Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850 (Coverd Wagon Women) Rating :
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
A must read for anyone interested in history
By A Customer
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.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.Straightforward, commendable
By William J Higgins III
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 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.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.The Great Journey
By Smallchief
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
Product Description
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #367332 in Books
- Published on: 1996-04-01
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x.75" w x5.98" l,.70 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 296 pages
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