"MIss Gitty 1860: Romance and Adventures in Old New York, was inspired by Gertrude "Gitty" Tredwell, youngest daughter and last surviving member of the Tredwell family. Her father Seabury Tredwell was a wealthy Manhattan hardware merchant. In 1835 he bought a row house for his growing family. When Gitty died in 1933 the house became the Merchant's House Museum-the only 19th Century home in New York City preserved intact as if the family never left.
Gitty made her debut into society on the eve of the Civil War. Family legend has it that her father, a strict Episcopalian, refused to let her marry the Irish Doctor she fell in love with.
While I was volunteering as a docent in the museum, an 1860 playbill was found in the pocket of a gown in the attic. It struck a chord. Did Gitty sneak out of the house to meet Doctor Walton at the theatre? I began researching the Tredwell family and customs in Antebellum New York. I based my novel on family lore and historical events. Miss Gitty would have had to disobey regid rules imposed on young ladies, in order to meet her beau. I imagined her quest to be with her love took her on adventures where she encounters street urchins, Stephen Foster, Mr. Macy and a then little know Abe Lincoln.
There were eight children in the Tredwell family. I included three of them in this novel. Although Miss Gitty never married Doctor Walton, they remained in contact. The Merchant's House Museum, now a landmark, is reputed to be haunted.
The house is a peek into the 19th Century. Climb the stoop, ring the bell and step into the past. You just may meet the Tredwells.