A TRAIL OR A DEATH SENTENCE? by Marisa Masterson

Troubles. What's a plot without them? 

Jack Poston's troubles comes in pairs. He needs to make more than simply $3 a piece for his cattle. His mail-order bride is late arriving.

He must travel through war-torn states to push his cattle northward when no one else is willing to brave the trip from Texas to Missouri in 1865. His late arriving bride insists she come with him. Thus, The Bride on the Shawnee Trail is born. From the book:

“Can’t spend more time on this, Caroline. The boys and I need to drive the animals closer to the river today. We only stopped so I could meet up with you and get the marrying done.”

“Well, it’s done.”

She looked at her boots as she talked. Not a good sign, he was discovering. She always insisted on having her own way when she did that.

Her voice lowered and took on a submissive note. “I’m ready to help Stubby with the
meals.”

Jack took off his Stetson and slapped the new-fangled hat against his leg. The maker had started selling them last year. Already he and two of his men wore their Stetsons daily. No keeping this hat only for good, not when it was such a help against heat and rain.

“Caroline, you need to go to my ranch.”

Before she could argue, the old cook piped into the conversation. “I qu—”

He did not allow Stubby to finish. The man would not go on the cattle drive if he did. With Stubby quitting, Caroline would be forced to learn everything on her own. Jack could not foist that burden onto his new bride. Bad enough she had to start on another trip right after finishing the long ordeal of getting to Texas.

“Alright, Stubby. I surrender.” Jack beat the hat against his thigh once more. 

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And what a trail the Shawnee was! The American Civil War all but closed what was also called the Texas Road or the Kansas Trail. In reality, no one drove herds north from Texas in 1865. The cattle drives resumed in 1866, though not peacefully.

While the war had stopped, the battles with unhappy settlers continued. The Texas longhorns brought what was called the Spanish Fever, killing farmers' livestock. Actually from a tick, the longhorns were immune while cows grazing on that same land they crossed were not.

Jayhawkers

Often, vigilantes tried to block herds from entering their land. Drovers learned to skirt those settlers. 

One of the first to resume the drives was a young cowhand named James Daugherty. He joined a cattle drive in the spring of 1866. After more than a thousand miles, he neared the Kansas line with the herd. Anti-slavery vigilantes known as Jayhawkers ambushed in the night, stampeding the longhorns and killing one of the trail hands. Daugherty managed to recover 350 steers and sell them at Fort Scott rather than his original destination. (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/shawnee-trail)

Six states passed legislation to block the cattle drives in 1867. Because of unrest as well as the risk to the settlers' livestock, the Shawnee trail became obsolete. A new and well-known route resulted--The Chisholm Trail.

Jack Poston longs for more than beans to eat. In need of a wife to cook for him and to tend the chickens, he sends for a mail-order bride. When she arrives later than he expected, it throws his plans into disarray. He must leave for a cattle drive, while she heads to his ranch.

Having lost two grooms, Caroline refuses to lose sight of her new husband. She determines to keep him safe from the unknown danger that lurks on the Shawnee Trail. But, as they face the hardships of the trail, Caroline realizes another real threat follows her.

Will they find a love strong enough to survive the treacherous journey and bring them together, or will danger ultimately tear them apart?

For fans of western romance and suspense, The Bride on the Shawnee Trail is a must-read. Don't miss out on this thrilling tale of love, danger, and survival. Buy now before the price changes!

From Longhorns to No Horns!

by Kathryn Albright

Recently, I had to research different types of cattle here in America for my most newest story, Wedding at Rocking S Ranch that takes place on a ranch. Oak Grove was a railroad town that blossomed as a result of its location and the cattle drives from Texas. Sure, Longhorns came from Texas, but was that the kind of cattle that would be found on a ranch in Kansas? I had to know. I also had to check the history of barbed wire.

1870 marked the start of the big cattle drives into Kansas. 300,00 arrived that year. The next year that amount doubled. Three-fifths of the cattle were "stock cattle" which means they were yearlings, heifers, cows and steers younger than four years old. Abilene, Kansas, Wichita and Dodge City became the towns (and later cities) that truly boomed with the transporting of cattle to market.

