By the time John Carson returned from fighting in the American Revolution, Hester, the woman he pledged to marry, discovered her first husband was still alive. So John set his heart on claiming a homestead west of the Appalachian Mountains. It was in the Kentucky Territory that the delightful Quaker Polly Lewis, captured his heart and to her he also gave his pledge. But when he returned to Virginia, Hester was back, truly widowed this time, and just as beautiful as he remembered.