Katy of Rose Valley: A New Beginning

Katy of Rose Valley: A New Beginning, based on actual events, continues the story of little Katharine “Katy” Mueller and her family as they start their new life in the Turkey Ridge Valley of Turner County in the Dakota Territory.

In 1874, Katy Mueller and her family were among eleven German-Russian Mennonites who fled their village of Futtor in Ukraine, Russia, for religious freedom. After traveling through Europe, crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a steamship, and then across half of America, the family finally arrived in the Dakota Territory to begin a new life.
Come along with little Katy and her family as they navigate their first few years on the barren, wind-blown prairie of the Dakota Territory homesteading in Turner County. No longer living in a village, Katy and her cousins are separated and spread out throughout the Turkey Ridge Valley. Having left their comfortable homes in Russia, they now find themselves living in dirt sod houses, contending with loneliness and separation from each other as they toil to break the hard prairie sod to create new farmsteads. Witness the many misfortunes and disasters they endure during their first three years on the prairie. Facing locusts, prairie fires, drought, blizzards, and dwindling food supplies, these resilient pioneers overcame a multitude of heartaches and suffering to conquer the vast land before them while showing an indomitable spirit and unwavering faith to create a new home in America.