THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503230537
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Deerfield, Mass., colonist Eunice Williams, whose father was the Puritan minister John Williams, was captured, along with her family, by Indians in 1704 and subsequently raised by them. She resisted opportunities for return to the colonial fold and lived a long life, by choice, among people her blood relations termed ``savages,'' refusing to be ``redeemed.''
Williams' marriage to a Mohawk lasted more than half a century, ending at her husband's death of advanced age in 1765. Their two daughters who survived to adulthood both wed Indian men. One of those was a village chief.
Yale historian John Demos recounts this complicated and powerful piece of our historical past in The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (Alfred A. Knopf, 316 pp., $25), a finalist for the 1994 National Book nonfiction award. The book comes out next month as a Vintage paperback for $13. But even sooner than that, the author will arrive in Norfolk to provide an oral account of this colorful slice of 18th-century life.
Demos will offer ``The Unredeemed Captive: The Life and Legend of Eunice Williams'' Tuesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m., in the Chrysler Museum Theater, 245 W. Olney Road. His lecture, sponsored by the Norfolk Historical Society, is free to the public.
``Demos is one of a handful of innovative researchers who have pioneered a new approach to colonial studies over the last 25 years,'' reports Bill Wooldridge, president of the society. ``They have descended to the gritty but fascinating minutiae of real families to bring us an understanding of the 1600s and 1700s grounded on close acquaintance with the people who lived on the farms and in the villages of pre-Revolutionary America.''
Another speaker of strong import is preacher's wife Ann S. Wright of Danville, who appeared recently before the Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia convention at the First Baptist Church of Norfolk. She is author of the amusing and candid Move Over, Goldfish, The Secrets to Surviving in the Parsonage (Teco, 109 pp., $10.98). Wright interviewed 50 ministers to reveal facets of their lives often unobserved or even unexpected by their congregations.
One facet upon which Wright is particularly qualified to comment is the role of the spouse.
``The ministry,'' she notes, ``is the only vocation where the wife is expected to participate. The doctor does not take his wife to the office or hospital with him. The teacher does not expect his wife to grade papers and schedule conference sessions. The painter does not have his wife carry the bucket of paint.
``The minister's wife is not only expected to go along with him, but to know the answers as well.''
And pity the poor PK (Preacher's Kid). Why are the preacher's kids so bad? Because they play with the deacon's kids.
Wright, 68, whose husband is former pastor of Keen Street Baptist in Danville, spent 38 years ``living and loving in the parsonage.'' Her wise book should be required reading for new ministers and old parishioners alike. Acquire a copy for $10.98, plus $2 shipping and handling, by writing to 288 Oakwood Circle, Danville, VA 24541.
Also new and of interest is The Winter of Our Discount Tent: A Humorous Look at Flora, Fauna and Foolishness Outdoors (University of South Carolina, 140 pp., $19.95) by alfresco jester Jim Mize. He grew up a witness to nature in Bassett, Va., in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, and now continues his observations in Greenville, S.C. Publications from South Carolina Wildlife to The Varmint Hunter have been graced by his characteristically sideways look at the natural world around him.
Mize well knows the surest way to catch a crappie is to lay your rod down, hold a cup of scalding coffee in one hand and a floppy sandwich in the other, and balance the open thermos on one leg.
Bait's optional. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia Wesleyan
College. ILLUSTRATION: Jacket design by MEGAN WILSON
Jacket painting by WALTON FORD
Photo
Ann S. Wright
by CNB