Renewal With Her Cowboy

By Doreen Milstead

Mercy Found Along The Oregon Trail: A Child Leads The Way, is about a young, single Amish woman traveling with her parents along the Oregon Trail. She is both adamant about remaining unmarried, becoming a schoolteacher, and having many children. The only problem with her plan is that Amish schoolteachers must remain single and have no children of their own. She is very conflicted but strong willed and with the help of an older woman friend on the train, a young man who loves her, and a very large surprise found along the trail, she may just be able to overcome the odds.

Moses Diamond: Baby Left Along The Oregon Trail & Rescued By Christian Pioneers, is a heartwarming story about a poor wagon train making its way along the Oregon Trail. The train may be poor but the Christians on it are strong. A Native American baby is found along the trail by one young man and he takes it immediately to the wagon train. There are no nursing mothers on the small train and no source of food for the infant. The young man and one experienced woman and one very young woman come to a unique solution to help the baby thrive and this has a Grapes Of Wrath feel about it. Still, there are many obstacles both internal and external before they reach their destination.

A Big Surprise For The Arizona Rancher - A woman from an upper class English family decides to become a mail order bride to an Arizona rancher, but is shocked when she realizes the potentially harsh life ahead on the days-long journey to his remote ranch by oxcart; and it’s a lonely one – accompanied by his silent Native American ranch hand.

A Hard Fought Journey To Love - An English woman fallen on hard times decides to travel to America and her soon to be husband, but along the way there are many hazards including a life-changing train journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Hart
• Release date: Dec 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370739486

Book preview

Renewal With Her Cowboy

By

Doreen Milstead

Copyright 2017 Susan Hart

Mercy Found Along The Oregon Trail: A Child Leads The Way

Moses Diamond: Baby Left Along The Oregon Trail & Rescued By Christian Pioneers

A Big Surprise For The Arizona Rancher

A Hard Fought Journey To Love

Mercy Found Along The Oregon Trail: A Child Leads The Way

Synopsis: Mercy Found Along The Oregon Trail: A Child Leads The Way, is about a young, single Amish woman traveling with her parents along the Oregon Trail. She is both adamant about remaining unmarried, becoming a schoolteacher, and having many children. The only problem with her plan is that Amish schoolteachers must remain single and have no children of their own. She is very conflicted but strong willed and with the help of an older woman friend on the train, a young man who loves her, and a very large surprise found along the trail, she may just be able to overcome the odds.

Long ago and far from where I am now, I lived a lonely life in Arizona. I am going on near eighty years old and even though my body tells me I am old, my mind thinks I am not. I haven’t forgotten anything yet, and one of my fondest memories I have are meeting a young woman by the name of Halle Beth.

She was Amish and strictly Amish too, I might add. Her father and mother were a devout couple and both of them growing up in Amish communities, they raised Halle the same way they were raised.

It might have never mattered before, or even after; but while they were on the Oregon Trail, their rules Amish lived by were pretty unbreakable and Halle found out it would be a hard long journey taking the Oregon Trail, but even longer trying to get Amish rules bent.

I met Halle Beth at a crossroads between life and death. There were many wagon trains on their way to Oregon while we both were traveling along, some heading out to California and some to Oregon. Then, there were the wagons that would part ways anywhere between.

While my train was moving right along, we came upon other wagons that had evidently been up ahead of us for several days. When we first rolled up beside it, we thought the people must have been down by a river basin or collecting wood from the forest. There was not one person in the wagon that we could see.

Since the wagon was sitting crossways, nearly in the middle of the trail, they were in our way of passing and we would have to get them to move it for our train. As we looked around, someone went around to the far back of the wagon, where it was angled down towards a little hollow.

That’s when we realized where everyone was. It was a hideous sight and many of us started to scream, but words would hardly come out. We all took to hiding in some spot so we would not be seen when we heard riders coming upon us.

Since there were already dead bodies lying on the ground, they might think that was all there was there. We all were lying very quietly in hopes to not be seen. As the riders got closer, we had been right -- they were more Indians. When they got to the empty wagons, they saw all the bodies lying around savagely killed and I guess that pleased them enough, because they scavenged through the wagons, taking what they wanted and went on their way.

That’s why I said that I met Halle at a crossroads of life and death. That was one of the most near death experiences I have ever had.

The wagon had been attacked by Indians it looked like, from some horrible signs. We could not run to get out of there fast enough. From the looks of the bodies, the attack had been very recent and so we feared of course that we too could be in danger.

