Charles Goodnight and the School Teacher

by Sherry Shindelar

Mary Ann (Molly) Dyer met Charles Goodnight in 1864 at Fort Belknap, Texas. The Civil War, in its last year, had taken a toll on the Texas frontier. Charles, a former scout and ex-Texas Ranger, was part of the Frontier Regiment, a Texas militia assigned to protecting the frontier from Indian attacks. On his way to becoming one of the founders of the Texas cattle drives, Charles kept a herd of cattle on the side within riding distance of the fort.

The petite school teacher caught the eye of the rough and tumble soldier/scout/cattleman.

Molly wasn’t born to the hard life of the frontier. However, in 1854, a pledge her father made to Sam Houston led to her leaving the tranquil, civilized life of a prominent lawyer’s daughter in Tennessee and immigrating to Texas with her family. Settlers were just beginning to trickle into the lands surrounding Fort Belknap in the mid 1850’s, and Comanche raids were a constant threat.

Molly’s parents passed away a few years later, and she was left to support her three youngest brothers. She could have fled back to Tennessee. Instead, she stuck to the frontier and became a school teacher. As the Civil War tore the country apart, the Texas frontier rolled back a hundred miles in some places due to Indian raids. Fort Belknap hovered at the edge of what remained.

Molly was an intelligent, determined woman with a heart for others. Her strength and courage were as enduring as the prairie sun. Charles was a fighter, and a natural born frontiersman, who didn’t know the word “quit.” The spark of attraction between them that sprang to life in 1864 flourished into an acquaintance and courtship that endured Charles’s months or even year-long cattle drives as he mapped out the Goodnight-Loving Trail and started making a name for himself and worked to build an empire.

By 1868 and 1869, Molly was teaching in Weatherford, Texas, the supply hub for Charles’s cattle drives. She’d had enough of the extended courtship. This was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and he needed to make a decision. Eventually, she gave him an ultimatum1. They married in 1870.

According to Molly’s biographer, Jane Little Botkin, “Research reveals a life-long love story between a prickly, illiterate, and foul-mouthed trail driver and a fun-loving but refined, petite school teacher who respected each other’s differences and short-comings.”

The refined school teacher traveled west with the rancher to the rough country near Pueblo, Colorado. They settled down on Charles’s ranch, but eventually, they found their true home in the Palo Duro Canyon, a 800 foot deep, ten to twenty mile wide canyon that stretched for one hundred and twenty miles.

Charles partnered with an Irish aristocrat, John Adair, to establish the first ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Adair furnished the money, and Charles built the ranch and the herd with Molly by his side. By the mid-1880’s, the ranch encompassed over 1,365,000 acres and supported more than 100,000 cattle.

Molly and Charles’s love endured long stretches of time apart, with cattle drives keeping him away for several seasons at a time. With only one female neighbor in the vast area of the canyon, Molly befriended the cowboys at the ranch and the occasional Indian that traveled through.

She would often go six months or a year without seeing anyone while the men were away on cattle drives. The beautiful walls of Palo Duro, colored like red Spanish skirts, must have felt like the end of the earth at times. But Molly thrived. She ran the ranch in her husband’s absence and was a friend to all in need, including the buffalo. Her heart ached for the baby bison orphaned by the wholesale slaughter of the herds from the late 1860’s through the 1880’s. She rescued and cared for the calves, eventually creating the Goodnight buffalo herd. Today, herds in several parks and zoos, including Yellowstone, are descendants of Molly’s herd.

Throughout the Goodnight’s fifty-six year marriage, Charles was a man who enjoyed the thrill of adventure and the unknown, willing to take great risks, gaining and losing land and wealth in the process. Molly was his foundation, the North Star of his compass.1 For his sake, she endured the loneliness of an entire canyon, but instead of being defeated, she thrived in his world and made a name for herself alongside his. She was described as a bubbly person, full of energy and heart. She also had a sense of humor, once covering Charles’s hat in pink chiffon.1 The spark of attraction ignited in 1864 between the school teacher and the cattleman blazed into an enduring flame that neither distance, time, hardship, or differences could snuff out. After her death, Charles lost himself because he’d lost the keeper of his heart.

