Cadwell, Clara Gertrude

by Robert Beasecker (2000)

CADWELL, CLARA [GERTRUDE] (c.1856-l???). Other than the two facts that Clara Cadwell was born in Jefferson, Ohio, and later lived in Cleveland, almost nothing is known of her life. Her single published literary work, a novel titled De Barr’s Friends, or Number Seventeen; Trip to Lake Superior with a Romance (1881), may contain autobiographical elements. The story tells of a young man traveling aboard an excursion steamer from Lake Erie to Lake Superior, specifically en route to Duluth, Minnesota, where he meets and falls in love with an attractive farm girl from Cleveland with a hint of a mysterious and perhaps unsavory past. In a florid, romantic style, Cadwell provides colorful descriptions of the ship, the scenery, and the ports typical of the Great Lakes.