Applying for the post of teacher in Oklahoma Territory in
1905, Ella McFarland, aged twenty-one, has to promise not
to keep company with men. The post is by no means hers, and
if she doesn't get it she can expect drudgery in the house
and store and the backbreaking work of cotton harvest. THE
CALLING OF ELLA MCFARLAND to teach would be her only way to
gain a better life.
Ella's sister Viola has borne a child while unwed, and for
this failing her whole family suffers as the supposedly
Christian townspeople reject any taint. While she awaits
the response of the school committee Ella decides to apply
some charity herself, and starts to teach a
neglected young girl called Lily Sloat. The transformation
of Lily is remarkable, but Ella's parents start to mutter
that she should look for a husband. This would mean the end
of all her dreams of teaching.
THE CALLING OF ELLA MCFARLAND may sound like a sweet tale,
but in parts it's
actually a challenging read. Life is not easy for women at
this time and some men make it harder. Automobiles and
buggies jostle on the streets, while fieldwork is still
done by hand and women also have to preserve, cook and
launder. Well off ladies may wear a moleskin cape and fur
lined apron for motoring; some of them however are
determined to act for women's suffrage. I am particularly
impressed by a scene in which Ella and the resilient Lily
have to fight off a rabid dog; these girls were no
shrinking violets. There's also more than a little medical
care in the tale.
Ella wryly notes that if someone strays from a path the
fault is theirs, but if someone gains a victory God takes
the townsfolk's praise. Isn't she entitled to protect
herself? I found an interesting reference to a reporter
Elizabeth Jane Cochran who wrote under the byline of Nellie
Bly and revealed the truth about women in asylums as well
as the working conditions of ordinary women. Other issues
touched on include the life and prospects of a man who
loses an arm, and the aforementioned suffrage.
Linda Brooks Davis has packed her fine story THE CALLING OF
ELLA MCFARLAND with interesting details of food, clothes
and setting, as well as romance, and at the end she gives
reverence to the lives of her relatives in Oklahoma at this
period. I learnt a lot.
Ella McFarland’s dream is a teaching position at Worthington School for Girls. But scandal clouds her family name and may limit her to a life of grueling farm labor in the Indian Territory. Her fate lies in the hands of the Worthington board, and there happens to be one strikingly handsome man with a vote. Will they overlook the illegitimate son recently borne by her sister, Viola? 1905 brings hope of Oklahoma statehood and the woman’s suffrage debate is raging, forcing Ella to make decisions about her faith, family, and aspirations. When she comes to the rescue of a young, abused sharecropper’s daughter, her calling begins to take shape in ways she never imagined. Education is Ella’s passion, but a new love is budding in her heart. Can she find God’s will amidst the tumultuous storm that surrounds her? THE CALLING OF ELLA MCFARLAND was the First Place Winner of the 2014 Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest. A story of family and faith in 1905 Indian Territory prior to Oklahoma statehood, a time when women's voices were silenced in public and often stifled at home.
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