The Dance of the White Deer is a work of fiction, but it was inspired by true events. Below is a photo of the grave of Frances Maria Buel (middle name pronounced Mariah, and she went by her middle name, not her first).
Maria lived in nearby Gustavus, Ohio (Trumbull County). She was murdered in 1832 by her stepfather, Ira Gardner, after rejecting his sexual advances. She was 16 years old.
She had escaped his lustful pursuits by running to a neighbor’s home for shelter. He promised not to bother her if she returned to procure her clothing, but when she did, he met her in the yard and stabbed her, in front of witnesses.
The murder caused quite a sensation in rural Northeastern Ohio, and Gardner was eventually hanged for the crime. Hundreds of people drove for miles to witness the public execution.
The story of Maria’s demise is inscribed on her tombstone. (The current stone is a replica. The original sits in the Gustavus Town Hall. It was repeatedly damaged by vandals and was finally removed for safekeeping.)
I first became intrigued by the story of Frances Maria Buel when I was working as a reporter for The Vindicator of Youngstown, Ohio, (a mid-sized, daily newspaper). I wrote about her as part of a haunted Halloween series. I was immediately fascinated and wanted to know more about her tragic life. I had long been a serious history buff and had already done a fair amount of research on early life in Ohio, so it seemed natural that a novel started taking shape in my mind.
But I wasn’t interested in viewing Maria’s tale as a “ghost story.” I was more interested in imagining what it must have been like for a young, vulnerable girl to be stuck under the same roof with this grown man who was attempting to victimize her. I felt a deep empathy for her.
As I unraveled more facts about her life I learned she had been a brunette beauty, and a “bastard child,” and that she had a boyfriend who had married someone else after the murder and had migrated west to Indiana.
The story I tell in my novel is NOT the same story that happened in real life.
I need to emphasize that.
However, I credit this girl for inspiring me to create my work of fiction. There are threads of her truth inside of my book, and without learning about her story, I would not have written my novel.
The photo below was captured last month as a thunderstorm rolled in at sunset.
The inscription on the stone reads: “In memory of the young beautiful and innocent Frances Maria Buel who was butchered by her stepfather Ira W. Gardner August 8, 1832 in the 16 year of her age. Death chilled this fair fountain ere sorrow had stained it, twas frozen in all the pure light of its course. But she sleeps til the sunshine of heaven unchains it, to water that Eden where first was its source.”
