The Nancy Kelsey Story

Nancy Kelsey was 15 years old, married with a baby when she wrote, "I can better endure the hardship of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband." 

Kelsey was part of a small grouop of wagons that left in May 1841 with 35 men, 5 women, (3 married, 1 widowed, 1 of marriage age), and 10 children from Sapling Grove, 28 miles west  of Independence, Missouri.  It seems the group was totally ignorant of what lay ahead, as many early settlers were, following incorrect maps and untested ideas.  No one had a compass - they just went west along the Platte River. 

By July 23rd seven of the men had had enough "westering" and turned around to head back east.  On July 30th, they had traveled 1200  miles, and the widow had married one of the men in the party.  This was not uncommon as women traveling alone with children were in a dangerous position.

Nancy's  party followed the safest route to Oregon, but her party had no guide and so little information that one said they "smelled" their way west.  They knew there was a river they were to find, but they didn't know the name or exact location.  August 22nd found the food low, the animals tired, and all the party completely lost.  They abandoned some of their wagons, slaughtered their cattle and kept moving west.

By mid-September, they left all their wagons, and tied their possessions to the oxen.  They found St. Mary's River, but no road nearby.  They were actually traveling south now, not west, but they didn't realize that since they didn't have a compass.

In late October, they killed the last ox and were trapped in the treacherous canyons of the Sierra Nevada.  Mule meat was a delicacy along with rabbit and coyote.  Nancy Kelsey walked, carrying her year old baby on her hip.  On the last day of October 1841, they reached the San Joaquin Valley.

Nancy Kelsey gave one interview in later years about her journey west.  If she would have shared her experiences to other women in her time, she might have forewarned them of what lay ahead.  Instead she settled down, had more children and made a life in the new western country.

Next time...Nancy Welch's Story
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Today in Pioneer History:   On July 7, 1900,  Warren Earp, the youngest of the famous clan of gun fighting brothers, is murdered in an Arizona saloon.