| Authors | Title | Call Number | Dates | State or Area | Other Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aguirre, Mary Bernard | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.:34, Readex No.: MISC0022 | b. 1844 | St. Louis, MO | Born in St. Louis; Discusses childhood in Baltimore Maryland; slavery war in Kansas; Civil War; Marriage in 1862 and move to Leavenworth; Birth of son in midst of war and move West after Quantrill's massacre; travel through Nevada, New Mexico, California, and Arizona including two trips across the plains; details of son's christening party and preparations; and first school as teacher. Historical information includes history of the Public Schools of Tucson, place names in Arizona, Indian traditions of the creation and flood from Mexico and the U.S., and the formation of the Federation of Women's Clubs of Arizona. |
| Bailey, Mary Stuart | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 33, Readex No.: MISC0017 | April - Oct[Nov] 1852 | St. Louis, St. Joseph MO. | Entries cover parting with friends; travel to St. Louis and St. Joseph; crossing prairie by wagon and camping; fear of Indians and visiting an Indian village; sickness and injuries on trail and notations of graves passed; desert and mountain terrain and effects on stock; Salt Lake City and hearing Young at Tabernacle, followed by experiences at Springs; arrival in California and early settlement. |
| Ballard, Margaret McNeil | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 10 Readex No.: UTHS0161 | 1846-1918 | St. Louis, Missouri | Born in Scotland; died in Logan, Utah. Discusses lack of education in Scotland because of her religious beliefs; poverty and hunger; emigration to St. Louis; separation from her family and care of her brother; walking to Logan, Utah, in 1959, details of first home; marriage in 1961; and children with five of 11 predeceasing her. |
| Bogart, Nancy M. Hembree Snow | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No. 16, Readex No.: HUNT0006 | 1837 | Springfield, Missouri | Born in Springfield, Missouri. Discusses crossing rivers, storms, Indians, births and deaths, burials, The Dalles, fur trapper's stations, illness, settlement in Oregon territory, housing and donation land, wildlife, Indian Wars and father's death, marriage, move to Washington, husband's death, and her remarriage. |
| Boyd, Mrs. Orsemus | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No. 1, Readex No.: LOCW0006 | St. Louis, Missouri | Begins with marriage and hardships of travel and life in the army including finances. Discusses visiting with Indians; enlisted men, officers and wives; lawlessness; housing; medical needs and care; and geography and scenery. Starts with complaints about the West and ends with a love of it. Covers California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico with visits to Denver, St. Louis, Chicago and New York City. | |
| Brewer, Mandane Williamson | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 32, Readex No.: KSHS0009 | May 8, 1854-August 18, 1861 | Independence, Missouri | Started in Sardinia, Indiana, prior to her marriage, to capture her life as a schoolgirl and continued through marriage until parent's deaths. Covers arrangements of school house and flower garden; classmates and teachers; activities outside school including boarding house, church, and Sunday school; eclipse of May 1854; visits home and to friend's for weekends and vacation; death of schoolmate; running parents' household and then assisting mother with housekeeping because of illness; crop and bank failures with devaluation of money; eclipses of Venus and moon; opinions on early marriage, religion, daily routine, and fashions; marriage and effects of husband's travel; alternating between her own home and taking care of parents' house; illnesses, remedies, deaths; sale of property, journey to Indiana, and life there including hardship, visitors, travelers passing on Michigan trail; correspondence with old friends; trip to mill in Michigan; planting, harvesting and canning; details of county fair; visit to parents and in-laws with tour of blind asylum; severe illness and confinement for months; books read; preparations for moving, journey to Kansas with stop to winter in Missouri, and visit to Independence; death of brother followed by settlement on his claim in Kansas, details of well digging; hand-built furniture, and possessions in new home; settlement including birth and raising son, illness, father's blindness and death, domestic work and gardening; making cheese and molasses; and mother's death. Concludes with separate journal which describes trip to Kansas in detail. |
| Clarke, Annie Elisabeth Frost | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 5, Readex No.: UTHS0039 | 1860 | St. Louis, Missouri | Born in St. Louis, Missouri and lived in Ogden, Utah. Discusses pioneer journey in 1861, home life, schooling, experiences with Indians and marriage. |
