Sheba Hargreaves jumped onto the Oregon literary scene in the late 1920s. In two years (1928-30), she published three attention-catching historical novels set in Oregon and the American West. These were the only novels she wrote, but they were more than enough for her to acquire and retain a national reputation.

Hargreaves was a lifelong Oregonian. Born Sheba Childs in The Dalles in 1882, she grew up in Eastern and Central Oregon. At age 14, she entered Oregon State Normal School (now Western Oregon University). After graduating, she became an elementary teacher. In 1906, she married Fred Hargreaves. They moved to Portland and became parents of two sons.

Hargreaves began writing in the 1920s. At first, she submitted essays to newspapers and popular magazines. Among her essays were writings on frontier pioneers, parenting, and occultism. Then she turned to fiction.

BOOKS OF THE WEST

Hargreaves’ first novel, The Cabin at the Trail’s End, appeared in 1928. Unlike most fiction about the early Oregon Trail era, the novel dealt with life in Oregon at the end of the trail in late 1843. Focusing on the Bainbridge family, Hargreaves provides a revealing story of a new setting, new challenges, and valuable adjustments. Think of what these newcomers had to face after a few weeks in Oregon, and here they are in this novel, revealingly done.

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Hargreaves fills her pages with enhancing characters. First are the Bainbridges, John and Martha — with extensive sections on Martha — and their four children in the Oregon City area. Next, Martha’s Uncle Adzi, a never-stop pioneer. Other neighbors with varying backgrounds. Then, the Native Americans, conveyed in the positive and negative reactions of white pioneers. Plus, John McLoughlin, the dominating British Hudson’s Bay Company leader to the north in Fort Vancouver. McLoughlin, known then as the White-Headed Eagle, never appears in the novel, but white settlers and Native people never stop feeling his everywhere influences. Finally, William McDermott, the novel’s villain, is a wincing rascal who buys a young Indian woman slave, fathers her “papoose,” then dismisses her. McDermott epitomizes the negative, self-enhancing side of some pioneers.

Most of all, Hargraves’ novel captures readers through its realistic depiction of what pioneer life might have been like as the Oregon Trail buzzed into existence in the early 1840s. It is not an account of the overland challenges, although through retrospective asides we hear about some of those arduous times. Instead, we are introduced to a new pioneer family in a new place, how they build a small cabin, how they begin to feed their family, and how they meet and associate with new neighbors, whites and Indians alike.

Hargreaves’ depictions of Native peoples are particularly revealing — and valuable. The novel provides complex pictures of Indians. Some whites see them as vile, smelly, and dangerous; other pioneers, like Martha Bainbridge, are drawn to the Natives, helping them with health, education, and economic challenges. Even though in the 1920s many novelists and historians still spoke of Indians as uncultured, even barbaric, peoples, Hargreaves presents a much more complex and balanced picture of Natives on the Oregon frontier.

Hargreaves quickly followed her initial novelistic success with two new novels. Ward of the Redskins (1929) tells of a man who sets out from the Oregon Coast for Crater Lake, where he searches for a white girl among sympathetic Native Americans. The trip and its conclusion include numerous appealing depictions of Indian society and culture, flora and fauna, and historical events.

The next year, Hargreaves completed her notable fiction triumvirate with Heroine of the Prairies: A Romance of the Oregon Trail. Here the story focuses on the Barlow Trail and its importance for new immigrants coming to Oregon from the early 1840s on. Salita Prentiss (Sour Girl) is the novel’s heroine around whom the plot is organized.

Hargreaves remained in the writing game, but no new book appeared after 1930. Perhaps the lessened emphases on western fiction during the Depression and World War II were a reason, or perhaps Hargreaves’ diminished interest in fiction writing was the cause. At any rate, she did continue speaking about her writings, working at her favorite hobby of gardening, and participating in women’s groups. She also kept contact with her mother’s family, which included the well-known Oregon political leader and thinker, William S. U’Ren. Hargreaves died in 1960.

Hargreaves deserves continued attention as a skilled historical novelist. Worried about what she considered the lack of authenticity in popular Westerns written by the likes of Owen Wister, Zane Grey, and Frederick Faust (Max Brand), she set out to write novels about the American West that were historically sound. Her books combined solid history with skillfully imagined characters of Oregon and the American West.

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