Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women) [Paperback]

Kenneth L. Holmes (Editor), Lillian Schlissel (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Coverd Wagon Women | Publication Date: April 1, 1996

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 )

"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 Pacific Historical Review )

About the Author

Kenneth L. Holmes was a professor of history at Western Oregon State College. He edited and compiled Covered Wagon Women, drawing on archives and private sources.

 

Anne M. Butler, a professor of history at Utah State University–Logan, is the author of Daughters of Joy, Sisters of Misery: Prostitutes in the American West.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (April 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080327274X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803272743
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in history, January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women) (Paperback)

The second in the series is as interesting as the first.The immigrants now have a bit more knowledge as many have gone before them.There are still many misshaps, disease, lack of water and feed. We now are starting to see many oppertunists who prey on the people. It is interesting to note that the women and Indians seemed to get along quite well and shared hints about many things. We also see the diffrence in the trip for diffrent income levels.This is also where we start to see pollution,as the animals were allowed in the creeks and anything not needed was just left .These books show what life was really like on the trail and what the women went through each day.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straightforward, commendable, November 10, 2003

By 

William J Higgins III (Laramie, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women) (Paperback)

Meaningful, first-hand chronicles from six westward women pioneers of 1850.
As editor Dr. Holmes notes, Anna Maria Morris was the wife of a military commander and as a result was "treated with attention and care". Nonetheless, she describes the relentless heat, lack of water and wood, poor grass, etc. which was typical of travel to Santa Fe, along with daily routines.
Mary Colby, Margaret Frink, Sarah Davis, Sophia Goodridge and Lucena Parsons all traveled the northern ,more familiar, Oregon Trail. These women give stunning details of wagon travel including: the phenomenal numbers of graves along the trail due to cholera, daily chores and mishaps, the vast numbers of emigrants along the route, dry ponds, abandoned wagons and personal belongings, river crossings, cutting grass for future livestock feed, etc.
We feel the persistent, annoying stings of clouds of mosquitoes along the Platte, the disturbing sights of countless numbers of human graves, the unsettling smells of innumerable dead livestock left alongside the road, feel their Indian anxieties, the sounds of nerve-racking horrendous thunderstorms, the continual unwelcomed taste of trail dust. These women clearly illustrate what life was like traveling westward in 1850.
A pleasure to read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Journey, April 4, 2005

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women) (Paperback)

My great-great grandparents with an infant daughter journeyed overland from Missouri to California in 1850 and I read this book to learn something of their experience.

As the editors point out few women made the crossing by land and thus their accounts have great significance. This book contains the diaries and letters of six women who traveled by wagon and horseback across the Great Plains and the mountains of the West to a new home in California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico in 1850. Amongst their descriptions of terror and hardship are also homely tales of life on the trail and often the generosity and nobility of many of their fellows.

I was impressed most by the sheer numbers of the overlanders. Some 50,000 people took the Western trails in 1850, drawn mostly by the promise of gold in California. Accounts of the dust, the crowded conditions, and the inevitable cholera caught my attention. The journey across the plains and mountains was, as the editors note, the longest voluntary migration in history and one has to wonder why so many people left comfortable homes to journey west. The westward urge -- "Manifest Destiny" -- or whatever it might be called was a powerful force in 19th century United States. Indians and buffalo play surprisingly small roles in the accounts of the crossing. They were perhaps wise enough to keep their distance from the overlanders.

The editors have contributed good introductions to the book and each of the women.

Smallchief