| Corrigan, Sister Monica | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 34, Readex No.: MISC0025 | 1870 | St. Louis, Missouri | Journal of the Sisters of St. Joseph on Route to Arizona in 1871 (Entries dated 1870). Written after the trip was completed, the Journal was sent to the convent in Carondelet where the journey started. Entries cover travel from St. Louis through Nebraska to San Francisco via railroad then wagon and walking to American Desert where the account ends. Includes reactions to fellow travelers and men of the West, and scenic descriptions. |
| Cummins, Sarah J. | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 2, Readex No.; LOCW0012 | Missouri | Born in 1828 in Sangamon, Illonis. Discusses English and American ancestors, her education including lists of books and writings in family library, moves to Ohio and Missouri, marriage which was followed by journey West to Oregon which she describes as a combination of hardships and beauty, and the death of two children and two husbands. Included is a letter which took two years to go from Fairfield, Indiana to Salem, Oregon, and was carried in part by Kit Carson; and a tribute to the memory of Dr. Whitman who died in the Whitman Massacre. | |
| Farnham, Eliza | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 2, Readex No.: LOCW0014 | St. Louis, Missouri | This autobiography is written as if it was a novel and reflects the author's love of the Western prairie. Includes move from St. Louis to Pokerton, Illinois, and what she learns of the first settlers including politics, religion, business and professions; her love of nature and description of the land and streams; housekeeping and cooking; life in winter; reminiscence with sister about childhood; history of places she visits; and her experiences with Indians. Ends with her leaving the West. | |
| Felshaw, Mary Nelson Johnson | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 5 Readex No.: UTHS0022 | b. 1858 | St. Joseph, Missouri | Born in Denmark. Discusses cholera outbreak aboard ship during emigration with parents in 1864; arrival in St. Joseph, Missouri, just after the Civil War; move to Corinne, Utah, and settlement there; Indians and Army troops; diphtheria epidemic and her nursing experiences at the age of fourteen; marriage in 1879, loss of first baby and move to Blackfoot, Idaho; Indian relations; her millinery store in Eagle Rock; her nomination to run for governor of Idaho and defeat; having five children predecease her; and second marriage in 1923. |
| Goodell, Anna Maria | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 34, Readex No.: MISC0022 | 1854 | St. Louis, Missouri | Entries cover journey from Vermillion to St. Louis with husband and baby at 22 years old; descriptions of other travelers; illnesses and remedies; fears about Indians and actual experiences; accidents and hardships; and arrival at in-laws in Grand Mound Prairie. Ends with note about return to Vermillion in 1865. |
| Guill, Mary Jane | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 14, Readex No.: CASL0005 | May 5 - September 5, 1860 | Livingston County, Missouri | Diary of woman married just three months. Each diary entry provides weather, day event(s) and location. Includes geography, game, friendly, and hostile Indians, river crossings, visit to Laramie, stock, evening entertainment, sickness, white settlements, pedlars, and crossing summit of Sierra Nevada Mountains. Ends in Grizzly Valley. |
| Hanna, Esther Belle McMillan | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 16, Readex No.: HUNT0012 | 1852 | St. Joseph, Missouri | Entries cover travel by steamers from Pittsburgh to St. Joseph, Missouri; burial of emigrant without family; crossing the prairie; Indians and details of an Indian town; deaths from cholera; breaking Sabbath to travel; hardships, views as minister's wife; animals and plants including grasshoppers and mosquitoes; weather; sights including details of Chimney Rock; illness and death; desert and mountains; prairie and mountain fires; the Columbia and salmon; losses and hardships near end of journey; difficult recovery; and arrival in Oregon City. |
| Herndon, Sarah Raymond | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 16, Readex No.: HUNT0002 | 1865 | Missouri | This published Journal includes quotes from four press notices and an introduction by a friend. Entries cover question of why people leave the known for the unknown, leaving Missouri, details of living in a prairie schooner and the morning routine in camp, riding ahead of wagons and driving a wagon, mother's support of her writing a journal, visiting other wagons, the Icarian Community, accidents and deaths, fishing, organization of a large train, details of order of drive and forming a corral, storms, cattle stampede, soldiers and Indians, entertainment, scenery, river crossings, mountains and sickness, murder and trial, Mormon towns and opinion of polygamy, Virginia City, and rented cabin at Adler Gulch. |
