New book chronicles first-hand account of Pella pioneers
Jun. 19—The story of some of Pella's earliest and most famous settlers is being told from a brand new perspective in "The 1864 Diary of Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau," an in-depth look into life in early America through the eyes of one resilient woman.
Janelle Molony is an award-winning author and freelance journalist with a passion for family history. She's also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Sarah Jane Rousseau, a well-to-do Londoner born in 1815 who emigrated to America with her father in the 1830s.
Throughout the course of her unlikely life, Sarah would make her home first in New York, then Michigan, where she met her husband, Dr. James Rousseau. James and Sarah eventually settled in the Iowa frontier close to Marion County's Lake Red Rock before finally making a legendary wagon train journey to the American west with the "Pella Company."
It was a journey that would bring the Rousseaus into contact with pivotal figures, including early Mormon president Brigham Young, Paiute Chief Kanosh, the John Brown family of Harper's Ferry infamy and Nicholas Earp, father of the well-known lawman Wyatt Earp.
A dedicated diarist who witnessed such pivotal events in history as the American Civil War, Sarah's inner perspective of life in frontier American life captured Molony's attention and inspired her to edit her ancestor's work so that it can be read as a compelling glimpse into the national story.
"To follow a high-class lady who had everything — private tutors, money, clothes, jewelry, all of it — to come to a new land and not end up in New York City, but to end up in, at that point, an unincorporated forest in Iowa ... She's gradually losing her sense of identity," Molony says.
When James and Sarah came to Iowa and made their home in the Pella area, the community was still in its fledgling days. Dominie Hendrik P. Scholte was still in the process of establishing Pella as a Dutch "City on a Hill" when the Rousseaus arrived. Molony says that Sarah's privileged upbringing helped to forge a connection between her and Maria Scholte, Hendrik's wife. The two women connected over their shared ability to speak French, a difficult skill to come by on the American "frontier."
James made his own mark on the community, laying out and founding the town of Rousseau, Iowa in 1850. The town is now underneath Lake Red Rock.
Sarah, a talented pianist in her youth, suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis as she aged and eventually lost the ability to play her instrument.
"She's losing her sense of self, her physical strength, everything she's ever grown up to be, but she's doing it in such a graceful way," Molony says. "Yes, she complains about the aches and pains as she gets older and the threats arise. This is really affecting her. But I think she finds a new value. What are we worth and what is life all about? She discovers a new way of exploring and experiencing life."
Eventually, Sarah's disease became debilitating. The American Civil War was raging across the United States, and Iowa men were being drafted into the Union Army to fight for the cause.
James, searching for a cure for his wife's pain, believed that a "climate cure," or a move westward to a warmer, drier climate, would do the trick. James found common cause with other Pella families who had their own reasons for leaving the state. Nicholas Earp, the father of four boys and a skeptic of full equality for Black people, was eager to move west. Others joined them, and the Pella Company of westward-bound settlers was formed.
Sarah's diary details the group's journey west and is the only complete account of the Pella Company. Molony says the diary presents its readers with the opportunity to take a trip back in time and see America as the beautiful, wild frontier that it once was.
"I think what they will get is truly, they'll get a glimpse of what life used to be," Molony says. "They get a glimpse of before the land was developed. The freedom, the prairie grasses, the big open sky, the rippling creeks — readers can go on an adventure through her eyes. We're preserving natural and trail history as well. I hope that people will actually trace her path one day and follow it, and really, literally take that journey with her."
For Molony, the diary also presents a unique opportunity to form an intimate connection with a family member she has never met.
"This is not my first time going through an ancestor's written record," she says. "When I'm reading through their very personal, private letters and poems and diary entries, I'm listening not just for their voice, I'm really listening for their heart. This is one of the most intimate ways to get to know a family member that I can't personally meet, so I listen for the heartbeat, and it almost feel like to have a conversation with them and see what was it like and where did I come from."
"The 1864 Diary of Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau" is currently available in paperback and Kindle forms on Amazon. Molony is anticipating a worldwide release of the work later this year, and is also working toward the publication of "Emigrant Tales of the Platte River Raids," a work that will focus specifically on the the devastating raids on settlers traveling the Oregon and Overland Trails, including the Pella Company, carried out by the Northern Plains Indians in July of 1864.
For more information, visit Molony's website at janellemolony.com .
Channing Rucks can be reached at crucks@oskyherald.com .
