In 1886, seventeen-year-old mother Emma Lewis left her parents' home in Indiana and took a train west to the Dakota Territory. She was to join her husband, James, and start her new life as a married woman. With a mixture of excitement and sadness, she looked to the future that lay before her . . .

"October came in exceedingly hot and dry. Clouds of grasshoppers whirred over the plains, a desolate sight. Charley and Jim left for a few days to get supplies. Emma and the girls sat on the shady side of the house where she was teaching them to crochet. She noticed the acrid odor of smoke....