The epitaph inscribed on Molly’s gravestone reads, “One who spent her life in the service of others.”

Sources:
1. Botkin, Jane Little. “I Accepted a Challenge: Researching and Writing Mary Ann Goodnight’s Story.” janelittlebotkin.com/2024/03/i-accepted-a-challenge-researching-and-writing-mary-ann-goodnights-story/. 11 March 2024

2. Roach, Joyce Gibson. “Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight: The Mother of the Panhandle. Texas State Historical Association. tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goodnight-mary-ann-dyer-molly. 21 June 2016.

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. Sherry is a multi-award-winning writer. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years.

Connect with Sherry: website, newsletter, Amazon, FB, Goodreads

Can love blossom between a woman haunted by her family’s past and a man with a war-scarred heart?

Cora Scott is determined to hold onto her family's Texas ranch and provide a stable home for her young half brother, Charlie, despite the mounting challenges of post-Civil War frontier life. But when a scheming creditor threatens to seize their land, she must accept help from Ben McKenzie, a former Yankee soldier sent by her late brother. Though Ben's generosity and strength draw her, the man's private struggle she stumbles upon—too reminiscent of her father's alcoholism—makes her question whether she can trust her heart to him.

Ben McKenzie arrives in Texas intent on fulfilling his promise to his dying friend to protect Cora and Charlie. While using his inheritance to save their ranch, he battles not only the loss of their cattle but also his dependency on laudanum—a medicine that turned into a curse after his imprisonment at Andersonville. As his feelings for Cora deepen, he must choose between his promise to his father to take over their Philadelphia newspaper and his growing dream of a life with Cora in Texas.

🌹 The Wars of the Roses: England’s Turbulent Battle for a Crown

Few periods in English history capture the imagination like the War of the Roses—a dynastic struggle marked by political intrigue, shifting loyalties, and dramatic reversals of fortune. This was a series of civil wars fought between 1455 and 1487. Two rival branches of the royal Plantagenet family—the House of Lancaster and the House of York—were pitted against each other in a long and fierce battle for the English throne. 

Why were they called the Wars of the Roses? The name came well after the wars ended but are said to be named for the badges of the rivalry parties—the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. The symbols were not as common back in the day of the Wars of the Roses as one might think due to how we connect them today to the era's conflict.

Henry VI

The conflicts roots went back to the reign of King Henry VI, a king who struggled with mental illness, placed England in a politically vulnerable position. His poor decisions due to his mental instability opened the door for Richard the Duke of York to step forward and lay his claim to the throne through descent from another son, Edward III. Both houses, York and Lancaster, believed that their bloodline gave them the stronger right to claim the throne. It wasn't long before their rivalry spiraled into full out conflict.  

Richard Duke of York

The sudden shifts of power and dramatic battles unfolded over three decades.   The First Battle of St. Albans in 1455 ignited the conflict, giving the House of York an early advantage. But the struggle was far from straightforward.

One of the bloodiest encounters, the Battle of Towton in 1461, resulted in a decisive York victory and placed Edward IV, son of the Duke of York, on the throne. But even then, Edward’s reign was strown with upheaval. Henry VI briefly regained power in 1470 before Edward reclaimed the crown the following year.

King Edward IV

The Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, where Richard III, the last House of York king, was defeated by Henry Tudor, a House of Lancaster claimant was the last significant conflict between the two rival houses. Henry’s victory ended the Plantagenet line and ushered in the Tudor dynasty, beginning with his coronation as Henry VII.

Victorian depiction of Henry VI (right) sitting while the Dukes of York (left)
and Somerset (center) have an argument

Henry VII’s marriage to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, symbolically united the warring houses and brought a long‑awaited peace to England. This union blended the red and white roses into the now‑famous Tudor Rose, a lasting emblem of reconciliation.