| Hill, Emma Shepard | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 2, Readex No.: LOCW0021 | Missouri | Discusses trip across the plains with parents and siblings at the age of 13 after finishing grammar school (8th grade) in 1864. Includes travel from Ohio to Missouri via railroad, river travel to Kansas, travel alone by mule teams with freight for mines, and joining a company at Fort Kearney; experiences and fear of Indians; callousness developed by fear, boredom, and hardship; arrival in Empire City; and life from arrival at mines through wedding told through letters dated from March 18, 1865-June 1874. Letters cover housing and provisions, schooling, entertainments, unusual stellar events, tour of gold-quartz mill where her mother almost lost her life, camping, interaction with Indians, return to Ohio to study music, engagement and marriage. |
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| Horne, Mary Isabella Hales | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 9, Readex No.: UTHS0123 | b.1818 | Missouri | Discusses Mormon Church in Missouri and Illinois, and crossing the plains in 1847. Includes patriarchal blessing and poetry. |
| Ivins, Virginia Wilcox | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 15, Readex No.: NWBY0002 | 1853 | St. Louis, Missouri | This is a detailed in-depth account of the settlement of Keokuk, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri, and journey to California and return. Discusses Black Hawk War, parents' deaths and moving to Keokuk in 1840 to live with uncle, American Fur Co., Chief Keokuk's village, settlers, political campaigns, schools, travel to Ohio and Missouri, St. Louis, churches, painted rock cliffs and beach, Indians, Vigilance Committee, litigation over "half-breed" lands, famous lawyers, medical profession, social life, transportation, marriage, preparation for journey to California in response to Gold Rush, supply and house wagons, hardships of travel including accidents and injuries, weather, Indians, trout fishing, river crossings, mountains, Salt Lake City, desert, arrival in Paradise, mountain fever, first home in California, loneliness and dangers of wilderness, short trips to sightsee, attending a fandango, return to Keokuk via prominent people, public buildings, hotels and stores in Keokuk with locations. |
| Newcomb, Susan | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 22, Readex No.: UTXA0008 | 8/1/1865-5/16/1869, 1/1/1871-6/4/1873 | Missouri | Throughout diaries she laments lack of news and events to write about in entries, but writes of loneliness and discontent, and news of activities of others, with names, including illnesses, weddings, baptisms, and death. First diary begins when she is 17 years old and husband is 26, during second year of marriage with two children. It covers rights of frontier people versus Indians, jayhawkers and lawbreakers, at Ft. Davis; early settlement and housing; move to Stone ranch with details on area and blessings; her poetry with examples; Indian hunts and scouting; comparison of men's activities and companionship with loneliness of women; housekeeping;and clothing and fashion. Second diary begins in Weatherford, Texas, and covers trips and visits; entertainment; note of husband's death and continued sadness; news of hostile Indians; home life; experiences at writing school; her health and injuries; memories of wedding and marriage; details of capture of train by Indians and General Sherman's pursuit; and trip from Texas to in-laws in Missouri and extended visit there followed by trip to Colorado with return to Texas. There is a gap between 1872 and June 1873 when she mentions second marriage. |
| Parrish, Susan Thompson Lewis | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 17, Readex No.: HUNT0015 | d. 1920 | Missouri | Discusses move with parents and siblings from Massachusetts to Iowa in 1839 and father's decision to go West in response to gold rush news in 1850 when she was 16 years old; details of company organized in Missouri; daily routine of travel including baking, washing, hunting, fishing, and entertainments; illness and death on trail, fear of Indians, geography and scenery; hardships and scarcity of provisions; poultices; stop in Tucson and experiences being the first white women there; travel without the company; first home and settlement in El Monte, California, including opening an inn; marriage in 1853; involvement with former Indian captives and captivity stories; and deaths of seven of eight children and two husbands. |
| Brown, Cora Ketch, Mrs. Joshua B. | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 35, Readex No.: MISC00052 | 1886 | Missouri | Covers settlement on Kansas prairie in 1886 with parents and siblings; blizzard of 1886; family's move to Larned, organization of school district, and teaching there, marriage and trip to in-law's in Missouri; and return home to Larned. |
