Tonya Graham McQuade Bio

Tonya McQuade is an author, educator, speaker, and retired high school English Teacher. She is a great lover of history, travel, and nature, frequently visiting museums, state and national parks, and historical sites with her husband, as well as reading many historical texts and primary source documents. In many cases, her reading of historical fiction has driven her to dig more deeply into the historical figures and events being portrayed, leading her to new discoveries and areas of interest.

After acquiring 50 family Civil War letters, Tonya began researching the American Civil War in Missouri, blogging about her writing journey, and writing articles for the Emerging Civil War website. Her book A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri (2024) incorporates those letters with historical commentary and is available on Amazon. She is especially interested in the role women played in the Civil War, the history of slavery and abolition, the history of John and Jessie Frémont, and the ways the Civil War has been depicted in literature, film, poetry, and song.

Though not Civil War-related, Tonya recently completed another book related to family history: Frank and Nora’s Historic Honeymoon Adventure: A Travelogue with a “Time Travel” Twist. “Nora” is Nora Petree Traughber – Tonya’s great grandmother and the granddaughter of James. C. Hale. “Frank” is Dr. William Francis Traughber, also from Missouri, though his family fought on the Confederate side during the Civil War (they lived in Centralia, Missouri, and come up in her first two blog posts for ECW). This book, which describes Frank and Nora’s amazing four week, 4,500+ mile honeymoon trek in 1905 and shares many photos and stories from their scrapbook, is also available on Amazon.

Tonya is currently a member of South Bay Civil War Round Table, South Bay Writers, Poetry Center San Jose, and the National League of American Pen Women. She earned B.A. degrees in English and Communication Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she served as a writer and editor for the student newspaper, the Daily Nexus, for four years. She also earned her Single Subject Teaching Credential in English at UCSB and later her M.A. in Educational Leadership from San Jose State University.

You can learn more about Tonya on her website at tonyagrahammcquade.com, as well as find photos related to her book and to her research trips to Missouri.