• Age: 13
• Grade: 8

Trained as a nurse and midwife, Elizabeth Evans never wanted to help set up the fledgling town of Aspen Coulee, Alberta, but travels there with her father when he agrees to become the town doctor. Housekeeper at the Evans’ house, Ann Montgomery hoped to keep all her San Francisco secrets locked in her ancient wedding chest.

 

It is 1907, and the Canadian Pacific Railway is driving the engine of the west. Against the fluid backdrop of the Canadian prairies, For a Modest Fee is a story about the women of the era and the expectations that made them the primary caretakers of not only their own families, but of the entire town. A hundred years ago, choices for women were few; married or single, they all stepped into the roles thrust upon them.

 

For a Modest Fee is a fascinating novel that looks at the evolution, in a few short years, of a prairie town from windblown wilderness to a fitting place for flowerboxes and school recitals.

Born and raised on the Canadian prairies, Freda Jackson is the author of Searching for Billie, a novel set around the historical immigration of Canada's Home Children. Her writing has been published in the Edmonton Journal and Western Families. She is a member of the Historical Society of Alberta, the Edmonton & District Historical Society and the Writers Union of Canada. For a Modest Fee is her second novel.

 

Please visit www.fredajackson.com.

Freda Jackson's profile page

Readers who enjoyed Jackson’s 2007 debut, Searching for Billie, will already have noted this author’s eye for detail and care and respect for history. These things contribute again to making For A Modest Fee an enjoyable and illuminating read. —January Magazine

Author Freda Jackson tells a good story. She skilfully works in many details about the practicalities and dangers of early pioneer life. —Donna Gamache, Prairie Fire Review of Books

For a Modest Fee

In this novel set in 1907, nurse Elizabeth Evans and her father, a doctor, arrive on the prairies to set up a medical practice. They are excited by prospects opening up in the West. When her father dies suddenly, Elizabeth is left with her father’s debts and the fast-growing frontier town’s many medical needs. Helped by her faithful and resourceful house keeper Ann, Elizabeth’s first jobs include delivering a stillborn baby in a sod hut and caring for passengers injured when a train derails. From pulling teeth to quelling a typhoid outbreak, Elizabeth and Ann earn the town’s grudging respect. This carefully researched novel is filled with colourful and memorable characters: Herbert Schneider, a ruthless business owner, his mentally ill wife Beatrice, the handsome and musically talented Stephan Gregorowiez, and itinerant Dr. McRae, who doubles as the area’s NWCP officer.

Jackson is the author of Searching for Billie.