Bold Spirit

by Linda Lawrence Hunt

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  Acknowledgments

  The challenge of reconstructing the lost story of Helga Estby’s walk across America more than one hundred years ago required investigative help from all who might hold a remnant of her life. As with so many persons considered “ordinary” in earlier American history, little value was placed on saving any of her historical records.

  Thus, I am grateful for each family member, historical society, museum, and community or university library that work diligently as story keepers of ordinary lives. Whenever staff within these regional resources heard of Helga’s remarkable unknown achievement, they brought abundant skills, persistence, and a spirit of service to discover what still lay buried. For years of tenacious sleuthing, I especially thank Whitworth College librarians Nancy Bunker and Gail Fielding. Nancy Compau at the Northwest History Room at the Spokane Public Library, Judy Austin at the Idaho Historical Society, and Laura Arksey, Karen DeSeve, and Rayette Wilder from the Cheney Cowles Museum/Northwest Museum of Art and Culture provided excellent assistance at different stages of this research. Staff within historical societies and public libraries in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York contributed valuable knowledge of their local resources. The extensive collection of microfilm newspapers at the Butler Library at Columbia University and the historic personal memoirs donated to the public library in Canby, Minnesota, offered insightful additions to Helga’s experiences.

  It proved fortuitous that Norwegians place such a high value on careful record keeping and interest in Norwegian-American stories. The staff at the Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway) gave generous help in researching and translating original documents. The Oslo City Records department, Anne Lise Stafne of Oslo’s Aftenposten newspaper, and writer and researcher Torbjorn Greipsland added other vital Norwegian resources. In America, Lloyd Hustvedt and Forrest Brown and the collections at the Norwegian-American Historical Association at St. Olaf College offered significant insights into prevailing Norwegian-American attitudes at the turn of the century. Funding from the Washington Trust Foundation, The Delanty Fund, and a Whitworth College Faculty Research and Development Grant provided essential travel funds for two research trips to New York and Midwest states.

  The surge in United States scholarship on women in the West after the first Women’s West Conference in 1983 provided thought-provoking resources. I am especially indebted to Washington State University historian Susan Armitage for her generous guidance and to Gonzaga University professor Sandra Wilson for her timely comments while I was writing my doctoral dissertation on Helga’s historic walk. Scholars of regional history, particularly in Washington and Minnesota, opened windows to Helga’s world—most notably, Carlos Schwantes’ writings on Coxey’s march and early Spokane labor history, the graduate work of Nancy Engle on the Spokane suffrage movement, and Jeff Rettman on the harsher side of life in early Spokane Falls. Arlene Coulson provided exceptional research assistance gathering legal documents on Helga and Ole’s life during the Spokane years, and Joan Hinkemeyer assisted with valuable resources on Colorado. Tillie Olsen’s book Silences started my initial thinking on the silencing of family stories that surrounded all aspects of Helga’s walk. I am also delighted with the innovative National History Day Association that helps teachers introduce middle-school and high-school students to the thrill of historical research; their sponsorship of the Washington State History Day Contest led to my discovery of Helga’s story.

  Helga’s immediate extended family enthusiastically shared what little information, pictures, memories, and artifacts remain. Granddaughter Thelma Portch kept Helga’s story alive with oral history and gave me the greatest glimpse of her grandmother’s remarkable spirit. Helga’s great-granddaughter and husband, Dorothy and Daryll Bahr, recognized the treasure they held and enriched their children’s awareness of family heritage. I am thankful their son, Doug, wrote such an engaging essay for the Washington State History Day Contest, and for their daughter, Darillyn’s, excellent high-school essay on her great-great-grandmother. Granddaughter Norma Lee shared important artifacts that offered another window into Helga’s life, and Wanda Estby Michalek, a granddaughter-in-law, brought memories surrounding the Mica Creek home. We are all beholden to Margaret Estby, a daughter-in-law, who secretly saved the Minnesota newspaper clippings that captured Helga and Clara’s achievement and that she shared these with Thelma. Without this one act of defiance, Helga’s story would have been lost forever to her extended family. Each family member added an important remnant to this story and brought pleasure to the research with their sustained interest in recovering Helga’s story. They became keepers of the story and want her memory to endure, as they have discovered its power in their own heritage.

  I am fortunate that editor Ivar Nelson, another persevering Scandinavian, brought his own considerable curiosity, astute editorial questions, and thoughtful critique to this manuscript—as well as bringing the skills of the professionals at the University of Idaho Press. I am grateful for the talent, commitment, and creativity of Pat Stien, a professor emeritus in theater from Whitworth College, as we present dramatic reenactments of Helga’s story to histori
cal associations, museums, and women’s groups. Her motto to “trust the story” as we dramatized the historical truth of Helga’s adventure bore witness as we saw the depth of audience response to the many layers of Helga’s life and to the silencing that followed her walk across America. Karlene Arguinchona, Judy Bergen, Jeri Jo Carstairs, Adam Cleaveland, Marianne Frase, Laurie Lamon, Doris Liebert, Zsuzsa Londe, Judy Palpant, Pam Parker, Annie Russell, George Scott, Monika Skerbelis, Dale Soden, and Ronald White, each offered important gifts of encouragement during the writing of this book.

  My husband, Jim, a history professor, understood instinctively why this lost American story deserved to be rediscovered. As I sought to uncover the layers of mystery, he made the necessary travel a joy, read initial drafts, and asked crucial questions. Then, when family challenges caused delays, he continued to give steady and invaluable support. I will be forever thankful.