Eleanor Phillips Brackbill's Books

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

The story of Harriet Smith Pullen’s early life, from her childhood journeys by covered wagon to her family’s subsistence in sod houses on the Dakota prairie where they survived grasshopper plagues, floods, fires, blizzards, and droughts is a narrative of American migration and adventure that still resonates today. But there is much more to the legendary woman’s life, revealed here for the first time by Eleanor Phillips Brackbill, her great-granddaughter, who has traveled the path of her ancestor, delving into unpublished material, as well as sharing family stories in this American story that will capture the imagination of a new generation. After migrating by emigrant train to Washington Territory, Harriet endured typhoid fever and a shipwreck, then homesteaded among the Quileute people on the coast of Washington, where she married Dan Pullen, with whom she was an equal partner in ranching and managing an Indian fur-trading post before a life-changing series of events caused her to strike out for the north. In 1897, she landed in Skagway, Alaska, broke and alone after leaving her husband and four children in Washington, determined to make a fresh start and to reunite with her sons and daughter. Newly independent and empowered, she became an entrepreneur, single-handedly hauling prospectors’ provisions into the mountains where gold beckoned and then starting the Pullen House, an acclaimed hotel. Later in life, Harriet would entertain her guests with fabulous stories about the gold rush and her renowned collection of Alaskan Native artifacts and gold rush relics. She achieved near-legendary status in Alaska during her lifetime and The Queen of Heartbreak Trail brings to life moments that are well known and moments that have never before been published—her arrest for holding a claim jumper at gunpoint, her grueling courtroom testimony defending herself against the spurious accusations of a malevolent employer, and, how, in her father’s words, she “turned out” her husband of twenty years.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

321

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1493019147

ISBN 13

9781493019144

An Uncommon Cape

Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

An Uncommon Cape

Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

When Eleanor Phillips Brackbill bought her suburban Westchester house in 2000, three mysteries came with it. First, from the former owner, came the information that the 1930s house was "a Sears house or something like that." Thrilled to think it might be a Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail-order house, Brackbill was determined to find evidence to prove it. She found instead a house pedigree of a different sort. Second, and even more provocative, was the discovery of several iron stakes protruding from the property's enormous granite outcropping, bigger in square footage than the house itself. When queried about them, the former owner told her, "Someone a long time ago kept monkeys there, chained to the stakes." Monkeys? Was this some kind of suburban legend? A third mystery came to light at closing, when a building inspector's letter contained a reference to the house having had, at one time, a different address. Why would the house have had another address? Her curiosity aroused, and intent upon finding the facts, Brackbill gradually peeled back layers of history, allowing the house and the land to tell their stories, and uncovering a past inextricably woven into four centuries of American history. At the same time, she found thirty-two owners, across 350 years, who had just one thing in common: ownership of a particular parcel of land. An Uncommon Cape not only tells the story of an eight-year odyssey of fact-finding and speculation but also answers the broader question: "What came before?" and, through material presented in twenty-two sidebars, offers readers insights and guidelines on how to find the stories behind their own homes.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

266

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1438443099

ISBN 13

9781438443096

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Life and Times of Harriet Smith Pullen, Pioneering Woman

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

321

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1493019147

ISBN 13

9781493019144

An Uncommon Cape

Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

An Uncommon Cape

Researching the Histories and Mysteries of a Property

By: Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

266

Publisher

State University of New York Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1438443099

ISBN 13

9781438443096

Book's by Eleanor Phillips Brackbill

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

An Uncommon Cape

An Uncommon Cape

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

The Queen of Heartbreak Trail

An Uncommon Cape

An Uncommon Cape

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email