After researching about Grace Brown who Sarah said was a real person I learned about the true story that A Northern Light was based on. I learned that Grace Brown lived in a rural area and moved in with her sister when she was older. When she lived with her sister she went to work at the Gillette skirt factory in Cortland and after around a year she met Chester Gillette the nephew of the boss. Soon after they started having an affair though he also had affairs with other woman at the time they were having one. In spring 1906 Grace learned that she was pregnant and wanted some kind of commitment, which he didn’t want to give her sending her back to her parents. After many letters showing that Grace was getting impatient and threatened to come back to Cortland he eventually agreed to take her on a trip, which she may have thought was a small marriage trip. They left on July 9, 1906 to various hotels and at each one Chester used allies for them both. After several hotels they stopped for a day (July 11, 1906) at Big Moose Lake to go boating. Chester used a fake name “Carl Grahm of Albany” but register her real name, Grace Brown of South Ostelic. Before that she sent out her suitcase containing her letters from Chester. At the lake Chester brought a suitcase and tennis racket and they went out boating to South Bay. The next day a search team found her body close to the overturned boat in the lake but no Chester. To find out more look at the links I posted below: (There have been several books and movies based on this story but the most famous is The American Tragedy by Theodor Dreiser)
Away from the sight of people
where nobody heard her last call,
or no one could tell how it happened…
But God - and Gillette - know all.
(A quote I found on the 2nd link)
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