Elizabeth I

Under the Tudors, England entered a period of relative stability, setting the stage for the cultural and political transformations of the Renaissance and the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

The Wars of the Roses were more than a medieval power struggle—they reshaped the English monarchy, altered the course of European politics, and left a cultural imprint that we can see today. What began as a feud between cousins ended in a national saga of loss, resilience, and renewal.

If you’re intrigued by dynastic conflicts and medieval political intrigue, take a peek at my Winds of Change Series where there’s a whole world of history and romance waiting to be explored. 

Sword of Forgiveness: After the death of her cruel father, Brithwin is determined never again to live under the harsh rule of any man. Independent and resourceful, she longs to be left alone to manage her father's estate. But she soon discovers a woman has few choices when the king decrees she is to marry Royce, the Lord of Rosencraig. As if the unwelcome marriage isn't enough, her new husband accuses her of murdering his family, and she is faced with a challenge of either proving her innocence or facing possible execution.

Royce Warwick returns home after setting down a rebellion to find his family brutally murdered. When all fingers point to his betrothed and attempts are made on his life, Royce must wade through murky waters to uncover the truth. Yet Brithwin's wise and kind nature begins to break down the walls of his heart, and he soon finds himself in a race to discover who is behind the evil plot before Brithwin is the next victim. Purchase here.

NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO HERE!

Against the Current: Six Women Who Commanded Mississippi Steamboats

During the heyday of steamboat travel on inland rivers of the U.S., this form of transportation was considered the epitome of comfort and convenience.

Like most other fields of employment in the late 1800s, riverboats offered limited opportunities for women. They could work in the traditional “housekeeping” type roles, such as cooking, serving, laundering, and cleaning, but piloting or captaining the vessels was considered a man’s domain.

Still, six women made names for themselves as steamboat captains in the Mississippi River valley.

On the mid-continent rivers, there were two main types of steamboats: the packet boat and the excursion boat. Packets carried commercial goods, such as cotton, tobacco, or animals, with a limited number of passengers.

Excursion boats are associated with the romance and adventure of river travel, with luxurious cabins and fine dining, as well as grand ballrooms. In the mid-19th century, showboats added music, vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, and even circuses.

Who was really the first?

Nettie Johnson

The first woman to be licensed as a master on inland waterways was Nettie Johnson, who owned a small steam packet in the 1870s with her husband, a pilot. They pioneered operations on the Ohio River and continued throughout World War I, transporting war supplies.

Mary Miller became a licensed pilot after traveling with her husband in 1882 to enter the Ouachita River trade. When he became incapacitated, Mary passed the exam in 1884 and carried on the business. She claimed to be the first female pilot on the Mississippi, though Johnson and others have also been named as the first.

‘Angel of the Mississippi’

Next came Blanche Leathers, who made her maiden trip as skipper of the packet Natchez VIII in 1884. When she first left New Orleans as a captain, ferry boats, ocean liners, tugs and freighters saluted her with whistles, and people on shore waved and shouted.

Like the others, she had learned the occupation from her husband, who she had married in 1880. “I would stand beside him at the wheel,” she said, “and repeat to him each snag, each bank, each plantation, each landing place. He taught me to steer at night when it was so dark you couldn’t actually see your hand before your face.” The couple had seven steamboats until the Natchez VIII sank in 1918.

A mere 5’5” tall, Blanche became known as the “angel of the Mississippi.” She was also called “Little Captain” or “Boss Leathers,” and one newspaper described her as “the most distinguished of Louisiana women.” When she was interviewed in 1927, she had ceased river travel, but she said, “I keep my license just the same, for I shall never be really anything but a pilot.”

‘Dawg-goned’ Callie

A more colorful figure was Callie Leach French, described as a “bell-ringing, horn-tootin’, wheel-turning captain.” She married Augustus Byron French, who ran the New Sensation steamboat.

Captain Callie Leach
French, circa 1890

She was licensed for the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in 1888, and by 1895, she obtained a master’s license covering almost all of the region’s navigable waterways. She and her husband specialized in running showboats. Known as “Aunt Callie,” she served as pilot and captain alongside Augustus, and she also cooked, mended, nursed, acted, and wrote gags. She was well-known for her favorite saying, “Well, I’ll be dawg-goned!” and she never lost a boat or had an accident.

