Little Miss of Darke County: The Origins of Annie Oakley: A Novel

Summary

Darke County, Ohio, 1866. Young Phoebe Ann Moses lives a life of peace and harmony on a farm with her Quaker family and has dreams of living a hunter’s life in the woods.

When Jacob Moses, the beloved patriarch, tragically dies, Phoebe’s life is sent into a tailspin. The family suffers in squalor as they move from place to place, until Phoebe is sent to live in the Infirmary, where the orphans taunt and bully her. Desperate to start over, she volunteers to live in a secluded cabin in the woods with a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf, to help them raise their baby.

Phoebe finds she is in grave danger: She becomes a prisoner and slave to the couple, whom she dubs “the Wolves.” Will she ever escape and rejoin her family?

This gripping tale is the origins story of one of America’s greatest heroes: renowned sharpshooter and performer Annie Oakley. It serves as a testament to the strength and guile of the nineteenth-century female human spirit and is more relevant today than ever.