Mary Cartwright lost her husband, Joshua on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, days before her twentieth birthday. For the next twelve years, she was a teacher in the public schools of Hagerstown, MD.

Her friend, Minerva shocked the ladies of the Zion Church Ladies Sewing Circle by advertising for a husband, and then going off to Texas to marry a responder to her ad. Mary’s loneliness, and the lack of any prospects of ending the solitude caused her to talk to Minerva about her journey. After explaining, Minerva gave Mary a copy of the Matrimonial News. Mary placed an ad of her own.

Mary’s ad was answered by a widower with a five year old girl, After correspondence, they agreed to meet and marry.

Read about the early problems of the marriage, her childbirth and the Kiowa Indian raids .

The book is set in Hagerstown, MD and Grapevine, Texas in 1875. Grapevine is a small town twenty miles from Fort Worth. Both the Kiowa and Comanche tribes were active during this time frame.