The Broken Social Circle

Women were separated from the domestic order that comprised much of their life in the communities of the mid 1800s.  Agnes Stewart talks of her friend, Martha, in one of her diary entries upon leaving for the journey westward.  You can just feel the anguish she feels at leaving behind those she loves...

"Oh Martha, my heart yearns for thee, my only friend.  Oh my dear friend, thou art dear to me yet.  my heart turns to thee.  I will never forget thee, the earliest friend I know.  I can never enjoy the blessed privileges of communing with thee yet look for the loss of one I will never see on earth again.  I can not bear it."

Agnes later wrote of the less civilized social life out west:  "As usual Fred came to blows.  Tom is

impudent.  Fred is overbearing and arrogant."  Ironically six years later after they had reached Oregon, Agnes married impudent Tom!  Ha ha

Women were also practical problem solvers in order to keep their families together.  Jane Cazneau wrote of the Indian encounters: 

"It was well enough for single men to run away from Indians, but when people had stock and children, the shortest way was for the mother to sit down by the fire and run bullets for her old man to give to the Indians.  There is a heap less trouble in it, and less scare too, than to be scattering off and letting the hogs and cattle scatter off every time the Indians came about."

Some women saw keeping the family together their Christian obligation, while others felt there was just no alternative.

Next time:  The Nancy Kelsey Story

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Today in Pioneer History:  On July 3, 1890, Idaho, the last of the 50 states to be explored by whites, is admitted to the union.