Cora Wilson Agatz and Barsima French - Among the Last Pioneers on Overland Trail

Despite the uncertainty and danger of travel, despite Indian wars that were now real threats, pioneers continued to press through tothe West.  At the end of the Civil War, 25,000 pioneers made the overland crossing, among the last Americans to make that journey by wagon train.

Cora Wilson Agatz and her family were prosperous Iowan farm people.  With them went a five span of matched mules, a team of horses, a saddle pony, and four wagons to carry beds and tables, linen, silver, china, carpets, books and pictures.   They took canned goods, bacon, hams, bologna sausage, flour, barrels of both white and brown sugar, and great cakes of maple sugar.

They had a sheet iron camp stove and an oven.  They had a wagon just to hold their clothing.  Also a "maiden lady devoid of hearing and eyelashes who begged passage for the avowed purpose of finding a lifemate out west (which she did soon after arriving) went went the Agatzs.

Cora described the "gymnasium costumes worn by some women" in her journal.  "Short gray wool shorts, full bloomer pants of wool, fastened at the knee, high laced boots, and white stockings which were changed often enough to be kept spotless.  Large straw hats finished off these picture-perfect and sensible costumes.  When compared with the long, slovenly solid calico gowns worn by the other women of the train, these simple costumes elicited many commendatory remarks."  Cora was quite
the fashion reporter...her journal is filled with details of what women wore.

In 1867 Barsina French traveling through Apache country, reminds readers that mothers had to take turn standing guard against Indians at night.  In the morning, a woman cooked "red mud" for coffee, little worrying about clean stocking or fancy clothes.

Migration dwindled after 1888.  The railroad began to replace the wagon and settlers began to look to the lands of the Rockies rather than the coast.  It was a time of consolidation and for a different kind of pioneering - not log cabins but foundations of social life -schools, churches and the renewing of families separated and broken by the overland trail.

To read more of these women's journals in their entirety -
Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel, 1882, 1992 by Schocken Books

______________

Today in Pioneer History:   On June 3, 1890, Idaho, the last of the 50 states to be explored by whites, is admitted to the union. Exploration of the North American continent mostly proceeded inward from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and northward from Spanish Mexico. Therefore, the rugged territory that would become Idaho long remained untouched by Spanish, French, British, and American trappers and explorers. Even as late as 1805, Idaho Indians like the Shoshone had never encountered a white man.