Far from your average historical novel or western, ‘Gone to Dallas: The Storekeeper 1856-1861’ is a compelling tale of migration, betrayal, death, and dreams — peppered with real people, places, and events. With a cast of interesting characters and more bumps and hazards than a wagon trail, ‘Gone to Dallas’ tells the unforgettable story of a formidable frontier woman in the context of true Texas history.
“Gone to Dallas” opens with Sara Darnell, the former Sara Pennington, noting to herself that although a disappointment in life, her recently deceased husband Morgan did make for a handsome corpse. The narrative then quickly backtracks to the couple’s decision to leave Tennessee and travel by wagon train to Texas in search of opportunity. They plan to open a store in the city of Dallas, located along the meandering Trinity River in North Texas.
After departing on the long journey, soon enough Morgan’s penchant for drunkenness and gambling – even a bit of womanizing – becomes apparent, much to Sara’s dismay. One night after sleeping under the stars near the northern border of Texas along the Red River, Morgan puts on his boots without checking them first. He is twice-bitten by a rattlesnake, never recovering nor setting eyes on Dallas before his demise.
Morgan’s untimely death forces Sara to make her way alone, although not without support from the numerous friends and acquaintances she makes along the way. One of her newfound allies is the real-life Sarah Cockrell, who figures prominently in this fictional narrative. As author Moore-Moore notes, Cockrell was almost certainly Dallas’ first millionaire. When her own husband was killed over an unpaid debt in a gunfight, she took their shared business forward, eventually amassing ownership of a quarter of downtown Dallas by the time she died in 1892.
Many of the historical details will be familiar to readers, such as the extensive supply lists for the wagon trains, and the generous land grants awarded to incoming settlers. Perhaps more interesting are tidbits like the fact that Dallas wasn’t much of a town in its early days. For example, it’s worth noting and often forgotten that San Antonio was the largest city in Texas until the 1930s, only after which did the cities of Houston and Dallas come to the fore as the commercial, banking, and industrial centers they remain today.
Deceit and avarice among a small but opportunistic portion of the settlers make up the better part of the conflict in ‘Gone to Dallas.’ When Sara refuses to sell her store or land to Novella Adison – an unscrupulous local businesswoman bent on creating monopolies for gambling, drinking, and prostitution – her henchmen harass the widow repeatedly. Not one to take things lying down, Sara enlists the aid of the Pinkertons to set things right, with some welcome and unexpected twists along the way.
The story ends with Texas opting to join the Confederacy in advance of the U.S. Civil War. The vote for secession from the Union was 46,153 in favor, and 17,747 against – not Texas’ finest hour. To his credit, President Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto, refused to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy and was thus forced to leave office.
It must be said that the book gives short shrift to any exploration or character development dealing with the morality of the wave of European descendants migrating westward across North America in ever-increasing numbers. Though Native Americans arrived thousands of years earlier, they were systematically displaced and eradicated by white settlers seeking land and fortunes. Works of historical fiction would generally benefit from a more robust perspective of events in the Old West.
The five-year saga centered around the exploits of the spirited Sara ends with Texas on the precipice of war against the Union. Sara and her new husband, Benjamin Brown, stand ready to face an uncertain future, leaving the novel ripe for a sequel. Despite whatever limitations in scope, ‘Gone to Dallas’ represents a fine piece of historical fiction that will content readers of all ages.
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