Each Bright River a Novel of the Oregon Country Vintage Book by Mildred Masterson Mcneilly C1950

Reference id: FNjR2GxEdtY 863

Vintage book "Each Bright River: A Novel of the Oregon Country" by Mildred Masterson McNeilly, copyright 1950.

Foreword

It would take more than one volume to recount the deeds, or even to mention the names, of all those who played a part in the struggle for the Oregon Country. The names of only a few appear here; Dr. McLoughlin and Peter Ogden; the British officers; Joseph Lane and Isaac Stevens; Sheriff Joe Meek; Peter Burnett, James Marshall, Michael Simmons, George Bush, Captain Irving, Smith and Sylvester, The Denny Party and Dexter Horton, They, like the Indians, Delaware Tom, Yellow Serpent, Fire Crows, Tomahas and Tiloukaikt, appear in this story in the roles which they actually played and which, in each case is a matter of historical record. Each of these true characters bears his own name.

The fictional characters, Kitty and Jessie Pearl, Fletcher and Sunset, Philip Davis, Lisa and Bull Le Seuer, Charlefour and Polly Careless, Dr. Manning, Read and Evans, Captains Craig and Kemp, Mr. Sims, the Sparks, the Hansens, the Trainors, the McNairs, the Lintons and Deaf Wilson, John Homet, Dundee and Correll, Foster and Williams, and the Indian Dick Tom, are all purely imaginary and are in no instance drawn from life. If any of them bears a resemblance to any actual person it is by coincidence alone; or perhaps because the courageous, dream-driven Westerners had some traits in common; because they were, as the British put it, a "special breed."

"Of historic -- and regional -- appeal -- this tale of soft-born Kitty Gatewood, who is scaled down to size by the new lands of Oregon -- its hardships and its pioneers, from 1845 on. For Kitty, come to marry wandering Davis, and bring him back to the South where his inheritance waits him, finds her Southern upbringing -- although it conquers -- has not taught her how to cope with rough, and more than ready males, with a country which forces not only hardihood but also loyalty. Her match is Fletcher -- who knows she is not to be despised -- and whose love for her, at first distasteful and unwanted, proves her the stalwart female she really is, and her country turns out to be the U.S., in all its vulgar strength and vigor, instead of Britain -- or even her own Southland. It is the story of the years of frontier opening, of worn but willing immigrants, of the Whitman massacre, sickness, and, often, sudden death; of Kittys being stranded in an alien land, of her marriage to faithful, kind Sunset Lee after Davis suicide, and of her eventual arrival in Fletcher long-waiting arms. Of greater substance than the usual period romancing, this should win a faithful female audience." - Kirkus