Destiny’s Daughter

Combining the “American Dream” with the construction of the transcontinental railroad, Destiny’s Daughter captures the hearts of many would-be adventurers. As the Union Pacific’s parallel bands of gleaming silver painstakingly approach the mighty Rockies, “Hell on Wheels” towns spring up across the once desolate plains while the rip-roaring cattle towns of Ellsworth and Dodge boom into existence. In 1867, Tom O’Leary, driven by a wanderlust spirit, joins a young Cleve Armstrong on the construction crew of the Union Pacific, leaving his family to care for the Kansas farm. Despite the unavoidable droughts, relentless blizzards and inevitable tornadoes, the family manages to thrive without him. Subsequent years find the lives of the O’Leary children—enchanting Amanda, Billy, Katy and Johnny, criss-crossed with tragedy as well as filled with the thrill and excitement of the wild, raucous West. As it introduces the O’Leary family and its fight to survive, Destiny’s Daughter captures the hearts and souls of the men and women who had the courage and stamina to tame the barren Midwest.