 In order to be accepted into society in turn-of-the-century Indiana, Howe was prepossessed with making her family seem "white" and properly Catholic, and seems to have written the book in order to give the family acceptable genealogical and moral credentials.In her attempt to literally whitewash much of the family history, Howe reportedly had the bones of many Native Americans who had been buried in the large grave around her grandparents disinterred.With her adopted daughter Emma Cecilia Bachmann (an orphan from Terre Haute), Howe had also attempted to turn the Bailly homestead into a girls' school but failed.