Many of the Longhorns didn't immediately board the train and head to points farther east, but wintered in Kansas, existing on the buffalo-grass prairie. Although barbed wire had been invented and was in use, the sectioning off of large parcels of land hadn't happened yet in Kansas in 1879 at the time my story takes place. Cattle still roamed free and had to be watched over by cowboys. At the Rocking S Ranch, the ranch-house and the crops had fences around them to keep the cattle out of the corn and alfalfa. This was known as "fenced out." Further east, a farmer would use wood and barbed wire to enclose a pasture, which was known as "fenced in."

In my story, I have the owner of the ranch looking into crossbreeding his longhorns with another breed of cattle to make a healthier, more profitable herd. He has brought in Black Angus to give this a try. Black Angus first came to Kansas in 1873 when George Grant transported them from Scotland. Where the longhorns were hardy, they were a tougher meat and had a wild-streak and could be difficult to manage. Angus had a gentle nature and were more susceptible to extremes in weather. Their meat is more tender and has a better flavor that the longhorns. Angus weigh between 850 and 1000 pounds when mature.

When Grant took his four Angus bulls to the fair in Kansas City Livestock Exposition that year, the local people didn't know what to think of them. These cattle had no horns! (Called polled, which means naturally hornless.) But Grant had the last laugh when he successfully crossed his bulls with native Texas longhorns. The calves were hardier, hornless, and weighed more. Between 1878 and 1883, twelve hundred Angus cattle were imported to the Midwest. Cross-breeding has steadily improved the hardiness of the Angus here in America.

And there are Red Angus! Red Angus occur as the result of a recessive gene. They are the same as their black relatives except they are actually more tolerant of the hot weather. At one time, The Angus Association barred the registration of Red Angus in an attempt to promote a solid black breed. Likely that is one of the reasons they are fewer in number. Eventually, The Red Angus Association of America formed when breeders searched out and collected the Red Angus from the black herds.

Although I used a lot of this information in Wedding at Rocking S Ranch, it was sprinkled in with a light touch. In historical romance, it is the relationship between the two protagonists that carry the story after all! 

When Cassandra Stewart fulfills her husband’s dying wish by visiting the ranch he loved, she plans to sell it. But then she meets his best friend. As aloof, ruggedly handsome Wolf shows Cassandra the value of life in the prairies, tenderness begins to grow from their shared pain into something more…
Maybe there’s a future for her at the Rocking S Ranch after all…

 "The plot was riveting. I couldn’t put it down even when it was well past my bed time."
Long & Short Reviews

Available at Amazon, Harlequin, and Barnes and Noble!

Dust, manure and flies...and romance

The setting of Ellsworth, Kansas for my Brides with Grit series, was easy to work with because it was a major cattle shipping town between 1872 to 1875. 

Abilene, Kansas was famous, being the first place to ship cattle by railroad to eastern towns in 1867, but that ended in 1871 when businesses and farmers got tired of the damage and disease the herds caused in the area.

Ellsworth, Kansas, 60 miles west of Abilene, became the new town to ship out of between 1872 to 1875. (The photo above is Ellsworth in 1873.)

One can find a vast amount of information on the internet about the cattle drives which went through Kansas in the 1870's. Here's some interesting tidbits, written by F. B Streeter in 1935, for an article in the Kansas Historical Quarterly.

As a means of advertising the new trail and the shipping points on the line, the Kansas Pacific issued a pamphlet and map entitled, Guide Map of the Great Texas Cattle Trail From Red River Crossing to the Old Reliable Kansas Pacific Railway. The writer has located only two editions of this pamphlet: one issued in 1872, the other in 1875. To quote from the 1875 edition:

Drovers are recommended to make Ellis, Russell, Wilson's, Ellsworth and Brookville the principal points for their cattle for the following reasons: Freedom from petty annoyances of settlers, arising from the cattle trespassing upon cultivated fields, because there is wider range, an abundance of grass and water, increased shipping facilities and extensive yard accommodations. Large and commodious hotels may be found in all these places, and at Ellsworth, especially, the old "Drovers' cottage," so popular with the trade for years, will be found renovated and enlarged. The banking house of D. W. Powers & Co., established at Ellsworth in 1873, in the interest of the cattle business, will remain at this point and continue their liberal dealings as in the past.

