'Mariah Orpha McChristian' -- (Script I wrote that was performed at the 2009 Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk)

Barbara Bull Cemetery Walk 2009
"Mariah Orpha (Church) McChristian" Vignette

(Jean's Note: Although I've written my own scripts and acted in the Walk all the years of its existence, this vignette was the first I have written that was performed by actors other than myself... Kind of a "milestone" for me as a writer! -- luv, jean)

By Jean F.

Background: Buried in the Sebastopol Memorial Lawn Cemetery is Mariah Orpha McChristian, 1799-1877, widow of Patrick McChristian who participated in the Bear Flag Revolt -- along with his son, James, et al. Patrick took ill on a voyage back East in 1852, died and was buried at sea near Panama. Orpha continued to live on the family farm on Green Valley Road until her death.

Opening: The time-period is the early 1870s. As the audience approaches the stage, they see Orpha, an older woman, dressed in period clothing, seated on a porch with a hand fan, fanning her face lazily. When the signal to begin the vignette is given, a younger woman dressed in period clothes, hat and gloves and a market basket covered with a white cloth hung over one arm, enters from stage left. She waves at the older woman as she approaches and crosses to her.

Nettie (a neighbor lady): Mrs. McChristian, good to see you! How are you fairing in all this heat?

Orpha: Oh, I’ve survived worse in my time, Nettie, and that’s a fact…

Nettie (blotting her forehead with lace hanky): I surely believe that you probably have, Mrs. McChristian. Why, there probably isn’t any kind of weather that you haven’t had to contend with in your lifetime, is there?

Orpha: (smiles) When are you going to start calling me Orpha? We’ve been neighbors out here in Green Valley for years -- everybody calls me “Orpha”.

Nettie: Well, [pause] Orpha, I just came by to see how you were getting along and (rummages in basket and pulls out a small canning jar with dark contents) to bring you (handing jar to Orpha) this! It’s a jar of my homemade blackberry jelly. I put up plenty this season and I thought you might like some.

Orpha: Well, that’s a mighty neighborly gesture, Nettie… Thank-you! Truth is I’m very partial to blackberry jelly. Why don’t you sit a spell here on the porch and cool off? Lemonade?

Nettie: Don’t mind if I do!

(Nettie sits down in a chair across a small table from Orpha. Orpha pours a glass of lemonade from a pitcher and sets the glass down within reach of Nettie.)

Nettie: You know I’ve been dying to ask you about something: I ran into one of the Gregson girls the other day in town and -- I can’t recall how we got on the subject -- but, she mentioned something about your late husband being one of the patriots involved in the Bear Flag Revolt! Is that right? I wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not!

Orpha: Oh, yes, my dear! My Patrick and my son, James, were right there with Ide, Todd, Bidwell and the rest of the “Americanos” (that’s what the Spanish called us, you know) in Sonoma that morning when they took General Vallejo prisoner. I don’t think I shall ever forget the date. It was June 14th, 1846.

Nettie: Oh, my! A real, live patriot living right next door and I had no idea! Those must have been exciting times to have lived in -- witnessing the “Birth of The Republic” ‘n all…

Orpha: Well, it was exciting but, it was also a time of severe deprivation, peril and trepidation for many, many of us. Most of the “Bear-Flaggers” and their families were feeling just as vulnerable and exhausted as Patrick and I were...

Nettie: How so?

Orpha: After all those horrendous, grueling months on the Oregon and California Trails, it seemed to us as though we’d only barely arrived here when the Spaniards started posting copies everywhere of that atrocious, little proclamation from the Mexican government about how we were supposed to turn in all of our firearms, abandon all of our personal property, relinquish our land rights and then simply high-tail it right back over the Sierras that we’d just spent months traversing (at an astounding cost in human lives, livestock and most of our worldly possessions, I might add) or risk being shot on sight!

Nettie: Oh, my word! How awful!

Orpha: Well, after Patrick and James and the others liberated the presidio at Sonoma, the [sarcastically] esteemed “Generale” [HEN-ner-AL] claimed, of course, that he never had any intention of carrying out the terms of the proclamation. He also maintained that all of his soldiers had deserted quite some time before (owing to the fact that their pay was so long overdue) and had the effrontery to suggest that the Bear-Flaggers had done nothing but “capture” an empty garrison!

