I have created this website to share with interested individuals and potential readers the research, process, and subject matter of this historical fiction novel that I am in the process of writing.

In 1868 my great-great-Grandfather, William Walter Smith and his wife Elizabeth settled, under The Homestead Act, a small acreage about 5 miles northwest of what was to become , 10 years later, the little farming community of McCune, Kansas. In 1884 his son, N.M. married Miss Cora Belle Wilson from McCune. The Wilsons were a family of eight, and the Smiths a family of 9. Getting to know those two families, and their marriages into other families in the town has provided me with a wealth of stories and some pretty long receipts for plastic flowers every Commemoration Day.

The great American writer from our neighboring state of Nebraska has said that there is a handful of stories common to our human experience. Though in the quote she doesn’t name them I would surely bet that, as in her novels, our McCune ancestors lived out some of those stories of hope and despair, wealth and struggles, and, of course, love and loss. My research into the town’s history during this era has provided some examples of these events that I am hoping to bring to life for you through the written word.