Stories Worth Recording: Martha McKeown and the Documentation of Pacific Northwest Life

Abstract

KATRINE BARBER Stories Worth Recording Martha McKeown and the Documentation ofPacific NorthwestLife "THE TRAIL LED NORTH and toLiterary Fame,"declaredaNovember 1948 Oregonian headline, announcing a book publication by a new Oregon author. Martha Ferguson McKeown's The Trail Led North recounts the trials and triumphs of her uncle Mont (Montillious) Hawthorne as he joined the historic scramble of the Klondike gold rush. Journalist Ellen Mills Ewing promised thatwith the book's publication, "three Oregonians will be rock eted to national literary fame ? author Martha McKeown, her 82-year-old neighbor, uncle, and hero Mont Hawthorne, and Mont's 'sonofagun' dog," Pedro. The newspaper's impressive Sunday magazine spread included well illustrated descriptions ofMcKeown, Hawthorne, and thebook's production. "It's a cinch that thisbook will find a niche on thebookshelves ofOregonians along with the tomes of Oregon's ever-growing army of national-caliber authors," Ewing proclaimed. She was right, at least initially.1 Martha McKeown eventually produced three books based on her uncle's life:The Trail LedNorth (1948), Them Was the Days: AnotherMont Hawthorne Story (1950), and Alaska Silver (1951).The books recount the overland journey of theHawthorne family,Mont Hawthorne's search forwealth and adven ture during theKlondike gold rush, and his efforts in the salmon canning industry inOregon, Washington, and Alaska. Macmillian published all three, withThem Was the Days distributed toBritishaudiencesasTheLongSearch forHome: A True Account of a Pioneer Family inAmerica.2 The University of Nebraska Press reprinted the book several times with an introduction that indicated itwas meant for classroom adoption. The last edition was released in 1974, nearly twenty-five years after its initial publication. While it isunclear how many copies were sold byMacmillian, Them Was theDays sold a respectable 16,000 copies as a university press title.3 Martha McKeown OHQ vol. 110, no. 4 ? 2009 Oregon Historical Society Martha McKeown ispictured inherprofessional capacity.She developed a long careeras an English teacher,spendinga brief period as an administrator at Multnomah College inPortland. Barber, Stories Worth Recording 547 $1 ''~ TWAP?B a : ..'*.' '''IB ^^^^^. m Mont Hawthorne was photographed as a young man in about 1889. He spentseveralyears inan informal apprenticeship inAstoria, Oregon, beforehe hired out tositeand design salmon canneries in Washington and Alaska for various companies.His first tripto Alaska was as a prospector in the Klondike gold rush. would go on towrite an Oregon Trail novel, Mountains Ahead (1961), as well as Linda's Indian Home (1956) and Come to My Salmon Feast (1959), two nonfiction children's books about Indian families at Celilo Village near The Dalles, Oregon. Newspapers and magazines widely and positively reviewed McKeown's books, all of which addressed Ore gon s history, and they sold well. Yet, few Oregonians would recognize the author's name today. Published without footnotes or much explana tion of her research process (which contemporary newspaper articles and her notes suggest was extensive), itcan be difficult to assess the docu mentary value of her nonfiction. It is not unreasonable to ask whether Hawthorne's recollections about Astoria's waterfront, the characters he describes on hisway to theKlond ike gold fields, or his assessment of Alaska's canning industry are reli able. Not quite histories, McKeown's books did not endure as regional literature either. She is not listed among theOregon Cultural Heritage Commission's top one hundred books about Oregon, and none of her writing is included in theOregon State University Press's Oregon Literature Series. I am an oral historian who lives in, studies, and teaches about the Pacific Northwest, and over thepast fewyears,McKeown has wheedled herway onto my bookshelves, and intomy courses and research. Her work sparks fascinat ing,contemporary questions about the intersections ofmemory and history thatmatch her storytelling acumen and her apparent fearlessness about dig ging intoher community's problems. When asked who Iwould nominate fora shortbiography, I jumped at thenotion of bringingMartha McKeown toa new setof readers and regional historians. Oregon's 150thanniversary provides an excuse for the luxuries of reviewing old texts with new eyes and asking about their current relevance. Ihope to return readers to Martha McKeown's books with this essay,which pieces together her professional writing and private OHQ vol. no, no. 4 papers with...