Nettie: Can you imagine?! (shakes head dolefully) But, you must have been proud of your husband for being so very brave. Where did he come by all that bravery? I’ll wager there were all sorts of heroes in his bloodlines.

Orpha: To tell the truth, Nettie, I don’t recall him ever mentioning anything like that … Actually, it would be my family that fits that description much more accurately. My maiden name was “Church”. Have you ever heard of Col. Benjamin Church of “Church’s Rangers” the famous Indian fighters during the King Philip’s War?  

Nettie: Oh, yes, of course! That was even before the Revolutionary War, wasn’t it?

Orpha: Absolutely! Col. Benjamin Church was my great-great-grandfather… And, his grandson, Dr. Benjamin Church of the Continental Army -- the man they call the “first surgeon general” -- was my grandfather.

Nettie: Well, I should have known! “The woman behind the man”! Did I just hear you say that you came to Sonoma County by way of the Oregon Trail?

Orpha: Oh, my, we sure did -- back in ’45 -- Patrick and I and our five sons: Patrick R. (along with his wife, Sarah), Owen, William, Sylvester and Richard. Patrick R. was 20, Owen was 10, William 9, Sylvester was 6, I believe -- and Richard was only 4! We left Saint Jo in a train of over 200 wagons headed to the Willamette Valley.

Nettie: That must have been an absolutely arduous journey!

Orpha: Well, you know, it wasn’t so bad up until we split into three separate trains in Boise. Our scout, Meeks, had been a fur-trapper of quite some renown. We had a great deal of confidence in his ability and his familiarity with the terrain -- but that was before he led us through the Meeks Cut-off in the Northern Oregonian desert where the trail was nothing but stones that were so sharp that many of our oxen were crippled in practically no time and had to be left behind on the trail…

In just a few, short days, we lost so many oxen that we were forced to start hitching up the beef cattle we’d been driving behind us to the yokes to pull the wagons.

Nettie: Oh, my lord!

Orpha: Indeed… Mr. Meeks discovered, along with the rest of us, that a solitary man blazing trails through open country on a horse was a far different thing than trying to drive heavy wagons by the score over that same piece of geography.

And the heat! Ach! The supply of fresh drinking water was anything but dependable… That’s when the typhoid started spreading from wagon to wagon -- family to family -- like wildfire. Young, healthy men and women… babies… no one was immune… In one day alone, we buried four of our number alongside the John Day River.

Nettie: It’s a miracle that any of you survived conditions like that!

Orpha: It’s funny, you know… I felt so much stronger back then when Patrick was with me… I felt as though, together, we were strong enough to do just about anything -- weather any hardship, but, now…

Nettie: How long has it been now since Patrick passed, Orpha?

Orpha: This year, he’s been gone nigh onto 20 years, by my reckoning. It’s difficult when someone passes, like he did, in the middle of a long journey. You’ve already said your good-byes and you were already expecting them to be gone for quite a while but, then, they just never come back… There’s a part of me that half expects, even after all these years, that one day he’s going to walk through the door and say “Sorry it took me so long, darlin’. Gee, it’s good to be home.”

Nettie: When one hasn’t had the benefit of the closure of a funeral or burial, I suppose there’s always just a little tinge of doubt deep down there somewhere, isn’t there?

Orpha: Seems to be, Nettie… Seems to be…

Nettie: (standing up) Well, I really should be off -- I’ve got to get dinner started. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you, Orpha, thank-you so much for the refreshments -- and the stories... (crosses a couple of steps to stage left)

Orpha: You are most welcome, Nettie, anytime… And thanks for the jelly! I’m sure it’s delicious!

Nettie: (stops and turns toward Orpha) We really should do this more often, don’t you think?

Orpha: Absolutely, my dear!

Nettie: I’ll see you later!

Orpha: Bye-bye!

(Above: Two volunteer actresses portray Orpha McChristian and fictional neighbor "Nettie" during the 7th Annual Barbara Bull Memorial Cemetery Walk held Oct. 1st-3rd, 2009 in Sebastopol CA. All profits from the Walk benefit the Western Sonoma County Historical Society and its projects such as the West County Museum and Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm -- both registered on the National Register of Historic Places -- among others.)