The Tree of Life
Abstract
Charles Oldfield was a late 19th century resident in Historic Rugby, a village still preserved on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. His ghost reputedly haunts the Newbury House, one of the surviving original structures in the village. Oldfield came from London to conduct business at the settlement in the Plateau. Copies of letters from Mr. Oldfield to his wife in London (she remained in London even after his death) are held in the Rugby Archives to this day. No letters from Mrs. Oldfield survived. Using the mannerisms, language, and the over the top rhetorical style from a Victorian’s perspective, Mrs. Oldfield’s identity and story have been recreated on the basis of factual evidence and are presented here as a conjectured record of the untold story of a typical Victorian woman of the time.
keywords: Charles Oldfield; Rugby, Tennessee; Victorian womanhood, Historic Rugby, Tennessee Board of Aid
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