The Cow Creek Chronicles is the story of a pioneering family and the vast ranch they established.
In the first installment, brothers Keightley and Frank Raulerson arrive in Fort Pierce at the turn of the century and become political leaders and business leaders in their new community. They run a slaughterhouse, meat market and grocery store and Keightley, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, helps Fort Pierce incorporate as a city in 1901 and is instrumental in the formation of St. Lucie County in 1905. But tragedy strikes when Keightley dies of pneumonia in 1913, leaving his younger brother Frank to run the family businesses. With only a third-grade education, Frank expands the businesses, builds the landmark Raulerson Building in downtown and begins buying up land on which to graze cattle, creating the Cow Creek Ranch and three others. Frank has a son, Alfred, who will inherit the businesses, but Alfred dies tragically in 1938, and Alfred’s only child, 8-year-old Jo Ann, becomes the heir to all that Frank Raulerson amasses. Frank and wife, Annie Louise, successfully pressure Jo Ann’s mother to let them raise Jo Ann. As Jo Ann comes of age and marries, what will become of Frank Raulerson’s ranches and fortune?
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