The Intersection of History and Fiction by Susan Van Kirk

My most recent book, A Death at Tippitt Pond, begins a series of mysteries using more history than I added previously in my Endurance mysteries. For several weeks now, I’ve been researching how people lived in small prairie towns in the Midwest during the 1850s. My protagonist, Beth Russell, lives in the present day. She is a historical researcher and genealogist, but because she is now researching her family history in Book #2, I must go back to the past.

My plan for the second book in the series is to investigate the life of her 4^th great-grandfather, William Webster (nickname Webb) Tippitt. He built the Queen Anne Tudor Beth now lives in, and he was the owner/editor of the Sweet Iron Sentinel. What few people knew back then was that he was also building a tunnel to hide runaway slaves during the harrowing period after the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted.

On the wall of Old Main, Knox College

To give you a brief glimpse of the intersection of history and fiction, I’ll explain a couple of ideas I have in mind. They may, or may not, end up in the final book. The Lincoln-Douglas debate occurred in my hometown of Galesburg, Illinois, only twelve miles from where I’m typing. October 9, 1858 is the date, and the site—Old Main at Knox College—is the only building left standing from the group of debates that would decide the senator from Illinois. Lincoln lost, but he gained so much interest that he would run and win the Presidency two years later.

I am considering whether Webb Tippitt will take his teenage daughter, Abigail, to the debate. Since the 1850s plot will concern the conflict among abolitionists, anti-slavery believers, and Southern sympathizers in the small town, it might be a good spot for Webb to explain some of those political leanings to his daughter. Don’t get me wrong: this novel will have a mystery in the 1850s, and it will parallel a mystery in the 21^st century with Beth Russell. However, I will thread history through it as a context for the mystery. I must simply be careful to concentrate on the mysteries and keep the history in the background.

A second thought about my research concerns a character I already have in mind—a Presbyterian minister. Many of the prairie towns in the northern end of Illinois were begun by Northerners from the East Coast who desired to create Christian towns with religious colleges that would educate new ministers. Both Knox College and Monmouth College were established by such people. I was curious about how to create this minister, and what he might think. So, I accidently discovered that Hewes Library, on the Monmouth campus, contains all the minutes from the Presbyterian Church’s Assembly, a meeting once each year of all the synod representatives from the entire country.

I can hear you now. “Seriously, she thinks that sounds exciting?” I simply wanted to check out the minutes from 1860-1865 and see what happened in my character’s church during the pre-war and war years. The divide between North and South is evident since the representatives all debated whether secession was a moral, religious, or political issue in 1860. The Northern synods believed secession to be disloyal to the federal government and against the laws of the Bible, but the Southerners felt it was strictly a political issue. After 1860, the Southern synods were all absent, and this schism ripped the church apart. During the war years while the South was absent, the minutes became more strident with discussions of the immorality of slavery. I plan to have my fictional Presbyterian minister either go to a national assembly or receive information from that meeting.

These are only two issues I’ve been thinking about as I research. This should give you some idea of the multitude of research topics authors go through when they include other periods of time in their books. My present-day plot will involve a mystery as will the plot in the 1850s. Beth will discover a lifetime of information about her fourth great-grandfather. I’m hoping to continue this pattern in the third book as I check out the life of Abigail’s daughter, Emma, in the late 1800s.