Intersection Column | Blessed are Those Who Help the Poor

by Tracie Peterson

Minnesota has always been a fascinating state to me and in particular, the city of Minneapolis has captured my attention. In this new series, A Minnesota Legacy, I was determined to create a generational series set in Minneapolis. Faithful of Heart is the start of that tale.

1870 Minneapolis offers an interesting setting. The town had its start back in the 1850s wilderness, but by 1870 was a bustling city of 13,000 people. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, the town was split into two distinct parts. St. Anthony was on the east side of the river and Minneapolis on the west. Incidentally, Minneapolis comes from the Dakota word mni meaning water, and polis, the Greek word for city.

Along with the interesting setting, Minneapolis was full of people who cared deeply about the state of its citizens. In my research I found a couple of interesting folks who were driven to help and care for the homeless, as well as the widows and orphans.

Reverend David Knickerbacker was an Episcopal priest who had an overwhelming concern for the poor. He was instrumental in founding a charity hospital to care for those who couldn’t afford proper care or had no one at home to help them. Cottage Hospital, the first hospital in Minneapolis, was his dream and was opened in 1871. The name was later changed to St. Barnabas Hospital. Rev. Knickerbacker and his church were instrumental in seeing to community needs.

Another stellar citizen was Charlotte Van Cleve. Mrs. Van Cleve was an absolute dynamo. In 1876, she was the first woman elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education. She opened and ran the first home for unwed mothers in Minneapolis the same year and called it Bethany Home. She was always involved in some project to benefit women and children. Amazingly, this was while she raised twelve of her own children and ten additional children she and her husband adopted. The woman truly was a marvel.

As I researched these people, it was clear that Minneapolis had a heart for the underprivileged, and I wanted to create a series with characters who felt the same way. My heroine in Faithful of Heart is a Civil War widow who gets involved with charity work as a way of healing from her losses. Judith is determined to leave the world a better place than she found it, calling on biblical teachings of lending aid and support where possible. And while women were very limited in this time as to what they could and couldn’t do, managing charities and helping the less fortunate was a perfectly acceptable task for them. From fund raising, to diaper making, to meeting the underprivileged one-on-one, the women of Minneapolis were a force to be reckoned with. I knew it would be amazing to study them in greater depth and tell a bit of their story. I hope my readers enjoy this new saga.

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About the Author

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling author of more than one hundred novels, both historical and contemporary, with more than six million copies sold. She has won the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Her avid research resonates in her many bestselling series. Tracie and her family make their home in Montana. Learn more about her at TraciePeterson.com.

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About the Book

Dedicated philanthropist Judith Stanford receives a summons from her estranged grandfather and returns to Minneapolis where she reunites with Roman Turner, a local physician with a heart for the poor. When Roman meets Judith again, he is shocked to learn the woman he's thought about all these years is related to the one man he can't forgive. As Judith tries to make reparations for her grandfather's tainted legacy, it becomes clear someone else has nefarious intentions for the money.