Creating Fiction from History: Josaphyna Dundarsen

In turn of the century New England, short hair on women, even shoulder-length, brought the offending female under more than a bit of suspicion. Josaphyna Dundarsen was such a female! Not only did she wear her hair uncomfortably short, she wore her heart on her sleeve, so to speak, showing off a star-shaped pendant on a choker around her neck. One might say Jo, as she was affectionately known to those few who truly knew and loved her, didn't care what people thought of her. However, coming from the strict, religious background she did, her parents were mortified on an almost daily basis by their daughter's daring, almost trend-setting ways.

Jo's 17th year in the cold, sometimes cruel, world of New England was fast approaching. Things had gotten to the point where her parents realized their daughter was no longer anywhere in the vicinity of their control. For both parents, but especially Mr. Dundarsen, (as Jo's mother was a bit more empathetic to her daughter's plight), many sleepless nights and much heart-wrenching conversation produced the regrettable decision that their Josaphyna must spread her wings and fly away.

The westward expansion of these United States was well under way, so it was on the day previous to her 17th birthday where she found herself ensconced in the finery of one of the Northern Pacific Railway's Pullman cars, headed for Lincoln, Nebraska. Josaphyna, though she found no more acceptance out West, was at least no more a thorn in the side of her parents back in stodgy old New England. She did, however, find more freedom to be herself and it wasn't long before she found her tribe, a circle of friends who would remain unbroken for almost the entire century!