Writer explores sadness at core of family history

As she grew up hearing family stories, Colorado writer Hannah Nordhaus became aware of a dramatic history surrounding her great-great-grandmother, Julia Staab.

Many readers will be familiar with the classy La Posada hotel (“place of rest”) in Santa Fe, located not far from the Cathedral and the Plaza.

Nordhaus has just published “American Ghost: The True Story of a Family’s Haunted Past.” She will appear at the Tattered Cover at 2526 E. Colfax Ave. at 7 p.m. on April 8 to read from her book and discuss her adventures in writing it –; and to sign copies.

The La Posada was originally the Staab House, built by prominent German Jewish Santa Fe businessman Abraham Staab for his young bride, Julia.

In the 1970s, a janitor in the by-then-hotel was mopping up late at night when he saw a dark-eyed woman, with white hair and a long black dress, standing by the fireplace, silently.

Other incidents followed –; some of the sort attributed to a poltergeist: gas fireplaces turned off and on, vases of flowers were moved, bar glasses flew off the shelf and Julia Staab’s second-floor bedroom was especially prone to happenings.

Employees were convinced that a ghost resided there –; an unhappy, restless ghost –; Julia Schuster Staab.

Hannah Nordhaus, skeptical of ghost stories at the start, writes in an interview that her interest in her great-great-grandmother intensified after she found a history written by her great-aunt Lizzie on dusty shelves in the house her great-grandfather had built in the mountains east of Santa Fe.

“Lizzie told tales of sadness and madness and forbidden love, of drug addictions and suicide, inheritance and disinheritance, penury, family feuds, brother against brother … There was more to Julia’s story than just a ghost in an old hotel …”

Hours and days and weeks and years of research and travel ensued as Nordhaus followed different aspects of Julia’s half-a-century life (she died in 1896) –; from young German bride who arrived on the frontier and bore eight children to sad, mentally ill older woman, subject to the imprecise medical care of her day.

Research in old newspapers and journals allows Nordhaus to paint a colorful picture of 19th-century Santa Fe, with its bright sun, entrepreneurial citizens such as Julia’s husband (who was not judged there for being a Jew), few or no supportive companions for Julia –; with the possible exception of the garden-loving archbishop (Willa Cather’s model for “Death Comes for the Archbishop”).

How close was that relationship, Nordhaus asks.

Julia came, as a young bride in an arranged marriage, from a German town called Lugde in Germany, where she frequently returned with her children for visits to her large family –; and to take the waters of the spa nearby.

Nordhaus and her German-speaking mother visited there and elsewhere in Germany in tracing Julia’s story.

The reader learns about the status of Jews in Europe and America, as well as the status –; or lack of it –; of even well-to-do women.

The flavor of early Santa Fe and the Santa Fe Trail contrasts with polished European locations Julia sought.

From accounts written by her daughter, Bertha, one senses the desperate loneliness and depression Julia felt despite receiving what was viewed as the best available medical treatment –; for “female problems” and depression –; in Germany, where the top doctors were found.

Following Nordhaus’ prolonged search for a ghost and a better understanding of her family history might lead a reader in similar directions. At the back of the book, she has compiled a section of “Notes on Sources” as well as a lengthy bibliography.

The book is an interesting read for a Western history fan, although I feel it might have benefited from additional editing.

Published in March by Harper Collins, “American Ghost” should be widely available in the area –; and would add interest to that next trip to Santa Fe, as one attempts to imagine it in Julia’s day.

About Hannah Nordhaus

Hannah Nordhaus started out as a journalist and is the author of “The Beekeeper’s Lament,” which was a Colorado Book Award finalist, PEN Center USA Literary Award finalist and winner of a National Federation of Press Women Award. She studied at Yale University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, lived various places and settled in Boulder, where she lives with her husband and two children. She will meet with readers at Tattered Cover, Colfax, 2526 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, at 7 p.m. April 8 (303-322-7727, tatteredcover.com).

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