From the land of Oz to your own backyard

 

As a young child my imagination was forever captured and my mind warped by the classic film based on Frank Baum’s book The Wizard of Oz. In the years when I was growing up, the classic movie aired once each spring. If you missed it, you missed it until next year so it was, to me, a very big deal. Of course, I also read the book and some of the others written by Baum that were set in the land of Oz.  As a parent, The Wizard of Oz was one of the first movies I bought for my children’s video library along with classic Disney. One of my daughters loved it so much that she wore the little blue and gingham Halloween costume dress as often as I would allow and at one point, both girls had shoes that resembled the ruby slippers. Although my kids are now grown, The Wizard of Oz remains a family favorite.

 

 

 The multi-layered story is much more than it may seem on first viewing. In my various writings I’ve had characters reference the show and quotes from it as well. One of my favorite themes within The Wizard of Oz is power. Dorothy possessed the power to go home all the time but doesn’t realize it. It takes a journey through dangers and facing fears to find out. It requires others to show her what she possessed all the time. And at the end of the movie the viewer learns that exotic, lovely Oz is no more than Dorothy’s imagination or so it seems.

I’m thinking about Oz today because I’m thinking about settings. Some writers like to choose exotic settings someplace far, far from home. Others write about places in their own backyard. I do a little of although I seldom write about any place I haven’t been. Why? Because as a reader, nothing infuriates me quicker than reading about a place I know and I can tell the author doesn’t. I usually read any book to the end but I once quit on a book by a well-known author because her story set in the southwest corner of Arkansas, flat country with oil wells and known as part of the Ark-La-Tex, was described as being in the Ozark Mountains and dotted with pine trees. But, the Ozarks end about mid-state and pines aren’t common.

I think of these things when I sit to write and I do my best to make sure I get the settings right.

I seldom write anything in a fantasy genre so creating a world outside our physical reality such as Oz isn’t on my radar. Another Missouri writer Samuel Clemens, better know as Mark Twain, first offered the advice “write what you know” to budding writers and I think its still sound advice.

When I write fiction, whether it’s a short story or a novel, I choose settings that I am familiar with. Neosho and the Ozark region appears often and so does my hometown of St. Joseph, MO.  If I haven’t lived in a place, I’ve usually been there and gained a feel for it before I write about it.. I’ve written about both New York and Los Angeles enough to receive high praise from my editor, a native of the Big Apple, and a long-time resident of LA who said he could tell I’d spent some time there.

Setting is important – whether it’s the Land of Oz or your own backyard.

The mystery of Hermann Jaeger, the savior of French wines!

 

     

 

 

 

       Wine has an ancient history, dating back some six to eight thousand years before Christ. By the time that Jesus walked the earth as a man, wine had become a well-known drink.  Wine as we know it traveled from Italy to France Today, French wines are considered among the world’s finest but had it not been for a man from Neosho, the French wine industry may have died on the vine more than a century ago.

 

            Hermann Jaeger was a Swiss immigrant who moved to the United States following the Civil War. He and his brother, John, came to Newton County to plant vineyards, side by side about 4 miles east of Neosho along what is now Highway 86. Their first efforts were planted in 1866 and the brothers soon combined the farms.  In between raising families, they worked at developing new grape varieties, which was Hermann’s area.  He took tough Missouri wild grapes and grafted them with both Concord and Virginia grapes.

            In his development and experimentation, Jaeger worked with notable scientists of the date including Missouri entomologist George Hubbard.  At the World Fair held in Vienna, Austria in 1851, Missouri wines took top honors, winning 8 of 12 medals.  French vineyards, which had suffered a few setbacks in recent years, bought rootstock but instead of prospering, the new rootstock brought a parasite called phylloxera that systematically all but destroyed the French vineyards.

            Jaeger sent large quantities of his hybrid rootstock that combined traditional grapes with the hardier wild Missouri varieties and in doing so, he saved the French wine industry. With gratitude, France made Jaeger Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, the highest award the nation could provide. He became a hero, at least in the wine industry. That was in 1893.

            His fame, however, was short-lived. Jaeger suffered some financial problems and on top of that, a local law was passed that prohibited the sale of alcohol in Newton County, a definite damper for a vineyard owner and wine maker.

            The Jaeger family moved to the Joplin area to start a new vineyard.  Other legal issues arose and on May 16, 1895, a Thursday morning, Jaeger headed for Neosho driving a wagon and team to appear in court. He didn’t return and a few days later, his wife received a letter postmarked Kansas City that was printed in the Newton County News, translated from the German in which it was written. It read:

            "My Dear, Good Elise: When you read these lines, I won’t be no more alive. The more I think over everything, the more my mind get troubled. It is better I make an end to it, before I get crazy. Since for a length of time I am not able to attend to business. I as a food but I meant it good. Do not hunt for me. I hope to end some place where nobody can’t find me. Dear Elise, you deserve better luck. I hope you will have it yet. Kiss the children. Your unlucky Hermann"

                His family never heard from him again and it was believed that, in despair, he had committed suicide. Other stories suggest he may have vanished to start over again somewhere else, under another name but no one knows for sure.

            One of the historical markers in Big Spring Park tells his story and Jaeger is still remembered for his role in saving the French wine industry.

 

 

            Hermann Jaeger remains a local unsolved mystery, one unlikely to ever be explained. Sometimes his name is Americanized to Herman Yeager but it’s the same man, unlucky Hermann, who was awarded France’s highest honor for ensuring that French wines would continue forever.