How did Magnolia Valley get its name?

At 17, Phillip Warner left Georgia with his two brothers and went to Montana in hopes of making their fortune mining. After a few years, they got lucky and struck it rich. Phillip went home to Georgia a wealthy man, but the beautiful and unforgiving landscape in Montana remained with him.

While walking in Savannah, Phillip ran into a young teacher who had stopped to admire a magnolia tree in bloom. Phillip was as mesmerized by her as she was the magnolia tree and for the next two weeks, he found ways to make sure their paths crossed.

Phillip told Enid stories about his time in the west and she fell in love with the place he described and with him. Finally, after many of these run-ins, she asked him if he ever planned to court her. 

He told her he would court her for the rest of his life if she would marry him.

They were wed within the month. 

Phillip and Enid moved to Montana and started a ranch.  Within the year, Phillip’s brothers and their wives settled nearby to start ranches of their own. 

While Enid loved Montana and Phillip, she was homesick for Georgia. After the first winter, Enid visited her parents and Phillip remained in Montana to look after their ranch. He worried she would not return, though she wrote often, always telling him how dearly she missed him and their home.  

Three months after leaving, Enid came back to Montana with two surprises. The first was that she was four months pregnant with the baby they’d made just before she left, and the second was the half-dozen magnolia tree saplings in her bag. Phillip and Enid eagerly planted them beside their house. 

Though none of the saplings survived the harsh Montana winter, their daughter was born five months later and she was named Magnolia Jean Warner.

When it came time to name the town the Warner clan had formed, it was agreed on unanimously. Magnolia Valley. The first action the town took was to open a school where Enid taught the children in their burgeoning community. 

Phillip and Enid had many, many decades together and, as he promised her, he never stopped courting her. Some Magnolia Valley residents even claim to have seen the ghosts of Enid and Phillip Warren dancing slowly beneath the stars on particularly pleasant summer nights, the scent of magnolia blossoms in the air.