As we collected ourselves, we also collected every gun known we had and we got back into our wagons and carried on. We were fine for miles and miles and probably went another twenty miles before seeing anything out of sorts.

Along the trail you really get to know the people you are traveling with, whether it’s from sitting by a fire at night to keep warm or washing clothes down by a river bed. You share a lot, and you hold a lot in as well. Everyone has secrets, no doubt about it, but after you are on the trail for months, the secrets will begin to eat away at the most well-kept person. There’s something about the rugged trails mixed with the beauty God has made and it makes one think about their lives and ask themselves if they have lived them right.

I got to know Halle Beth when she stopped by and asked me if I had any clothes I needed washing, because she was going to wash a few things and had room to carry some more. I thought that was awfully kind for such a young girl to ask such a thing and I thought of her as being a new person I might like to get to know.

When we sat around the fire, I started to talk to her as much as I could. Her parents seemed to be overprotective at times, but as pretty as she was, who could blame them? One thing I realized about Halle right from the start was how badly she looked forward to having children.

I thought that she should try being a young girl first. It seemed she was in such a rush to grow up. Then, on the other hand, she was such a delightful young girl and I thought she would surely make a wonderful mother one day.

She would sit and talk about having eight, nine, or even ten children when she would get older. She had a secret though -- she did not want to get married. She wanted the babies without the man. I thought to myself that she was in a fine predicament, being Amish. She was dead serious though, when I thought she surely must be teasing with me.

This young beautiful girl had no desire to ever get married, but she wanted children more than anything. At the time, I wasn’t going to hide my thoughts and I asked her how that was going to work, especially with her being Amish.

She answered as honestly as she could have; she said it would not work. I had to agree. Then we were interrupted by her mother hollering for her to come and help her with the evening meal. She jumped up to her mother’s impatient yell, waved her hand sweetly and ran along the path.

Arizona was sure different from where I was along that trail, but I wasn’t sure where this girl would ever find a fulfilling life, the way she wants to live with all the babies and no man. In those days, women got married and that’s all there was to it.

I didn’t think that trail would lead to any kind of country that would be on her side about that one. I kind of chuckled to myself, thinking she was probably just teasing anyway, or blowing off some kind of steam. Perhaps she had recently broken up with some young man and she was still very upset.

What woman would want that many children and no man to help raise them?

She stayed on my mind for quite some time and I often wondered what put that child in that state. Was there a secret in her family? Maybe she had lost a young love in her life? Halle made an instant impression when you got to know her that was lasting and you found yourself thinking about her.

She was a fairly pretty girl with very big eyes that seemed deep as an ocean. Her skin was flawless and not too pale, which brought a golden glow about her. It was her voice that attracted you the most besides her delicate face.

It was a voice I had never heard before, full of quietness that people cannot seem to find in another’s touch. It made you ponder on it and wonder if she could heal the sick or wounded by just speaking to them.

She would always ask me about Arizona and what it was like to live there. She was originally from Arthur, Illinois and her family had moved to several communities and ended up living in Elkhart, Indiana when they finally decided to take the Oregon Trail out west.

She said she had an Aunt and Uncle that had settled in Oregon and her mother and father wanted to reunite with family and reconnect with lost relatives. She spoke about Illinois and Indiana like it was the boring place that it must be.

The only activities for her were church activities and she wanted to work outside the home. She was allowed to work in little fruit stands at local shops, but she longed to be a teacher. She was not quite old enough yet and she planned to become a teacher when she turned old enough.

According to Halle and the Amish rules, a teacher cannot be married, so that attracted her and she loved children, so she believed that would be the closest she would ever come to having children.

I had to agree with her look at reality and told her that would be my choice as well. This seemed to satisfy her when we would talk about children further. I also found out that she had seen much death for a girl so young.

Cholera had swept through Arthur when her family lived there and even some in the Amish community that worked outside the community had come down with it and not survived. She spoke about several couples she had known and she said that one would die and one would be left to carry on without the other.

I began to wonder if that was why she was afraid to fall in love and get married. Whatever the problem was with Halle, she feared marriage. We talked about every day, as my wagon was directly behind her family wagon as we traveled along. With each hardship, we all bound closer together like glue, helping each other get through it.

We had many roads that did not offer much road at all and we were left to struggling wagons trying to roll across the tops of rugged terrains, rocks and sometimes mud that went up to