In the spring of 1837, Louisa, a forty-year-old penniless, childless widow in western Pennsylvania, joins her sister’s family on an arduous wagon journey westward to the Black Hawk Purchase, now present-day Iowa—newly opened to settlers after the forced removal of Native American tribes. During the 700-mile journey by prairie schooner, Louisa experiences physical hardship, disasters, and a shocking accident, as well as unexpected beauty and humor—while chronicling each step in a voice both reflective and unflinchingly candid.

When tragedy leaves her sister’s husband a widower, she faces an impossible choice: return east to certain poverty or stake an illegal claim on unbroken prairie with a man who is not her husband. Together, they decide to squat illegally on eighty acres of virgin land, where they build a cabin, and begin to carve a living out of the prairie. Through hard labor, shared grief, and small triumphs, Louisa slowly transforms from a reluctant follower with no purpose into an indispensable partner and capable midwife—while wrestling with impossible moral choices and the constant threat of losing their claim. Written in an intimate journal format and rooted in historical truth, Sweet Fields Beyond follows the journey of a widow from invisibility to self-possession and unlikely love on the American frontier.