Sweetwater by Dorothy Garlock

A very gentle 19th century love story. Set in Sweetwater, Wyoming Territory in the mid 1860s. Jenny is a teacher, fleeing with her young sisters from Pennsylvania, where the young sisters had had a very hard life at the hands of the husband of their elder sister. Fleeing to another county where, if she can handle the hardships for 5 years, Jenny will be able to buy some land. Teaching in the Indian territory is not going to be easy, however, the difficulties of life are not easy caused by not the Indians,but by the local reservation agent who is purely at the beck and call of his father in law. Both are nasty men, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. A local man Trell will help them cope with the hardships of their new home. He stumbles across a young girl whose family has been torn apart by the agent's men, and she and her grandmother flea to Jenny for not only safety but also that they can help Jenny. A firm friendship is formed by all of them, then Trell's brother enters the scene....

A very gentle novel, I really enjoyed the upbeat behavior of Jenny, who was possibly a woman before her time