Covered Wagon Women, Volume 1: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849
The women who traveled west in covered wagons during the 1840s speak through these letters and diaries. Here are the voices of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon. Still others make themselves heard, starting out from different places and recording details...
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The women who traveled west in covered wagons during the 1840s speak through these letters and diaries. Here are the voices of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon. Still others make themselves heard, starting out from different places and recording details along the way, from the mundane to the soul-shattering and spirit-lifting. Wagon Tracks "An outstanding collection of primary sources written by women moving west."
Editor's Introduction11Across the Plains in 1845The Letter - The Journey in 184635A Letter from the Luckiamute ValleyThe Letter, from Oregon, 184641A Brimfield HeroineLetter I, The Journey, 184650Letter II, In Oregon, 1846-185159The Donner Party LettersTamsen E. Donner's Letter I68Tamsen E. Donner's Letter II, June 184670Virginia E. B. Reed's Letter I, July 184672Virginia E. B. Reed's Letter II, May 184774Two Letters of Phoebe StantonA Letter from Missouri, 184787A Letter from Oregon, 185690Letters from a Quaker Woman: Rachel FisherLetter from Fort Laramie, 184799Letter from Tualatin County, 1848103The Diary of Elizabeth Dixon SmithThe Diary, 1847-1848116Two Letters from Oregon, 1850148Epilogue: Poems of Elizabeth Markham153A Pioneer Mormon Diary: Patty SessionsThe Diary of 1847165Epilogue and Bibliography185The Commentaries of Keturah BelknapThe Running Commentary, 1839-1848194The Diary of a Pioneer GirlThe Diary, 1849-1850234A Letter from CaliforniaThe Letter from San Diego, 1849250Running a Boarding House in the Mines, 1849271
\ Wagon Tracks“An outstanding collection of primary sources written by women moving west.”—Wagon Tracks\ \ \ \ \ Pacific Historical Review“Covered Wagon Women is to be valued. . . . First, it brings together in a single edition a major collection of the diaries of overland women. . . . Second, this is probably the most perfectly documented edition a researcher will find.”—Lillian Schlissel, Pacific Historical Review\ — Lillian Schlissel\ \ \ \ Western Historical Quarterly“Kenneth L. Holmes made the very wise editorial decision not to update, revise, or parenthetically correct the quirky and often fascinating prose of these nineteenth-century women. . . . The writing is rich with the sounds of common speech and jargon . . . and it should be a gold mine for students of everyday life.”—John Mack Faragher, Western Historical Quarterly\ — John Mack Faragher\ \ \ \ \ \ Western Historical Quarterly“Kenneth L. Holmes made the very wise editorial decision not to update, revise, or parenthetically correct the quirky and often fascinating prose of these nineteenth-century women. . . . The writing is rich with the sounds of common speech and jargon . . . and it should be a gold mine for students of everyday life.”—John Mack Faragher, Western Historical Quarterly\ \ \ \ \ Pacific Historical Review“Covered Wagon Women is to be valued. . . . First, it brings together in a single edition a major collection of the diaries of overland women. . . . Second, this is probably the most perfectly documented edition a researcher will find.”—Lillian Schlissel, Pacific Historical Review\ \ \ \ \ Western Historical Quarterly"Kenneth L. Holmes made the very wise editorial decision not to update, revise, or parenthetically correct the quirky and often fascinating prose of these nineteenth-century women. . . . The writing is rich with the sounds of common speech and jargon . . . and it should be a gold mine for students of everyday life."\ — John Mack FaragJohn Mack Faragher, Western Historical Quarterlyher\ \ \
