Pleasance's First Love: A Six Brides for Six Gideons Novella (Book 3) (Grandma's Wedding Quilts 6)
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7. Zebulon's Bride by Patricia PacJac Carroll, 01-14-17
He’s vowed not to marry until he reaches Montana. Then he meets her, but she has other ideas.
Zebulon Benton dreams of going to Montana, but he’s the only son and his mother doesn’t want him to go and his father needs help with the family store. Unknown to Zeb, his mother sends off for a mail order bride. After all, if Zeb marries and settles down, he won’t want to leave.
Enter Amy Gordon from New York. She appears to be the perfect bride for Zeb. Except she also wants to go to Montana and nothing is going to stop her especially her love for Zeb.
8. Ione's Dilemma by Linda Carroll-Brad, 01-16-17
Relocating from Des Moines to the Texas frontier brings more challenges than socialite Ione has ever faced. All she wants is to avoid scandal but local carpenter Morgan is intent on courtship.
9. Josie's Dream by Angela Raines, 01-17-17
Could Doctor Josephine (Josie) Forrester and Lawman William Murphy get past their beliefs about life and love and find the future they were meant to have?
10. Chase's Story by P.A. Estelle, 01-18-17
Chase wanted no part of going to college or following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a Doctor. His dream involved cattle and horses and he follows that dream to the Arizona Territory. One cold, rainy day his life takes a turn when he finds himself looking down the muzzle of a Colt Walker barely being held up by a woman who has been badly beaten along with her three-year old son. Will she be someone Chase could let into his heart or someone who could destroy his life?
11. Gloria's Song by Kathryn Albright, 01-19-17
Gloria always does the proper thing, the expected thing as the daughter of a shipping tycoon. Having, Colin, a local tavern pianist, help her with an audition is crazy. But if music can cross class lines… can it also harmonize two hearts?
Will Gloria agree to marry a man chosen by her parents, or will she find courage to shun tradition and grasp a future, insecure and thrilling, beside the man she loves.
12. Tad's Treasure by Shanna Hatfield, 01-20-17
Tad Palmer makes a promise to his dying friend to watch over the man’s wife and child. Will his heart withstand the vow when he falls in love with the widow and her son?
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Unlike two of my favorite Colorado settings (Mountain Home, Colorado, and Prosperity, Colorado), Leadville is a real place. The town had incorporated, updated its name to reflect its fame, and offered nearly every business a miner could need.
As Leadville, Colorado, is a real place, and significant in the annals of mining history, I clung to the truth in almost all ways. The story of Horace Austin Warner Tabor, his wife, Augusta Pierce Tabor, and his mistress-turned-second-wife, Baby Doe Tabor is true and well-documented. While these people are barely mentioned in the story and serve only as a reference, the timing is accurate…right down to the opening of the Tabor Opera House—which, of course, caught Jacob’s eye. The location of the Tabor Opera House, Leadville street names, the names of banks, name of the railroad operating through Leadville—it’s all true to history, with one minor exception.
I fudged the year when the railroad first came to Leadville, moving this historical occurrence up by one year.
I wrote Pleasance Benton arriving in Leadville by passenger train in the summer of 1879. Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad’s first revenue trains reached Leadville on July 2, 1880 (according to Wikipedia). Construction on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached Leadville about three weeks later.
I was able to hold fast to the historically accurate throughout the rest of the story. I enjoy research—perhaps a little too much—especially when it feeds and informs story elements, such as the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis which set off a several year depression. By 1879, this depression was mostly resolved in the United States. “Silver was (is) King” at that time, and a rush of prospectors flooded into the Leadville area. Even with the local Leadville economy flowing with silver (and gold), investors were leery. Not all claims paid out. Not all men had what it took to work diligently, day after day, week after week, and year after year.
This financial economy was a perfect place to add conflict to the weight Jacob Gideon already carried. I’ve mentioned, often, the truth that “no story = no conflict”. Readers love to see characters in trouble, facing legitimate challenges, because that’s how we understand a man’s mettle. Light a fire under a man to see what he’s made of.
Leadville was a true “boom town”. The population erupted as a result of a big silver strike right about the time this story is set. In 1860, Abe Lee discovered gold, putting the two-mile-high mining camp on the map. Nearly twenty years later, in 1877, the Silver Boom began, and Cloud City renamed itself Leadville (the source of silver). By 1879, the population had swelled to over 40,000 reported inhabitants, and by 1800, Leadville was second only to Denver, as the largest city in Colorado. Silver reigned, making multi-millionaires of a lucky handful, until the Sherman Silver Act of 1893 caused a sharp decline. Leadville gradually shrunk to a population of about 2,500.
Another historical accuracy that contributed to the rising conflict Jacob and Pleasance face is the truth about the lawless “Old West” nature of Leadville—particularly in 1879. Mart Duggan had wrestled the lawless elements of Leadville into submission. Most of this lawlessness was generated by the surge in growth, from roughly 300 miners to a bustling hive of activity after the silver strike—to 15,000. The two marshals preceding Duggan had both vacated the position—T.H. Harrison had been beaten and run out of town, and George O’Connor had been shot by one of his own deputies. Duggan succeeded, and Leadville’s rougher men settled down, but only until he left the badge behind in April, 1879 (three months before Pleasance’s First Love opens on the streets of Leadville). Duggan was replaced by Pat Kelly. Within months, Leadville had reverted to rowdy, lawless, and uncontrollable. Interestingly enough (I found this fascinating!)—once the town was totally out of control, the city council fired Kelly, sent for Duggan, who arrived in late December 1879 (too late to help Jacob Gideon), and had whipped Leadville into submission by April 1880.
The timing was too perfect. How could I ignore Leadville’s accurate history? Might as well pile on the conflict, as history provided it.
As typical, I’ll share several blog articles with you on my website, Sweet Americana Sweethearts, and Romancing the Genres, detailing tidbits of history behind this book that I found fascinating. Subjects like Pleasance’s “double-topped” quilt (instead of a pieced top and a plain back), pioneer quilting bees, the Flying Geese quilt design Grandma Mary selected for Pleasance, the source of Pleasance’s name, and so many more. I tend to post links to my blog articles on social media. You can connect with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter—and all of these links are easy to find on my website.
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Learn more about Kristin Holt’s Series:
THE HUSBAND-MAKER TRILOGY
PROSPERITY’S MAIL-ORDER BRIDES
SIX BRIDES FOR SIX GIDEONS
HOLIDAYS IN MOUNTAIN HOME
And collaborative works ~
on her website ~or~ Amazon’s Kristin Holt Page
Hi! I'm Kristin Holt, USA Today bestselling author of Sweet Romances (G- and PG-rated) set in the Victorian American West.
While secular in nature, my titles are “Appropriate for All Audiences” and appeal to selective readers and fans of Christian historical romance.
I write frequent articles (or view recent posts easily on my Home Page, scroll down) about the nineteenth century American west–every subject of possible interest
to readers, amateur historians, authors…as all of these tidbits surfaced while researching for my books. I also blog monthly at Sweet Americana Sweethearts (first Friday of each month) and Romancing the Genres (third Tuesday of each Month).
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