While researching her 2011 book, Nothing Daunted, Dorothy Wickenden was told a story that stuck with her.
Wickenden was interviewing a descendent of Ros Underwood, who together with Dorothy Woodruff, Wickenden s grandmother, would leave behind her privileged life in Auburn to teach school in Colorado. The two women s adventure was the basis of Wickenden s New York Times bestseller, subtitled The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West.
Before they left Auburn, though, Ros and Woodruff shared a moment that would become family lore. The two were little girls, standing in front of the family home on South Street.
And there, Wickenden was told, they saw Harriet Tubman.