When her husband died in 1902, Callie took over the business and managed it with the help of another couple until she retired in 1907.

50-Plus years on the rivers

Perhaps the longest-serving female riverboat captain was Mary Becker Greene, who navigated the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for more than 50 years.

Captains Mary and Gordon Greene aboard one
of their steamers, 1903. UW Digital archives

She married Gordon C. Greene, “a riverman through and through,” in 1890, and they lived aboard his boat, the H. K. Bedford steamer.

“When you marry a riverman,” Mary said, “you marry the river, too. That’s the code of steamboatin’.” Working with and learning from her husband, Mary earned her master’s pilots license by 1892, becoming the only woman captain on the Ohio.

The Greene Line Steamers company grew, but a new vessel, the Argand, was losing money. Mary took it over in 1897 and earned $2,500 in profits on her first round-trip.

The five-foot-tall “petticoat skipper” took great pride in keeping the vessel clean, orderly, and running smoothly. She sewed curtains and linens and focused on comfort and reliability for passengers.

Greene family aboard the Greenland, 1905

Operating on the Ohio, Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers, the company added the Greenwood and the luxury steamer the Greenland—a 215-foot $40,000 vessel with 50 staterooms and a special suite of five rooms for the Greene family.

After the couple’s oldest son Henry, age 9, died in 1907, Mary focused on the family, staying at their land-based home with their two remaining sons, Tom and Chris. But as they grew, she returned to the river.

Gordon died in 1927, and Mary with her sons continued to run the company. Due to the Great Depression of 1929, they were down to two steamers, but in 1935, the company purchased the Cape Girardeau. With a capacity of 175 passengers and 60 crew, the vessel was renamed after Gordon.

Chris died suddenly in 1944, and Tom took over. Mary, though in her late 70s, remained active on the Gordon C. Greene.

In 1946, Tom learned that the Delta Queen and Delta King, twin steamboats valued at $1 million each, were being auctioned in California. With his mother’s approval, he bid $46,250 for the Queen and was the only bidder.

Following the lengthy journey from Sacramento to Cincinnati, the vessel was given a six-figure renovation. Mary took up residency in stateroom 109 in 1948 and continued her hostess duties. She was on her 12th pilot’s license in 56 years of renewals. In April, 1949, she joined Delta Queen passengers in dancing the Virginia Reel, and two days later, on April 22, Mary died in her stateroom.

The golden days of steamboating may be over, yet a few vessels still travel the mid-continent rivers, bearing passengers and the spirit of these pioneering women who once steered their own courses.

For more details about the era, see also my earlier post,  Heroes, Heroines, and History: Steamboating on the Mississippi River Sternwheelers

Sources

Women in Transportation: Changing America's History

East Carroll Parish, Louisiana Genealogy: Women Steamboat Captains

Blanche Douglass Leathers - Wikipedia

Callie Leach French - Wikipedia

Hadley, Edwin (27 January 1952). "There Goes the Showboat". The Courier-Journal. The Courier-Journal Magazine, p. 16. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.

Interview and story with Blanche Leathers, steamboat captain of the Packett Natchez in 1927. - Page 1 | Louisiana Digital Library

Mary B. Greene: The Ohio River’s Leading Lady (Part 1) - Weelunk

Mary B. Greene: The Ohio River’s Leading Lady (Part 2) - Weelunk

Early Marietta: Captain Mary B. Greene, Pioneering River Lady

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.





When the lights of Broadway dim, Delia leaves the city behind. But will her family welcome her home again?

The historical short story, “All That Glistens,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes. Soon she'll be sharing a historical romantic short story set in Scotland.

The Dawn of Live Theater

By Kathy Kovach

It might surprise you that performance has been around since the dawn of time. How do we know? One example is cave drawings, where one can envision the artist also reenacting the battle of the sabretooth tiger and the prehistoric python. Even before that, I can imagine Adam and Eve pantomiming the animals they’ve been given dominion over. Eve claps her stiff arms in front of her body, and Adam guesses “crocodile.” He can’t be wrong since he’s the one who named all the animals.

