Annie’s 25 year old sister, Alice, is also a visitor at the household with her husband, Charles Allen, and their daughter, one year old Edith. Passionate “horse people” provided food and shelter for the trio; some invited all to stay as long as Annie wanted. Her adventure was documented in the book “The Last of the Saddle Tramps”, a photographic and descriptive memoir of her 7,000 mile journey. The Wilkins family is one of a few families who can trace their ancestors for several generations in Great Ellingham. She received many offers—a permanent home at a riding stable in New Jersey, a job at a gas station in rural Kentucky, even a marriage proposal from a Wyoming rancher.

Harriett Annie Wilkins taught school and gave music lessons, and sold poetry to earn money for the family. Between 1954 and 1956, the three travelers pushed through blizzards, forded rivers, climbed mountains, and clung to the narrow shoulder as cars whipped by them at terrifying speeds. As a novelist ( Finding Dorothy, the most recent), history comes alive through Letts’ appealing, novelistic prose.

Later, the town gathered for dinner, conversation, and a screening of the 2003 documentary on Mesannie Wilkins. Nevertheless, it appears that William and Ann Amelia did not ‘tie the knot’ in the Church of St James, even though the banns had been read in the church some two years earlier. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. These may include creased cover, inscriptions or small amounts of writing, fanned edge, ripped or tatty dustjacket, and other signs of being read.

Nonetheless, the household comprises 27 year old grocer and general dealer, William Wilkins, with his 23 year old wife Ann Amelia and their family of two young children – three year old Thomas William and eleven month old Walter Edwin. Along the way, she relies on the kindness of strangers, her own determination, her four legged companions, and her ability to just be comfortable being herself. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. During her trek, Dykman highlighted the monarchs’ plight, giving presentations at schools and explaining her mission to curious bystanders.

At the time the Great Ellingham Tithe Map was prepared (between 1836 and 1844), the cottage and garden land was owned by James Barnard. In the preface, the Reverend William Stephenson of Hamilton, who knew the author well, praised her Christian virtues and expressed hope that her “natural, hearty, and pure” poetry would be well received by a generous public. It may that later in the 1960s (or into the 1970s), Ellen Amelia Everett sold the Post Office to Charles and Beulah Chattle. William left all his furniture, bedding, linen, crockery and everything comprising the home, together with the fixtures in the Post Office, to his youngest daughter, Annie.

With her life expectancy in the balance and an adamant refusal to be a burden to the state or anyone, Annie unknowingly bought the perfect horse.The annual migration ensures that monarch numbers are replenished after the winter, predators, and other dangers have taken their toll. Through most of 2017, wildlife biologist Sara Dykman followed migrating monarch butterflies on her bicycle, lodging with and befriending people along the way. The Ride of Her Life - the true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America published in 2021, author Elizabeth Letts, is about Annie Wilkins. It’s definitely good to play lots of different music, and I enjoy a good hymn tune setting as much as pop song arrangements.