Summary
Summary of Sally of Missouri
Sally of Missouri at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 3 h 35 min2 h 50 min fast, 4 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 50,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1903by Rose E. Young
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A stranger begins to belong
Bruce Steering arrives in the Tigmore Hills with little money and a friend's advice to try Missouri. Behind him lies a New York life of comfortable rooms, pretend work, and Miss Gossamer in lace and silk. Against the moving grass and open country, those memories begin to feel unreal.
The farmers answer his questions about distance in hills rather than miles. They offer food, beds, and stories of Sally Madeira. Their generous welcome begins to win him over before he has even reached town.
Key idea 2
The hills offer unexpected guides
On the ridge road, Steering meets Old Bernique, a shabby rider with polished manners and strong opinions about the Canaan Tigmores.
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Key idea 3
Confidence is not proof of value
Canaan trusts Crittenton Madeira, the banker who gave the town its own railroad connection.
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Key idea 4
Courage and refusal meet underground
Sally Madeira enters Steering's life with bright hair, amber eyes, and a welcome arranged by Piney.
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Key idea 5
Love meets a hidden obstacle
At Madeira Place, Sally and her father share a deep affection.
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Key idea 6
Real ore gives hope substance
As autumn advances, Steering and Old Bernique search the ground together.
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Key idea 7
Honest work needs honest evidence
The mining business draws a clear distinction between finding value and selling the promise of it.
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Key idea 8
Love asks people to stand steady
Sally's love does not become a simple choice against her father.
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Key idea 9
A mining plan becomes something larger
Steering comes to the Ozarks intending to open a mine, but the country gives him a wider set of attachments.
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Who it’s for
This book suits readers who love romance in a sunlit landscape, small towns full of gossip, treasure hunts and boom times, and warm-hearted characters.
What this book is
Picture a young traveler from New York on an Ozark ridge road, twenty miles from the nearest railroad. Every farmer he asks about the next town answers in sights instead of miles. And every one of them mentions a girl named Sally.
Sally of Missouri is a novel by Rose E. Young, set in the zinc and lead country of Missouri in 1899 and 1900. It follows Bruce Steering, a Yale man with more charm than money, who comes west to join a mining scheme. You get a romance, a mining boom, and a state that people love out loud.
In this summary
- 1A stranger begins to belongFree
- 2The hills offer unexpected guides
- 3Confidence is not proof of value
- 4Courage and refusal meet underground
- 5Love meets a hidden obstacle
- 6Real ore gives hope substance
- 7Honest work needs honest evidence
- 8Love asks people to stand steady
- 9A mining plan becomes something larger
A lonely New Yorker meets Missouri head on
The book opens on the crest of the Tigmore Hills. Bruce Steering, a young Yale graduate from New York, stops his horse and studies the wild country below him. He has come because his friend Carington told him to try Missouri, and because his money is running thin.
His old life drifts back in pictures: a bachelor hotel, an office on Nassau Street where he only pretended to work, and Miss Gossamer, a girl of lace and silk. Next to the grass moving in long green waves, none of it feels real.
All day he has asked the farmers how far it is to Poetical. They answer in sights, meaning hills. Each offers a bed and a meal, and each speaks of a young woman named Miss Sally Madeira. What wins him is the people, for their pride in their state is warm and a little funny.
A stranger can be won over by a place once he stops fighting it.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Steering distrust Madeira's mining business?
Right. “Madeira sells shares in a mine that has not been dug.”Not quite. “Madeira sells shares in a mine that has not been dug.”
How does Sally approach her divided loyalties?
Right. “She looks for the way that is best for both, and she is willing to wait.”Not quite. “She looks for the way that is best for both, and she is willing to wait.”
What does Steering's attitude toward evidence reveal about him?
Right. “He will not call a guess a fact.”Not quite. “He will not call a guess a fact.”
Go deeper: the whole of Sally of Missouri
About 3 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 50,900 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 35 min
Questions about Sally of Missouri
What is Sally of Missouri about?
It follows Bruce Steering, a young New Yorker who comes to southwest Missouri to start a zinc mine on hills he will inherit. He meets a promoter, a prospector, a tramp boy, and the promoter's daughter Sally.
Who is Sally in Sally of Missouri?
Sally, whose full name is Salome, is the daughter of Crittenton Madeira, the banker of Canaan. She is tall, athletic, educated in the East, and devoted to her father, her garden, and her home county.
Is Sally of Missouri a true story?
No, it is a novel. It is set in 1899 and 1900 against the real zinc and lead boom around Joplin, but its characters and the town of Canaan are invented.
What does Choke Gulch mean in the story?
Choke Gulch is a dark, mossy ravine in the Canaan Tigmores where Old Bernique finds a rich outcrop of zinc and lead. It is the place where his twenty-year hunch finally becomes ore.
Is Sally of Missouri easy to read?
Yes, the language is clear and lively, with short scenes, a lot of dialogue, and funny small-town gossip. The story moves between love, mining, and Missouri life, and its characters are easy to follow.
Cite this edition
Young, Rose E. Sally of Missouri. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/sally-of-missouri.
Young, R. E. (2026). Sally of Missouri. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sally-of-missouri (Original work published 1903)
Young, Rose E. Sally of Missouri. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sally-of-missouri.
@book{young2026sally,
author = {Young, Rose E.},
title = {Sally of Missouri},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/sally-of-missouri},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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