Aunt Josie Aber

Aunt Josie, Mattie's mother's sister, is married to a sawmill owner, Uncle Vernon, and is therefore wealthy enough to help Mattie with her travel expenses to Barnard. The aunt, however, is a house-proud and frivolous gossip, who spends her money on expensive figurines and discourages Mattie from reading any book other than the Bible. When Mattie asks her aunt for financial help, Josie belittles her for being "on a high horse."

Emily Baxter

See Miss Emily Wilcox

Belinda Becker

Belinda is the fianceé of Dan Loomis, Royal Loomis's older brother. She represents for Mattie the qualities that good wives are supposed to have: a certain giggly, glib social grace, and not much intelligence.

Grace Brown

The character of Grace Brown is based on an actual woman of the same name who was murdered by Chester Gillette in 1906 on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. The author...