Anthropologists have discovered that early peoples used dramatization for rituals. Through dancing, chanting, and mask wearing, they would convey their beliefs. In Theories of the Theatre (Cornell University Press), Marvin Carlson, a professor of theater studies at CUNY Graduate Center, wrote that drama was “a social act of representation long before it was an art form.”

The Story of Osiris: The Egyptian God of Resurrection

In ancient Egypt, a festival surrounding the Mysteries of Osiris, a god of death and resurrection, performed ritual reenactments. Other celebrations and commemorative moments also incorporated dramatic story telling. “The Triumph of Horus” was performed during the Festival of Victory at Edfou. It included a complete script with a prologue and epilogue, as well as actor instructions and a musical score.

Primeval dramatizations aside, it is believed that the earliest form of literary theater, focusing on dialogue and character development, began in ancient Greece as performers portrayed Grecian myths. Tragedy and Comedy were born in the BC era.

Dionysus: God of Wine, Madness, and Transformation

In the 6th century BC, the god Dionysus had become popular, primarily because of his love of wine. In Athens, Great Dionysia was a festival held in four distinct parts throughout the year. It honored this party god with choral and dance. The songs, or dithyrambs, evolved into what we now know as theater. It’s no secret how much the Greeks loved a good competition. (Olympics, anyone?) A theatrical contest was held over four days in the spring, in which the categories of music, singing, dance, and poetry were performed.

The word theater comes from the Grecian word, theaomai, meaning “to see”. At first, there was merely a choir accompanied by troupe dancing. But one brave individual popped out of the chorus and began acting out what he was singing. By dialoguing with the chorus, he played all the different characters, utilizing masks. He was honored as the first recipient of the award for Tragedy in 534 BC at the afore mentioned competition. This innovative bard, named Thespis, also traveled by wagon with his masks, costumes, and props, performing in various cities. So impactful was this practice, that a new word sprang forth—thespian, or actor. Thus, Thespis became the first actor.

During Great Dionysia, four authors were chosen to write three tragedies and one satyr. (We won’t talk about the latter here. Suffice it to say, it was lascivious in nature involving a creature that was half-man and half-animal.) Four notable playwrights sprang into the annals of history, each winning the yearly Dionysian contests, (as well as losing to each other.)

Aeschylus

Aeschylus (525-426 BC) is known for adding a second actor, upping the potential for conflict. Known as the Father of Tragedy, he won thirteen prizes in that category, his first in 484 BC. Seven of his eighty plays have survived today.

Sophocles

Sophocles (496-406 BC) won his first prize in 468 BC, defeating Aeschylus. Perhaps it was because he added a third actor. Or, because his style differed. While Aeschylus wrote more plot driven work, his most noted piece, the Oresteia, dealing with the politics of Athens, Sophocles wrote character driven pieces, diving into the complexities of plot and subtle characterization. He wrote over 100 plays, but only seven have survived.

Euripides

Euripides (485-406 BC), the youngest of the three major tragedy writers, didn’t win as many prizes, but he is instrumental in introducing deus ex machina, a popular literary term for resolving a situation by contrived or artificial means. Euripides would literally lower an actor portraying a god (deus) from a crane (machina) into the scene, thus making everything better through his divine powers, as it were.

Aristophanes

Aristophanes (450-357 BC) is known as the Father of Comedy. His plots weren’t particularly deep, but his wit more than made up for it. He used parody to make people laugh, particularly at the leaders in Athens. He also poked at the last of the great tragedians, Euripides, in a play titled The Frogs. In it, Euripides dies and goes to Hades. Dionysus goes to retrieve him and holds a competition in the underworld. In the end, Dionysus returns to earth, not with Euripides, but rather with Aeschylus instead. Only eleven of the forty plays he wrote have survived. The following five-minute video delves perfectly, and entertainingly, into the world of Aristophanes.

Why Is Aristophanes called “The Father of Comedy?”

