Nancy Hunt Story

Nancy Hunt's overland journey in 1854.  She spoke in her journey of how the uncertainty and tensions of Indian attacks affected all parts of the journey.

Nancy Hunt told of that uncertainly that took hold of the pioneer camps.

"We always treated the Indians well and with respect, and they never molested us at any time. But on one particular night the Indians formed lines on both sides of the emigrants camp, and in the light of fires, they set up their war-hoop and kept it up until late into the night...Greatly frightened we made ready for an attack.  But they did not molest us at all, except as we suffered in out minds from fright."

Experienced travelers knew that Indians would not attack by the firelight.  They would also have known a "war hoop" from a song, but Nancy's party were not experienced and she goes on to write...

"At night we placed our weapons of defense by the sides of our beds in our tents.  I claimed the ax for mine, and always saw that it was close to me, but I never had occasion to use it on an Indian."

Sleeping in fear when the howl of a coyote would have been mistaken for an Indian war cry was indeed the uncertainty with which most pioneers lived.

Fear of Indians led the pioneers to give even less to the needs of women. Within hours of birth, women hurried over the Trail.  She gives us an idea of childbirth on the journey in her journal.

  "While the young folks were having their good times, some of the mothers were giving birth to their babies.  Three babies were born  in our company this summer.  My cousin Emily Ibe gave birth to a son in Utah, forty miles north of Great Salt Lake one evening and the next morning she had to travel on until noon when a stop was made and another child was born.  The third birth was to the wife of my cousin Jacob Zumwalt who gave birth to a daughter while traveling in Sierra Nevada.  To this baby they gave the name of Alice Nevada.  They traveled along the next day, mothers and babies and all."

Next time...Stress wasn't only for the women on the Trail.
_______________________________

Today in Pioneer History: