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

Mary Rockwood Powers -Part 2

As we discovered in that last part, Mary Powers' husband, Americus, was a doctor unable to adapt to life on the trail.  His incompatibility with the other men in the wagon party was noted by Mary in her journal: "the company went on and left us to get on as best we could."  A very unusual course of action for a wagon company to take under any circumstance.  Mary says only that "a dissatisfaction among the company separated us.  I forebear giving the details."

Mary did write more to her mother that their horses could not carry them and their possession and were giving out.  She wrote that "the doctor told the other men it was his business.  He would not ask for help, nor would he buy a team of oxen.  I am in the hands of a maniac. Myself and my little ones at the mercy of a mad man." 

Somehow they reached Salt Lake City.  While there two men from the wagon company rode back to find them and talk with Mary.  The men made commitments to Mary and the children, not to her husband. 

In another letter to her mother, Mary says "for some days the doctor had been falling into his old sullen mood again, out of humor with everyone.  Mr. Curtis offered to take me and the children into their wagon and divide up the luggage.  But despite all their urging, the doctor would not give up his horses but hitched them up and drove off like he was Lord of all surveyed."

The next day Mr. Curtis and the other men came back and demanded to know if Americus was a "mad man or a confounded fool."  Seems Americus found public ridicule too much and bought some oxen and the family once again joined the wagon train. 

Before they left, Mary cooked the last of her dried strawberries, poured them over fresh made dumplings, and give them to Mr. Curtis and his friend who had tried to help her.  Did the doctor get any?  I hope not...

We'll conclude this story next time...

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Today in Pioneer History: On March 13, 1836, after less than a week after the disastrous defeat of Texas rebels at the Alamo, the newly commissioned Texan General Sam Houston begins a series of strategic retreats to buy time to train his ill-prepared army.