BETHEL – Pat Stewart, author of a historical novel, “Mollyockett,” will be at the Bethel Historical Society’s Regional History Center from 2 to 4 p.m. on Harvestfest, Saturday, Sept. 20, to autograph her book.

Stewart, a graduate of Douglass College, Rutgers University, holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. She has taught at the high school, college and doctoral level and then began a career as a management development executive at large companies that included Fidelity Investments and Thomas Cook Travel.

Following her retirement, she studied at the Museum of Fine Arts and co-authored a book on decorative painting, published in 1999 by Rockport Publishers. She has a studio in her home on Indian Pond in Greenwood, where she paints and writes. Married to Henry Stewart, a retired lawyer, now an arbiter and mediator, she has three grown children.

Nearly everyone in southwestern Maine has heard of Molly Ockett, reputedly the last of the Pequawket Indians. Born at the mouth of the Saco River, in about 1738, she traveled the woodland trails and waterways of New England and eastern Canada throughout her active life. Today she remains a local heroine. Several area businesses, local chapters of a women’s barbershop musical group and Daughters of the American Revolution have appropriated her name. Every summer Bethel holds a festival named for her as well.

When Stewart retired and settled permanently in Maine, she became increasingly interested and intrigued by this remarkable woman. She resolved to learn as much as she could about Molly Ockett with an eye toward writing a book based on her story.

Research endeavors took her to the Odanak settlement, near Quebec, Old Town, local historical sites and other sources in Boston. The reference library and staff of Bethel Historical Society’s Regional History Center provided invaluable information and assistance. Now after more than five years of work, the book has been published by Twin Lights Publishers of Rockport, Mass.

Stewart describes her book as a fictionalized reconstruction. She relates known facts and stories surrounding Molly Ockett, fills in perceived gaps of what might have happened and imagines relationships between Molly Ockett and her friends, family and other characters, both real and invented. The book also includes maps and illustrations.

In Stewart’s hands, Molly Ockett tells much of the story. She lies on her deathbed, cared for by Sarah Bragg, a fictitious niece of the Bragg family, who actually did take on Molly Ockett’s care at the end of her life. To make Sarah’s job easier, Molly Ockett decides to tell the girl the story of her life.

Highlights of Molly’s life included living with the Wampanoags in Plymouth when Governor Shirley promised Molly Ockett’s father and other Abenaki men safekeeping for their women and children while the men helped the English fight the French; witnessing Rogers’ brutal raid on Odanak (a markedly different perspective from the Kenneth Roberts’ version in “Northwest Passage”). She also describes her long and ultimately stormy relationship with Sabattis, a famous Indian guide; her struggle to reconcile Indian spirituality, Catholicism and the Protestant faith of her white neighbors; saving the life of a friend targeted for murder by a renegade Indian as part of the last Indian Raid in New England in 1781, her curse bestowed on a dam site when the miller refused her shelter from a storm; her medical skill in saving the life of the infant Hannibal Hamlin, who later became governor of Maine and Abraham Lincoln’s vice president. As her people became increasingly marginalized, Mollyockett created a unique place for herself in a white world without losing her faith or her character.

This hardcover volume sells for $19.95 and will be available after Sept. 20 in the Bethel Historical Society’s museum shop, Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.

Further information about the society and its activities may be obtained by calling (207) 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910 or emailing: [email protected].