Creating Fiction from History: 12/7/2022

Since the day the world made her acquaintance, December 19 in the year 1871, "Woozie" had been known for her sweet demeanor.

When Winifred Louisa Johnson first greeted this cold, sometimes cruel, world just before Midwinter's Day in the environs of Waukon, Iowa, the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow. Saying the town had just received a fresh layer of glittering white snow is putting it mildly, however.

Woozie was delivered by her father, Jack, for neither the midwife nor the doctor were able to make it there at all, due to the fact that her mother, Mildred, had...