| Willa Cather was born in Virginia in 1873 to Charles and Mary Cather,and
moved to Red Cloud, Nebraska in 1883. She lived there for seven years before leaving
for the University of Nebraska. She was so touched by the places and the people that
she knew there that they appeared in many of her novels. |
Red Cloud was used in many of Cather's books under various names.
Some of the names she used were Black Hawk, Moonstone, Haverford, Frankfort, and Hanover. |
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| In 1885, Willa Cather's family moved to this house in Red Cloud. It
was described in one of her writings as "...a low storey-and-a-half, with a wing
built on at the right and a kitchen addition on the back, everything a little on the slant
- roofs, windows, and doors." fromThe Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather,
pg. 7,Houghton Mifflin Co. , copyright 1915. |
Willa Cather wrote about the Red Cloud train depot in her
books. It has been restored with many authentic articles of the early 1900's. "I
had been sleeping, curled up in a red plush seat, for a long while when we reach Black
Hawk. Jake roused me and took me by the hand. We stumbled down from the train
to a wooden siding, where men were running about with lanterns. I couldn't see any
town, or even distant lights; we were surrounded by utter darkness." from My
Antonia, (Scholarly Edition), by Willa Cather, pg. 5, University of Nebraska Press,
copyright 1994 |
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