia was so different from the last time he had visited St. Joseph back in April of 1860. Then, he and brother Benjamin had made a special trip to watch the first rider, young Johnny Fry, set off on the newly-opened Pony Express route to deliver mail all the way to California in just ten days. Bailis smiled, remembering how excited he and Benjamin had been when the cannon had fired, alerting the eager crowds that Fry had set off. Crowds lined the street, cheering as he rode by, then watched as Fry boarded a ferry with his horse to cross the Missouri River into Kansas, where was expected to ride at breakneck speeds for ninety miles, all the way to Seneca, Kansas, before another rider took over. While standing at the river, he and Benjamin had perused the long line of wagons waiting to be ferried across to the Kansas side, from there to begin their long journey along the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Coast. Benjamin had made that journey with their father and older brother John back in 1849, and Bailis loved to hear the stories they told of their adventures. He had wondered, as he looked out at the wagon train, whether he would ever make such a journey – and whether, if he did, he would travel by wagon or whether there might eventually be a train he could take all the way to California.