Reclaimed Love: Banished Saga, Book Two (46 page)

BOOK: Reclaimed Love: Banished Saga, Book Two

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Ronan O’Bara
: Matthew’s friend who works in the mine with Liam

Liam Egan
: Irish miner, married to Amelia

Amelia Egan
: married to Liam, was a schoolteacher

Nicholas Egan
: son to Liam and Amelia

Niall O’Donnell
: works with Gabriel at the Thornton

Larry Ferguson
: works with Gabriel at the Thornton

Morgan O’Malley
: works with Gabriel at the Thornton

Jeffers
: supervisor at the Thornton

Jedediah Maloney:
friendly porter at the train station

Mr. A.J. Pickens:
works at the Book Depository

Mrs. Bouchard:
works on the Library Committee with her sister; considers herself a great arbiter of fashion

Mrs. Vaughan:
works with her sister, Mrs. Bouchard, on the Library Committee

Sebastian Carling
: mill foreman, befriends Gabriel

Historical Notes

Those of you familiar with Butte, Montana will recognize many of the landmarks I cite. Some, such as the saloon in Centerville, I created, envisioning what a saloon in Butte in 1900 was like.

As with all works of fiction, there are areas where I fudged the facts. When I took the “Underground Mine Tour” at the World Museum of Mining in Butte, I learned that a rock falling on one’s head was called a “duggan” after the undertaker. During my research, the Duggan funeral parlor was just opening around 1900. I’m uncertain if that term would already have been in use in 1900-1901, but I felt it added a sense of what made Butte, Butte.

I also know Matthew, a relative greenhorn, would never have been partnered with Liam, a well seasoned miner. However, for the purposes of the story and the friendships formed, I altered Matthew’s traditional trajectory as he began working in the mines. I hope the readers forgive me.

As for historical places in Butte, the hotel where the Hotel Finlen currently stands used to be called the McDermott Hotel in 1900-1901. It was bought by Finlen in 1902 and renamed the Hotel Finlen. During my research I discovered that the Chequamegon Café had two locations. In 1900, it was on Park Street, near the Curtis Music Hall. It later moved up past the M&M on Main Street, the site of the historical commemorative plaque.

In Missoula, Cedar Street is now known as Broadway, the Missoula River is now the Clark Fork River, and we now refer to the Bitter Roots as the Bitterroots.

I refer to the Public Library as the Book Depository in Missoula for a few reasons. One reason is that it was referred to as such in one of my sources during my research. The main reason is that Mr. Pickens is a cantankerous old goat and that’s how he’d refer to it. I mean no offense to anyone involved with the wonderful library in Missoula. For the purposes of my story, I continue to refer to the Library as the Depository until they move into their formal building in 1903.

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Molly Morrison, for your musical genius and encouragement.

Thank you to Dick Gibson for giving me a wonderful walking tour of Butte on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The walking tour, along with his indispensible book,
Lost Butte
, aided me in envisioning Butte as it would have been in 1900.

Thank you, Katie B, for sharing your great fashion knowledge with me.

Thank you to David Emmons for his book,
The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925,
without which I would never have been able to form such a complete picture of Butte society.

As always, thank you to my family and friends for your love and support.

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