Little Miss of Darke County: The Origins of Annie Oakley
Covering the period 1865 – 1872, this novel explores the early years of Phoebe Anne Moses and her transformation into Annie Oakley, a legendary figure of 19th century America.
Born into a large family on an Ohio farm that barely supports them, Phoebe faces many setbacks. First, her father dies, and the family is left even more impoverished. Then her mother remarries to a man from a nearby town, and Phoebe is forced away from her beloved fields and forests, where she has discovered the joys of hunting with a rifle. Even before she knew how to handle a rifle properly, she showed talent as a marksman. Now in town, she feels cramped and miserable.
But the new husband dies. Phoebe is taken to live with the Edingtons, who are kind, but she does not fit well with the other girls. She is happy to be taken by a couple she later calls “the wolves” and who take her out into the countryside again.
Eventually, she escapes from the cruelty and exploitation of “the wolves” and jumps on a train, where she meets Sheriff John Hicks Adams. Taking a liking to the rough girl with a rifle, he pays her train fare and buys her a Western outfit. She reunites with her family and eventually starts her sharp-shooting career and meets Frank Butler, whom she later marries.
This is a thoroughly researched book, full of telling detail clearly defining the time and place. Each scene is crafted to provide a vivid picture and a sense of immediacy. Krebs is clearly passionate about his subject. He presents a fictionalized tale of a young girl facing vast difficulties and coming through them to become one of the most loved—and most powerful—female pioneers whose name is synonymous with the American West.
