Books by Glen Onley

Young Ben Logan, his family lost in the Civil War, sells his Texas ranch and heads west. At Fort Union in the New Mexico Territory, he meets a young widow and while traveling to Santa Fe, a strong mutual interest develops. But she returns to her Tennessee family, leaving Ben wondering if he will ever see her again.In search of copper, Ben scales Mount Baldy in Moreno Valley and finds a Ponderosa pine with the word DISCOVERY freshly carved in its bark and streambed sediment piled beside a nearby creek. Gold, he guesses, but a winter blast forces him off the mountain. Come spring, Ben and two partners return and strike gold, as did many others. E?Town springs up in the valley, thousands crowding its dusty streets and makeshift saloons. When vigilantes make a secret hit list, Ben cashes in and buys valley land from Lucien Maxwell, a wealthy rancher who owns everything in sight, yet tolerates the miners and ranchers. But when he sells out to European investors, they demand eviction of the squatters. Many refuse to leave and when their primary advocate is brutally murdered, the Colfax County War erupts.Ben?s ranch is targeted, a fact he shares with Frank Springer and Clay Allison. They discover a group of territorial officials, called the Santa Fe Ring, is behind the scheme. Ben knows neither he nor his ranch is safe as long as the powerful Ring exists. Should he risk all in a fight to expose them or abandon the valley ranch he loves?The author, a Texan, enjoys the stunning beauty of New Mexico?s Moreno Valley and admires the courageous men and women who persevered when success, even survival, seemed unlikely. Their story, the author believes, is worth telling. Glen Onley?s first novel, BEYOND CONTENTMENT, was also published by Sunstone Press.

Milburn "Catfish" Smith rose from the humblest of beginnings in rural East Texas to lead the Carey Cardinals and the Mount Vernon Tigers to numerous football and basketball championships, including Texas State Schoolboy titles. In doing so, he defied the sports gurus of his day, many of whom subsequently credited him with three of the greatest coaching feats of his century. How did he do it? Here for the first time, the secret behind this most unusual and colorful man's success is revealed, unknown until now even by many of his former players, "His Boys."No slow climb to the top was acceptable for this firebrand coach. In his first year he took his Carey Cardinals, a school with less than one hundred enrollment and no basketball court, to a fourth place finish in the Texas Schoolboy state basketball tournament, including a twenty-six-game winning streak. The twenty-three-year-old coach followed that with a 50-2 season and the state championship, back when the smallest schools competed against the largest for the coveted title.World War II soon interrupted his career, as it did that of many of his contemporaries, but the experience was to change Catfish deeply, and in ways even his closest friends did not understand. Called to Mount Vernon, Texas in September 1943 to temporarily fill a coaching vacancy, Catfish exceeded all expectations. Seven years later, with two hundred fourteen victories and over twenty titles, including district, bi-district, regional, and state crowns, he was one of the most recognized high school coaches in the state of Texas.