Christopher Dryden

I am modeling the protagonist, Christopher Dryden, loosely on an Anglican Priest named Christopher Knipe, whose picture along with some biographical details appears in Joan Weir's informative little book Canada's Gold Rush Church. He is described as "an upper class English cleric who had volunteered to come to the Canadian far-west for a five year term at no salary whatever."

A photograph of Rev. Knipe suggests an intelligent man, of stern - perhaps inflexible - character. Like Rev. Knipe, Dryden has just traded his comfortable, well-ordered life in England for the harsh and chaotic environment of a booming Gold Rush town and has been traumatized by the experience.

He is not the type an audience will sympathize with or warm up to right away, though. His principles and austere beliefs make him seem unapproachable. The miners are put off by his intellectualism and primness. Rumors circulate about his 'idiosyncracies'. But over time he does win over some of the town dwellers and, hopefully, most of the readers.

For Reverand Dryden is a good man at heart, who has to unlearn his aloof, aristocratic ways in order to get closer to the rough and tumble citizens of his parish. He will prove to be a man who loves in a deep, humbling way.

Things I don't know about Christopher Dryden:

• Where did he grow up?
• Where did he receive his training as an Anglican priest?
• What is the 'lifestyle' of an Anglican priest?
• How did he arrive at Barkerville (both his decision to accept the mission and his journey from England to the frontier of British Columbia)?