Tissie Sutton

Teacher's Write with Michelle Cusolito
http://www.katemessner.com/teachers-write-7-13-18-friday-mini-lesson-with-michelle-cusolito/
Your Assignment: Give this a try today. What topics have you been thinking about? (You have an idea file, right?) Follow my steps to see what you can dig up that has already been published and request the books from your library. Then see where your idea fits with what’s already available. While you’re looking, be alert for ideas that pop into your mind and jot them down. (Note: If you don’t have a list of non-fiction topics and you’d like to build one, check out my Teacher’s Write post from 2016 “Follow Your Curiosity.” In it, I give more background about Flying Deep and offer tips for finding topics) 

I have always been fascinated by my grandmother, my mother's mother. (I'm also fascinated by my father's, but my mother's led a more rebellious side of life). Here is what I know:

Christine Paxton - called Tissie
Born on the Onward Ranch 1895, one of eleven children.
Mother, Agnes, died at age 42.
Raised by the Borlands, went to live there at the age of 3 or 4.
Excellent horsewoman, her horse's name: Morning Plume
Excellent pianist, played for silent movie house and many dances.
Engaged to Nassau, but ran off and married Herbert Spencer (she was pregnant, oops)
Married 1912 at age 17.
Nassau worked at the Borlands, and that is where she met him, as well as Herbert who was a ranch hand.
Contracted tuberculoses and her first born daughter dies from tuberculoses at age 21.
Tissie helped Herbert start the William's Lake Stampede.
She rode her horse in many of the events. She helped make the crown for the Miss William's Lake Stampede Rodeo Queen.
Mom said that when they had to sell the home and the piano, she never got over it.

My thoughts: Only 17 and pregnant. I wonder if her older sisters had any impact on her life? They must have worried about her. Also, what about the Borlands? What did they think?

I have a box full of her letters to my mother after she married and moved to the states. But not much information about her life. I think it would be fun to do more investigation about the Williams Lake area during that time, and also tuberculoses at that time, and the stampede. Fill in the gaps with fiction.