Being Fashionable on the Trail

"Bloomers" became a way of participating in the fashion of the day even on the Overland Trail.
Harriet Ward wrote that she took a long walk with Mrs. Singletory whom "not withstanding her bloomer dress I found to be a sensible pleasant woman."

Jane Kellogg, wrote that "we wore bloomers all the way, the better to enable us to walk through the
sagebrush.  They were made with short skirts and pants reaching to the shoe tops.  Everyone wore them."

Not all women wore bloomers as Jane stated though.  Bloomers appeared among those women who could afford special fashions for special occasions.  The majority of the Overland women wore what clothing they had and prayed that what they wore would not be torn.  They were too preoccupied with the necessities of daily life to consider what was fashionable.  And of course there were women like Harriet, who thought they were deplorable, either due to their age or their sense of what was proper.

Reminds us of our youth fads, doesn't it, and our parents' opinions as to what was fashionable?!

Next time...logging graves on the Trail, a peculiar hobby.

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Today in Pioneer History:  On January 5, 1846, the U.S. House of Representatives passes a resolution calling for an end to British-American sharing of the Oregon region, boldly reversing its long-standing policy of "free and open" occupation in the disputed Territory