As stated above, Ellsworth became the principal shipping point for Texas cattle on the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1872. The first three droves of longhorns that season arrived in Ellsworth early in June. These droves numbered 1,000 head each. Two weeks later a total of twenty-eight herds, numbering from 1,000 to 6,000 head each, had arrived and many more were on the way. The fresh arrivals contained a total of 58,850 head of longhorns. These, together with over 40,000 head which had wintered in the county, made a total of more than 100,000 head of Texas cattle in Ellsworth county. 

That season 40,161 head were transported from Ellsworth, or one fourth of the total number marketed over the Kansas Pacific...Besides those shipped by rail from Ellsworth, about 50,000 head were driven to California and the territories from that place. In the months of June and July more than 100,000 head of beef and stock cattle changed hands at Ellsworth. Drovers found buyers on their arrival, enabling them to close out at a good price and return to their homes.

The prices paid for cattle that season were as follows: $19 to $22 for beeves; $15 to $18 for three-year-olds; $9 to $10 for two-year olds; $12 for cows; and $6 for yearlings. 

My first thought on reading this? Wow! That's a lot of cattle to surround the town! 

My second? Dust, manure and flies..and a good setting for a western romance...

Here's the description for RANIA ROPES A RANCHER. 

A sweet historical romance set in 1873. 
Rania Hamner and her family emigrated from Sweden fourteen years ago to work on a Texas ranch, working cattle and herding them up the Chisholm Trail. Something in her life on the trail caused her to doubt her worth, and her ability to trust a man enough to become his wife. Once the family buys a homestead in Kansas, she meets a rancher who begins to make her believe she can trust and fall in love after all. 
Rancher Jacob Wilerson noticed Rania last year when she rode drag behind a herd of longhorns—right down Main Street of Ellsworth, Kansas. He’s been waiting for her family to return this spring with another Texas herd to the booming cowtown, because he hopes to rope her into staying permanently on his ranch—the way she had already roped his heart. 
When Rania's past attacks with new danger, she decides to fight for all she's worth because she realizes she wants to be with Jacob forever. 
When Jacob realizes Rania is in danger, he rushes to save her, whether or not she still loves him, hoping to rope Rania—his heart—once more, as she has roped his. 

Brides with Grit series in order: 
Rania Ropes a Rancher (Rania and Jacob) 
Millie Marries a Marshal (Millie and Adam) 
Hilda Hogties a Horseman (Hilda and Noah) 
Cora Captures a Cowboy (Cora and Dagmar) 
Sarah Snares a Soldier (Sarah and Marcus) 
Cate Corrals a Cattleman (Cate and Isaac) 
Darcie Desires a Drover (Darcie and Reuben) 
Tina Tracks a Trail Boss (Tina and Leif) (Future release) 
Also read, Lilly: Bride of Illinois, a spin-off book in the American Mail-Order Brides Series
 
Here's the free links to RANIA ROPES A RANCHER.  Enjoy!

Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iTunes

Linda Hubalek

Website | Amazon Author Page | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

New Release! Cate Corrals a Cattleman

Cate Corrals a Cattleman, book 6 in the Brides with Grit Series is now available! It was fun to write the mother's story this time. Cate has helped her children find love with the right spouse, so now it was her turn.

Here's the story line.
A clean, sweet western romance, set in 1873. Widowed ranch woman Cate Wilerson’s four children are now all married and she’s enjoying being a grandma. But, she’s only in her forties, so she could be married again for many years. Cate’s ready to tie the knot again and she has already picked her groom.

Cattleman Isaac Connely bought a ring for Cate almost thirty years ago, but Moses Wilerson, a friend to both of them, asked Cate to marry him first. After serving in the Civil War, Isaac followed the Wilersons to Kansas and builds a cattle empire with his inheritance. He respected Cate’s and Moses’ marriage, comforted her through the loss of her husband and remained a friend of the Wilerson family.

Now he’s ready to propose—with the same ring—but someone from his past appears on his doorstep, dredging up a dark secret making him doubt his worth to be Cate’s husband.

Can Cate let go of past hurts and help Isaac realize he is not to blame, so he will finally ask her to marry him?
You'll have to read Cate Corrals a Cattleman to find out what's in store for this middle-aged couple. Love can happen at any age!

Thanks for stopping by to enjoy today's Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog.

Linda Hubalek

Website | Amazon Author Page | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest