The Prairie Queen

Catalog Note *The Prairie Queen: Tom Western, the Texan* by W. J. Hamilton is a frontier romance serialized in this 1871 Beadle and Adams dime novel. The narrative introduces Arthur Dunham, a mysterious settler on the Colorado River in Texas with a hidden past, his wife, and their beautiful daughter Mabel. The story depicts the Texas Rangers tracking a horse thief, during which their leader Jack Fenway stops at the Dunham ranche and compliments Mabel's beauty. After they depart, Mabel rides across the prairie and discovers a hanged corpse labeled "HORSE-THIEF" by the Rangers, executed by frontier justice. Fleeing in horror, she becomes lost in unfamiliar terrain filled with chaparral and cactus, eventually encountering what appears to be a Comanche warrior as the chapter breaks off mid-sentence. The narrative combines romantic elements with action and frontier justice themes.