Marriage, Murder, and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century California

Author(s): Jo M. Haraf

$21.99

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Series: Murders, Mysteries, and Misdemeanors
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 9781634993470
Related Topics: California, True Crime, West, Latest

DESCRIPTION

In 1832, the captain of the brigantine Catalina ordered Scotsman James Black, dying of typhus, abandoned at Monterey, California. Nursed by J. B. R. Cooper's wife, Black survived to hunt the last of California's sea otters, defend San Francisco from invading Russians under General Vallejo, and drive cattle to feed gold rush miners.

Black's ranching and dairy empire, founded on a single Mexican land grant, ultimately encompassed 20,000 Marin County acres. Black, his wife, and daughter enjoyed the privileges of the landed gentry until January 1864 when his cherished wife died in their son-in-law's dental chair.

An obsessive resentment, excesses of whisky, and a scheming second wife consumed Black's bereavement. Augustina learned after her father's death that she had been written out of his will.

For four years and across two counties, she fought her stepmother for a fair portion of her father's $15,000,000 estate. After multiple notorious trials,

Augustina gained a partial victory—but would she receive the land and gold the jury awarded her?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Jo M. Haraf has been published in the California Writers Club Literary Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Ragnarok. She edited and co-authored Journal Across the Plains, 1852 (Fonthill, 2020), a history of the Verdenal family's 1852 journey from Missouri to California. Jo earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Pacific University. She is a proud member of the Historical Novel Society and the Biographers International Organization. After residing in Marin, California, for a quarter of a century, she retired to Florida's Suncoast with her husband and a scruffy terrier whose adoration sustains her through revisions and rejections. Learn more at www.JoHaraf.com

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781634993470
FORMAT: Paperback
PUBLISHER: America Through Time
DATE: 9/27/2021
STATE: California
SERIES: America Through Time
IMAGES: 68
PAGES: 96
DIMENSIONS: 6.5 (w) x 9.25 (h)

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