Mary Rockwood Powers - Conclusion

I have to ask what was Americus's problem?  Was it just a family squabble that Mary made sound more than it was? Was Americus really a fool?  Or was it because Mary was said to have been a very pretty young woman and her behavior with the other men was inappropriate?  We are left to wonder...

In October 1856 the family came out of Sierra Nevada.  Of all the stories we have looked at,

emotional stability had threatened the Powers' lives, not the Indians.  Mary told her mother "my health was most miserable and grew worse very fast.  Our journey across the Plains was a long and hard one.  We lost everything but our lives."

The following June in California, Mary gave birth to twins, of whom died before their first birthday.  Mary remained loyal to her husband, but one year later she, too died.  This time Americus wrote to Mary's mother "Mary followed me to a distant land, but the expedition was an unfortunate one.  Had it succeeded we would have been independent, but since everything went wrong, I did the best I could and so did Mary.  We both anticipated better days."

Mary's last instructions, however, were for her children to be educated by her mother and her mother's family in Wisconsin.  Americus became a recluse and was shot during an ambush in 1886 in the California hills.

Like most of the men who went west, he risked everything, including his family for that spirit of adventure.  The frontier tested one's psyche as much as it tested their strength.

Next time...Helen Carpenter, Young Bride

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Today in Pioneer History: On March 16, 1903, Judge Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed “law west of the Pecos,” dies in Langtry, Texas