| Miller, Bertha Doerr | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 35, Readex No.: MISC00052 | St. Louis, Missouri | Discusses parents immigration from Germany; journey to Kansas with parents and five siblings; sod house and hardship with drought; moves to Topeka and the St. Louis, Missouri, for father's work; return to claim in Kansas with mother and siblings and life on the family farm; school as educational and social center; as educational and social center; discovery of love of music; blizzards; grasshopper invasions; and prairie fires; details of teaching positions; early refrigeration and heating methods; wild game; visiting other farms; formation of lake from mineral well and first boat ride; story of express office robbery; family weddings, particularly her own; and brothers' lives as adults. Ends with tribute to brother. | |
| Pearce, Jean Rio Griffiths Baker | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 15, Readex No.: UTHS0293 | b. 1810 | St. Louis, Missouri | Journal is detailed and descriptive. Entries cover journey from England to Salt Lake City, Utah with children and other relatives, New Orleans, slavery, life in St. Louis, Mississippi River, oxen, weather, accidents and illnesses, changes in wagon train, buffalo, sights and scenery, Indians, activities as nurse and midwife, game, trading posts and forts, house and garden, Sulphur Lake, expanding to farm in Ogden, second marriage and husband's death, employment as dressmaker, and trips to son's home in San Francisco. |
| Porter, Lavinia Honeyman | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 3, Readex No.: LOCW0031 | 1860 | Hannibal, Missouri | In 1859, after five years of marriage and at age 20, she started West from Hannibal, Missouri, with her husband, son and her youngest brother, heading to Pike's Peak or possibly on to California. Her narrative is based on her partially destroyed daily journal of her trip. Describes positive experiences traveling alone most of the way, friendliness and protection of Indians, the view of a immature southern wife learning to take care of her family including cooking and washing, details of countryside and weather, her impressions of Denver and Salt Lake City, negative aspects of travel with a train of emigrants, and ends with birth of a daughter two weeks after arriving in Folsom, California. |
| Ringo, Mary | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 3, Readex No.: LOCW0032 | 1864 | Leavenworth, Missouri | In 1864, at the age of 38, she experiences camp life for the first time on her trip West with her husband and five children, ages 14 to two years. Entries provide daily mileage, weather and place names from Leavenworth, Missouri, to San Jose, California, via Cotton Wood Springs, Fort Bridger, and Salt Lake City, Includes accounts of Indians, husband's accidental death on the trail and her continuing alone, the birth of a still-borne son, and arrival at her sister's in California. |
| Smith, Ellen | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 16, Readex No.: HUNT0010 | d. 1860 | Missouri | Born in Iowa; died in 1860. Discusses marriage in 1829 and move to Missouri ten years later, leaving Missouri in 1846 in large train, problems with Indians, difficulties of travel late in the season and delays, illness and deaths, husband's death and burial, traveling alone with nine children, accidents, starvation, rescue by government train, and settlement in Salem. |
| Smith, Harriet A. L. | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 15, Readex No.: CASL0017 | b.1836 | St. Louis, Missouri | Born in 1836 near St. Louis, Missouri. Discusses childhood farm and mother's illness; journey including wagon train, fears of and experiences with Indians, sickness and accidents, river crossings, buffalo, storms, deaths and burials, leaving train and travel with one other wagon, loss of stock, hardship and privations; living in a tent above Orville; helping in mines; expenses; mother's death and several moves; and marriage in 1852. |
| Summerhayes, Martha | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 4, Readex No.: LOCW0039 | Missouri | Covers her marriage to an old friend and her military life at Camp Verde, Camp Apache, Ehrenberg, Fort MacDowell, Fort Lowell, and Fort Niobrara in Arizona, St. Augustine in Florida, Santa Fe in New Mexico, Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, Camp MacDermitt and Fort Halleck in Nevada, David's Island and Governor's Island in New York, San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston in Texas, Fort Myer outside Washington, D.C., and Fort Russell in Wyoming Territory. Includes travel, housing, medical facilities, illness and disease, social activities and customs, food and provisions, peaceful and hostile Indians, life at a supply station, Mexicans, earthquake, and visits to family in the East. | |
