Finding Grace

In 1893 Victorian sensibilities existed even in the expansion of the western United States to settlement. However, women were allowed to homestead and a single young woman could start a new life. Amanda Grace Baker is one of the women who embarked on that journey. She was smart, had common sense, and wanted to choose her own path. She left Iowa and the home of her widowed father and two siblings and headed south to the Oklahoma territory.Along the way she meets friends and enemies both. She befriends a widow and her two grown sons and a handsome cowboy. They take her under their wings and find she is no delicate flower, but a strong and sensible person and able to take care of herself. They share the journey and develop a lasting friendship.Grace learns everything from carpentry, how to kill and cook a rattlesnake, digging a well, and how to reuse what nature provides. Even the animals have their job to do. Her entrepreneurial spirit keeps the cellar full and although money is scarce, trade and barter are efficient ways to make it in the wilderness.In the winter she indulges in her creative spirit with oil painting, sewing and mending, and reading. She’s a lovely, well rounded young woman, with charming freckles and a willingness to see the possibilities of life in Oklahoma. Read more