Just a Few Thoughts

There are very few journals written by women on the frontier.  Pioneer women were just too busy "making history to write it" as one Indiana pioneer put it.  Elizabeth Greer wrote "I could have written a great deal more if I had had the opportunity. Sometimes I would not have the chance to write for 2 or 3 days and then would have to rise in the night when my babe and all hands were asleep, light a candle, and write."

Women's diaries focused on family and friends back home.  "Nothing can atone for the loss of society and friends" wrote on pioneer woman.  "Our hearts are torn out at the loss of loved ones".

Keeping journals served as a legitimate release of tension and a place for cataloging grievances.  "All out of humor" one women simply wrote.

A simple poem from a woman's journal gives her hope for better times:
Day by day we wend our way
Through sage and sand
In hope to find
To please our mind
A home in a happy land.

Next time...Only the Lonely

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