| Tracy, Nancy Naomi | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 12, Readex No.: UTHS0256 | b. 1816 | Missouri | Born in New York, Discusses conversion to Mormonism with family; move to Kirtland, Ohio, Missouri, and Nauvoo, Illinois; pioneer journey across the plains in 1850; marriage; and life in Ogden, Utah. |
| Wilson, Henrietta Emmett | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 10, Readex No.: UTHS0173 | Missouri | Born in Missouri, and lived in Ogden, Utah. Emphasizes childhood, family life, schooling, marriage, food, clothing, and Utah Expedition. | |
| Wines, Margaret Taylor | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 35, Readex No.: MISC0066 | 1846-1908 | St. Louis, Missouri | Born in England, Covers immigration to America in 1849 and years in St. Louis, Missouri; crossing the plains by ox team in 1853 and settlement in Lehi, Utah; scarcity of food; home entertainments; marriage, move to Ruby Valley, Nevada, and ranch life; relations with Ute and Shoshone Indians, and teaching them farming, baby care, and doctoring; children; and park established in her memory. |
| Hunsaker, Melissa Caroline Johnson | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 25, Readex No.: UNVR0014 | b. 1853 | Savannah, Missouri | Born in Savannah, Missouri, the second of five children. Covers mother's death when she was six years old, move to Utah where father remarried, childhood with step-grandmother until she was 16 years old, marriage in 1869, husband's work with Shoshone Lamanites in Washakie for nine years with her work teaching housekeeping, knitting, and nursing, her rescue of family when Indians attacked, numerous moves while raising 12 children, and her church work. |
| McRae, Maria Taylor | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 25, Readex No.: UNVR0014 | 1845-1901 | St. Louis, Missouri | Born in England. Includes family's conversion to Mormonism when she was seven years old and parents' appointment as local missionaries; attending a school where she learned sewing; brother's immigration to Utah and his payment for journey from England to St. Louis for herself, two sisters and her mother; working in a home tending children and washing dishes in exchange for room and board; trip to Salt Lake City with help of Emigrant Fund; work in various homes including home of women editor who encouraged her to read; marriage in 1862; bearing and raising children; farming on shares; move to Arizona and losses involved; starting over in various towns according to husband's employment; her illness with malaria; teaching school in her home which was the largest in the area; dealing with news that husband had taken a plural wife while away in Salt Lake City; crop failures; and several moves until her health failed and she moves to daughter's home. |
| Woodruff, Emma Smith | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 11, Readex No.: UTHS0204 | 1838-1912 | Missouri | Born in Missouri, Discusses pioneer journey of 1850, church activities, marriage and family. |
| Wright, Harriet S. Pfouts | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No. 34, Readex No.: MISC0039 | St. Louis, Missouri | This is divided into five sections: Days of a happy Childhood, Married Life, Once more I size myself up, Genealogy-histories, and Newspaper clippings. Includes parents move from Wheeling, Virginia to Oregon, Missouri, details of house and town, mother's support of family after father's death, fashions and hygiene, religious training, schooling, neighboring Indians, bout with typhoid fever, education and life in St. Louis, move to Brownsville, Nebraska, visit to Washington, D.C. in 1868 and misgivings, move west to Fort Union and later to Denver, family illnesses ad death, move to Wyoming and visit with White Horse and Crazy Man of Arapaho tribe, cattle ranching, Indian agencies and agents, life in Cheyenne with servants, travel, move to Tucson with summers in California, and seeing famous people through life. Genealogy covers Griffith, Pfouts (Von Pfoutz), Wrights, Angell, M'Phee, Pelletier, Magennis, Russell, and Fisher. Ends with newspaper clippings. | |
| Young, Ann Eliza | American women's diaries: Western Women | Reel No.: 4, Readex No.: LOCW0052 | Missouri | Born in 1844 at Nauvoo, Illinois to parents who were early converts to Mormonism and personal friends of Brigham Young. Discusses the Book of Mormon and Smith's revelations, persecution of Mormons in Ohio and Missouri, father's business dealings with Young, doctrine of "Celestial Marriage," apostasy, Joseph Smith and his families, move from Iowa to Utah when she was three years old, father's plural families, illness and healing, fashion, entertainments, missions and poverty, Indians used as scapegoats, late hand-cart emigration, doctrine of Blood-Atonement, Mormon War of 1857, endowments, her first marriage in 1863 which ended in divorce, marriage to Young in 1869 which ended in divorce in 1873 and then annulment in 1877, escape to Denver, and her years as public lecturer. Ends with Young's will, later church organization and the Mormon creed. |