I really am having so much fun researching these “Saints or Sinners” stories! And, every once in a while, a reader tells me how much they are enjoying them and that makes it even better. And then just today, when I called Pete Heckes with a question about the name of the slough near the Moby Dick — it’s “Paul’s Slough” — he straightened me out on few errors in my story about Peter Jordan — you know, the guy who was so badly hurt when he and a buddy overloaded the cannon they had in Oysterville in the olden days. Blew it to smithereens. And very nearly themselves along with it.
Well, we got to talking, and when all was said and done, I never used the Paul’s Slough information as I intended and I turned in my story without it. Oh well. If I ever find a publisher for these gems, I hope I remember to fine tune a few things!
But finding the details of the stories isn’t the hardest part. It’s finding the illustrations — preferably photographs of the characters I’m writing about. When you get back to stories before 1900, it gets harder. Today, I was looking for a picture of a man who died in 1877. “Fat chance!” thought I! After all, he’d come west in the 1830s and just how many photographers do you think might have been doing studio portraits around here over the next 40 years?
However — wonder of wonders! — I found one! Or at least it purports to be the very man I was looking for — on the Find a Grave site which, besides photographs, contains a storehouse of wonderful information. Is it all true? I think as true as any information that comes to us over the years. The people I’ve met who gather information for Find a Grave seem diligent to a fault.
And while I’m at it, if you are a “Saints or Sinners” reader and have additional information for me, don’t be shy. If I use the information and find that publisher, I promise I’ll give you full credit!