Historical fiction novel retraces perilous journey of pioneer woman 

It took Tom Huggler 20 years to write “The Woman She Left Behind” (Sunacumen Press, $19.99).

This is Huggler’s second fiction novel after authoring 20 nonfiction books. The Sunfield resident, 81, will speak about and sign copies of the book on a tour spanning three cities, including Lansing.

The book occurs during the Civil War, in the spring of 1862. A widowed woman named Rachel Barnum leaves her three children — twin daughters Hester and Helena 10, and a son, Watson, 16 — in Sunfield Township with her farm’s hired hand to embark upon either a fool’s errand or a hero’s journey. She will stop at nothing to find her son Dwight, 18, a Union soldier in the Second Michigan Cavalry who was badly wounded on a Missouri battlefield. However, she fears the chances of finding her eldest and bringing him back alive are dwindling with each passing day. 

Barnum’s great-great-grandson informed Huggler about a journal Barnum’s granddaughter wrote in 1984. The 136 typewritten pages contained the following excerpt: “She and Mr. Barnum had four children. Dwight, born Feb. 16, 1844, a Union soldier in the War of the Rebellion, died while in service April 20, 1862. Grandma Rachel drove an ox team hitched to a buckboard and brought Dwight’s body home to be buried. I believe it was in Tennessee. I’m not sure. Made the trip all by herself.”

“Not only was I consumed with wondering if Rachel actually did this, but also why she did it. It was a man’s world in 1862. She had to travel through a warzone. Alone,” Huggler said. “The physical challenges seemed insurmountable, especially after I researched where Dwight actually was (New Madrid, Missouri). The flooded Mississippi River set a new record that spring, impassable roads, tornadoes and an island fortified with thousands of Rebel soldiers. She had to overcome these obstacles just to get to her son. And then she had to bring him home.”  

In the two decades it took Huggler write the book, he conducted extensive research, gathering information from the aforementioned journal, military records, local library and county courthouse records, and the Michigan History Center in Lansing. He also retraced Barnum’s journey via the same modes of travel she had at her disposal, such as horse and buggy, trains and Mississippi riverboat.  

“I could imagine how difficult the journey was. The experience helped me understand why she went and the challenges she had to overcome,” Huggler said. “Rachel’s courage, determination and resolve came from her Christian faith. Also, she loved talking about pioneering life and coming to the Michigan wilderness but took the story of her journey to find her son and bring him home to her grave. She never talked about it.”

According to Huggler, Barnum was born in New Jersey in 1822. When she was 16, she came to Michigan with her family. She was widowed with four children on the eve of the Civil War. She died in 1918 at age 96. 

“Rachel’s long life was one of repetitive loss and redemption,” Huggler said.  “She outlived a twin sister at the tender age of 4, two husbands and all four of her children from the first marriage. What kept her from giving up?” 

Initially, Huggler planned to write a documentary about Barnum.

“Upon learning I couldn’t connect all the dots, even after years of deep research, I decided to write her story as fiction based upon known facts,” he said. “I had to get Rachel into my head, to think as she may have thought. When Rachel began waking me at night — in the sense that I couldn’t stop thinking about her — the story gelled and began to take on a life of its own.”  

The middle of three sons, Huggler was born in Detroit but grew up in the Flint area. He moved to mid-Michigan in 1989. 

He attributed his love of the great outdoors to his father.

“Our father supplied my brothers and me with a fishing rod, a shotgun and a rifle. He fished and hunted with his sons,” Huggler recalled. 

Huggler has been married to his second wife, Laura, for 37 years. He has two children, two adopted children and one grandson. 

A two-time alumnus of the University of Michigan, he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English language and literature. He also completed 30 postgraduate hours in educational leadership at Eastern Michigan University. Additionally, he has been a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America for 52 years, even serving as president from 1992 to ‘93.

Huggler spent 14 years in public education. He taught English, speech and journalism at his alma mater. He also spent five years in administration as an assistant principal, an athletic director and a community education director. 

“I’ve always enjoyed young people and wanted to make a difference in their lives,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy administrative work, so I returned to the classroom and made up the difference in lost income by freelancing articles to outdoor magazines. I took a year’s leave of absence to write a book and found out I could make a living as a freelance writer. I left the profession in 1982.” 

It was Huggler’s fourth-grade teacher, Sarah Price, who inspired him to become a writer. 

“She encouraged me to rewrite the ending of a book I had read for an oral report to our class. I didn’t like the ending. When I rewrote the ending, she and my classmates liked it better than the original,” he recalled. 

He wrote his first novel, “Westwind Woods,” in 1978 exclusively for an eighth-grade class of reluctant readers. He has published articles in many media outlets, and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies. He’s also written scripts for video productions. 

Currently, he’s working on an anthology of columns and essays with the working title “My Michigan.” He also hopes to write a sequel — possibly a trilogy — to Barnum’s story because “there’s more to tell.”

He’s looking forward to his book tour, which kicks off Thursday.

“It reminds me of my teaching years. I get to share Rachel’s incredible story as well as my own discoveries by following her footsteps,” he said. “She’s buried with her original family only 6 miles or so from where I live. I like taking interested people to the family burial plot. I’ve always been a teacher at heart.”  

Keep up with Huggler at tomhuggler.com.