Come on it's Lovely Weather for Sleigh Bells and Skating Parties!

Winter sports have been popular in America for hundreds of years. But in the 1800s and early 20th century, winter pastimes not only provided fun and exercise, they also served as much-anticipated and enjoyed social gatherings. One of the most popular pastimes of all was ice-skating, described in an 1886 newspaper as “Our National Winter Exercise.” Frozen ponds and rivers were always busy in the winter, and nighttime skating parties like those described in Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Rose O’ the River were favorite amusements, especially for young people:

“Never had there been . . . such wonderful skating. The river was one gleaming, glittering thoroughfare of ice from Milliken’s Mills to the dam at the Edgewood bridge. At sundown bonfires were built here and there on the mirror-like surface, and all the young people from the neighboring villages gathered on the ice.”

Would You Like Some Milk with That Serial?

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, magazines were a large and thriving industry. But the word “magazine” referred to something quite different than the shiny, advertisement-filled publications found on racks today. Around the turn of the century, popular monthly magazines such as Everybody’s, McClure’s, and Munsey’s ran from around 100 to 150 pages, sometimes including thirty or more stories, articles, and poems, and cost ten or fifteen cents per issue. Though fiction has largely disappeared from today’s magazines, in those days it was a staple—besides publications that combined fiction and nonfiction, there were many all-fiction magazines, some devoted to specific genres—love stories, adventure stories, Westerns, mysteries, and more.

Worth A Thousand Words: Riding the Logs

He knew nothing of "tooling" a four-in-hand through narrow lanes or crowded thoroughfares, nothing of guiding a horse over the hedges and through the pitfalls of a stiff bit of hunting country; his steed was the rearing, plunging, kicking log, and he rode it like a river god.

Rose O' the River, Kate Douglas Wiggin's sweet romance novella, provides a fascinating and exciting glimpse into the life of a log driving village. Logging was a huge industry on the Saco River in Maine in 1905, when Rose O' the River was written, and the men who lived in each village along the river were called upon to do their part to help the massive log floes make their way down the river. Log driving continues to be one of the world's most dangerous occupations, and one can only imagine that it would have been even more dangerous a hundred years ago, before safety regulations and technological advances came along.

Curses! Chief Squandro and the Legend of the Saco River

The river lapped the shores of peaceful meadows; it flowed along banks green with maple, beech, sycamore, and birch; it fell tempestuously over dams and fought its way between rocky cliffs crowned with stately firs. It rolled past forests of pine and hemlock and spruce, now gentle, now terrible; for there is said to be an Indian curse upon the Saco, whereby, with every great sun, the child of a paleface shall be drawn into its cruel depths. Lashed into fury by the stony reefs that impeded its progress, the river looked now sapphire, now gold, now white, now leaden gray; but always it was hurrying, hurrying on its appointed way to the sea.

Indians Fishing ~ Albert Bierstadt

Kate Douglas Wiggin grew up along the shores of the mighty Saco River in Maine, and it is the focal point of her novella, Rose O' the River. The above passage mentions an Indian curse said to have been placed on the river in 1675, and still feared more than two hundred years later at the time of the writing of Rose O' the River in 1905.

History Notes: Turn-of-the-Century Education

Rose O’ The River by Kate Douglas Wiggin was published in 1905. In the novel, the characters Stephen and Rose were fortunate enough to have had the opportunity for higher education, but due to family and financial circumstances, both ended up back home without finishing their studies. This was a common scenario in the early 1900s. With fewer job opportunities in the rural areas of America, such as Maine, many men ended up in laboring for the logging and ship-building industries. Only a few were fortunate enough to attend school, and many who did never got the chance to graduate.

Gorham Normal School, Maine, 1905
(Now the University of Southern Maine)

Dog-Warpin' on the River: A Family Tradition

“The forests of Maine have been a resource since the area first was inhabited by humans – but the uses of the forest have changed and grown – from timber for masts and shipbuilding, to sawn lumber for myriad building projects, to raw material for papermaking, to a recreational resource that boosts the tourism economy.” ~Maine History Online

Rose O’ The River, by Kate Douglas Wiggin, takes place in Maine in the heart of the logging industry in the early 1900s. Although modern technology and enhanced safety regulations have helped in improving the job of a logger, it is still today considered a highly dangerous occupation. Requiring brute strength and incredible bravery, it's not for the faint of heart.

In the early logging days, men lived in camps on location while their families lived at home. Often, the cabins the men lived in were on skids so they could easily be moved from site to site when resources had diminished in the current location. The living conditions were deplorable, camps were often rampant with lice and other diseases, and the men wore the same clothing for months at a time. Later, through the unions, logging camps allowed the men to move their wives and families to these remote locations where small communities, complete with schools, were founded.

Enhanced eBook: Rose O' the River by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Get it today for 99-cents!

From the bestselling author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
comes a story of life and love in a quaint logging village on
the mighty Saco River in Maine.

The residents of Edgewood and Pleasant Valley have always known Rose Wiley and Stephen Waterman were made for each other. Stephen’s considered the catch of the town—strong, handsome, educated, and dependable—and he’s never had eyes for anyone but Rose. But life on a farm in a small village is busy and repetitive, and to Rose, quite monotonous and stifling. She longs for excitement and adventure, and can’t help but feel she’s missing out on a bigger world out there on the other side of the Saco.