Courting Trouble

Tired of Waiting for a Match-Made-in-Heaven,
She'll Settle for One Made in Texas

Whether it's riding bikes, catching snakes, or sliding down banisters, Essie Spreckelmeyer just can't quite make herself into the ideal woman her hometown—and her mother—expect her to be. It's going to take an extraordinary man to appreciate her joy and spontaneity—or so says her doting oil-man father.

Unfortunately such a man doesn't appear to reside in Corsicana, Texas.

It's 1894, the year of Essie's thirtieth...