How I Got My Book Title, A Woman of Marked Character

Years into writing Sarah's story, I was researching in the Galveston and Texas History Center at the Rosenberg Library when the assistant brought me a stack of files. In one was an article written by Galveston newspaper legend Ben C. Stuart, editor of the Galveston Citizen & Gazette and later the Galveston Daily News for many decades. 

Ben was writing in 1911, as if walking down the avenues and reminiscing of who had lived in which house beginning in the 1830s. He mentioned that Mrs. Sarah Paschal lived in the old "double house" on the east side at of Avenue H at 14th Street, and that he had attended school with Sarah's sons.(He also said that the Frankland family later lived there, and we'll meet them in Book Two.)

That location has a Victorian house on it now and, sadly, with all my research and fun times with my friend Jackie Gantt in Galveston, I never found Sarah's house—where or if it had been moved. I finally received official confirmation from the Galveston Historic Foundation that they have no record of her house surviving. However, had I not read Ben's memoir, I would not have found my book title.

I used his quote for both books' Epitaphs: "She was the daughter of a prominent Cherokee chief and was a woman of marked character."

When I read that, I thought, "Whatever—whoever?—is a woman of marked character?" Oh, my! I immediately thought of the old classic novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. His heroine Hester, in the mid-1600s, was marked with a red letter "A" that she must wear to alert the citizens of her Puritan Massachusetts village that she was an adulteress!

"Marked character" could mean many things! So I searched online until I found that phrase in the obituaries of prominent women in the 1800s. It was a term of praise, of honor!

I phrased this definition gleaned from various obituaries:

A woman of "marked character" as described in the 1800s was a woman of remarkable ability and intellect, strong in her friendships as well as in her intolerances, and a most useful member of society.

That definition validated my research into Sarah's life. And Ben Stuart, who had known her all those years ago as the mother of his friends and a valued member of the Galveston community, agreed.

No, not Sarah!
(Credit: Illustration from Wikipedia)