After losing two Seminole Wars, the U.S. government passes the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, promising free land to armed settlers with enough courage to settle in Seminole-inhabited southwest Florida. The men and women of the Wilcox family accept the challenge and drive their cattle from Georgia into southwest Florida to set up a cattle station, which flourishes until the Civil War. Desperate to hide the cattle from the approaching Union Army, they drive the herds into the dangerous Myakka River swamps, where the family suffers disease, raids, death, and tragedy. They emerge after the war with a family mandate. They have been blessed to survive, and in return they will go forward to prosper and do good. Follow the Wilcox men and women from 1844-1944, as they survive hostile Indians, wilderness, Civil War, the great hurricane of 1926, the Great Depression, and the start of WWII. This novel reaches across one hundred years of a single family"s loss, tragedy, love and triumph. Through the people of Myakka Mandate, Mary Helen Wachob offers a fresh and meaningful look at the inventiveness, perseverance and dignity of pioneer women you won"t forget.