Circus Maximus - Rome

By the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Rome became heavily influenced by Greek culture. They also had their competitions. However, the Roman games that took place in the Circus Maximus arena were more popular. Gladiators were more entertaining than play acting. Real death over feigning death was more appealing. Even so, two writers of comedy, Plautus and Terence, are remembered. Their styles differed greatly—Plautus utilized a robust form of farce, while Terence was more subtle—however, neither wrote an original plot. Their stories sprang from the Greek myths, even to the point of consistently being set in Athens.

Kabuki theater

Other cultures, including Asian, adopted the Greek style of performance art. China’s Noh theater in the 14th century AD, and later Japan’s Kabuki in the 17th century AD, are reminiscent of the mask-wearing actors telling cultural stories.

As storytelling with the dramatic arts moves through the centuries, it makes its way into the Renaissance, particularly the Elizabethan era. It gave birth to renowned playwrights, such as Christopher Marlow and William Shakespeare. Next month will be dedicated to the romantic Renaissance playwrights of the 16th century.

Do you have a favorite play, either from ancient Greece, the Renaissance, or contemporary? I’m swayed toward Romeo and Juliet as I played the nurse in high school. I also have a passion for musicals, such as The Music Man, where I played Ethel Toffelmier, the gossipy player piano player. (No, that’s not a typo. She played the player piano. Lol.)

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

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Fighting for the Gold Fields: The Land Battle in Georgia

by Denise Farnsworth

Council House Replica at Cherokee Capital

The ancestors of the Cherokee Indians occupied what is now North Georgia long before the inhabitants of the Valley Towns and Lower Towns in that region established trade with Great Britain. The native people allied themselves to the Mother Country during the American Revolution but with the Americans during the War of 1812. Despite Cherokee efforts to assimilate into the culture of their new white neighbors—including adopting the language, religion, their own newspaper printed in English and Cherokee, court system, and business and agricultural methods—when the state of Georgia gave up title to land to the Mississippi River, they received a promise from the federal government that the Indian people would be removed.

In December 1826, the state senate passed a resolution requesting the president take steps for a treaty to gain Cherokee lands. A series of December 1827 senate resolutions stated the Cherokee constitution was inconsistent with Georgia rights and that the General Assembly had the authority to claim Cherokee lands “not only upon ‘peaceable and reasonable terms [as stated by the Compact of 1802], but upon just such terms as they might [be] pleased to prescribe.” This declaration was based on the presumption that the lands which had been part of the British Empire had become Georgia land.

No one asked who the land belonged to before that.

In December 1828, state representatives authored a bill in the General Assembly to extend the laws of the state over the Cherokees. In 1829, the Indian Removal Act was introduced in Congress.

And then gold was discovered in North Georgia, near present-day Dahlonega. The state of Georgia stationed militia throughout the gold region to prevent confrontations between Cherokees and white settlers at mining sites. After the Cherokee land was awarded to white settlers through the land lottery of 1832, these mounted troops were also charged with protecting the Cherokees until they removed to their new homes in Oklahoma. Many chose to leave right away, but others lingered until the May 1838 deadline, hoping their representatives in Congress would find some way to secure their land.

Meanwhile, some settlers impatient to claim their new land harassed Cherokee families. Members of the Pony Club stole horses and cattle and committed other depredations designed to hasten the original owners from the land. Eventually, the mounted militia was tasked with rounding up the remaining Cherokees into removal forts and beginning the forced 800-mile march west now known as the Trail of Tears.

Book Two of The Twenty-Niners of the Georgia Gold Rush, The Maiden and the Mountie, releases February 17. A marriage of necessity. A secret buried deep. In Georgia’s gold country, love may be the most dangerous treasure of all. https://www.amazon.com/Maiden-Mountie-Twenty-Niners-Georgia-Gold-ebook/dp/B0FNYFLLJ3/

Denise Farnsworth, formerly Denise Weimer, writes historical and contemporary romance mostly set in Georgia and also serves as a freelance editor and the Acquisitions & Editorial Liaison for Wild Heart Books. A wife and mother, she always pauses for coffee, chocolate, and old houses. 

Connect with Denise here:

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