Charlotte Risher Charlotte Risher, nicknamed Charley, at the age of thirteen had to go and live with her Uncle and Aunt Crownover in Sunflower, Alabama. Her aunt was Charley, mama’s sister. As a young girl, her aunt taught her how to run a household and care for the small animals on the farm. As years passed, her uncle couldn’t keep his eyes and hands off her young, maturing body. At church, when he noticed the young boys attempting to socialize with Charley, he made her drop out of school. He was crazy jealous of any boy or young man who looked at her. After that day, she had to start hiding from her uncle whenever he came home drunk, or he would try to attack her. After Aunt Minnie couldn’t control her husband, she packed Charley a small bag and sent her away from their farm for her own safety. Paul Smith Paul, a young Attorney at Law, lived and worked in Galveston, Texas. He had received a telegram instructing him to come to Sunflower, Alabama, and get his four-year-old niece. His sister and her husband had died from yellow fever. As they rode horseback to Linden, Alabama, to catch the train to Galveston, they stopped to rest and have some lunch. Paul spread a blanket on the ground near a tall, shady tree. His niece’s new puppy spotted a critter in the tree. Paul was in total shock when he discovered the critter was a young girl. The young woman had a black eye and a busted lip. He knew that the girl had been beaten. As he helped the lovely child to the ground, he had no idea how he was going to care for this girl who was terrified of him.