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Covered Wagon Women #1
Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849
The women who traveled west in covered wagons during the 1840s speak through these letters and diaries. Here are the voices of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon. Still others make themselves heard, starting out from different places and recording details along the way, from the mundane to the soul-shattering and spirit-lifting.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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October 8, 2012
“Covered Wagon Women” is a fascinating non-fiction account of fourteen pioneer women traveling west in the 1840’s. The book was edited and compiled by historian Kenneth L. Holmes. It is a remarkable book in that it consists of primary source, unedited diary entries, letters and other correspondence. The editor left the women’s narratives unedited as the women actually wrote them, replete with original syntax, spelling, and punctuation, and the mistakes made therein.
There are additional "Covered Wagon Women," volumes in a series. I read volume two and found it equally compelling.
These unedited first person narratives give the reader a genuine sense of who these women really were, what they were seeing, experiencing, and feeling. Of course the unbelievable hardship, birth, death and tragedy are heart wrenching, but these incredible women’s intelligence, courage and appreciation of the beauty of their experience is also made abundantly clear. The women’s observations are reminiscent of the biographies of the famous male explorers, at times scientifically dispassionate, as they keenly and in detail, describe the new flora and fauna, terrain, climate, and Native Americans they encounter. They were after all, explorers as well.
They are also most effective in relaying their feelings. Take for example this excerpt from Tabitha Brown about her experience traveling west in 1846, now left to her own devices as she struggles on with an old, feeble, near death companion who was unable to care for himself or offer her any assistance,
“Here the shades of night were gathering fast and I could see the wagon tracks no further. I alighted from my horse, flung off my saddle and saddle bags and tied him fast with a lasso rope to a tree…..his senses were gone…..I covered him as well as I could with blankets…and helped the old gentleman, expecting he would be a corpse by morning. Pause for a moment and consider my situation-worse than alone; in a strange wilderness; without food, without fire; cold and shivering; wolves fighting and howling all around me; darkness of night forbade the stars to shine upon me; solitary- all was solitary as death…. As soon as light had dawned, I pulled down my tent, saddled the horses, found the Captain so as to stand on his feet…”
And she continues on towards Oregon. Remarkable. And there are many more narratives like this in the book.
I read a lot of these non-fiction pioneer and Native American history books (more about these in a latter review) as I traveled recently through the west, crossing and re-crossing the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. I read books about a woman homesteading alone on the prairie, the first homesteading couple in what is now Glacier National Park, another about a widow hiring a helper and traveling on the first trek over the Oregon trail where they broke the trail, a book about a woman and her family crossing the Mojave Desert and this incredible collection of women’s narratives and I realize we’ve all been robbed with the books, movies and folklore of “the old west,” that have focused on the cowboys and male explorers, and mostly ignored the incredible fortitude, bravery and contribution of these pioneer women.
Riveting reading. Highly recommend.
There are additional "Covered Wagon Women," volumes in a series. I read volume two and found it equally compelling.
These unedited first person narratives give the reader a genuine sense of who these women really were, what they were seeing, experiencing, and feeling. Of course the unbelievable hardship, birth, death and tragedy are heart wrenching, but these incredible women’s intelligence, courage and appreciation of the beauty of their experience is also made abundantly clear. The women’s observations are reminiscent of the biographies of the famous male explorers, at times scientifically dispassionate, as they keenly and in detail, describe the new flora and fauna, terrain, climate, and Native Americans they encounter. They were after all, explorers as well.
They are also most effective in relaying their feelings. Take for example this excerpt from Tabitha Brown about her experience traveling west in 1846, now left to her own devices as she struggles on with an old, feeble, near death companion who was unable to care for himself or offer her any assistance,
“Here the shades of night were gathering fast and I could see the wagon tracks no further. I alighted from my horse, flung off my saddle and saddle bags and tied him fast with a lasso rope to a tree…..his senses were gone…..I covered him as well as I could with blankets…and helped the old gentleman, expecting he would be a corpse by morning. Pause for a moment and consider my situation-worse than alone; in a strange wilderness; without food, without fire; cold and shivering; wolves fighting and howling all around me; darkness of night forbade the stars to shine upon me; solitary- all was solitary as death…. As soon as light had dawned, I pulled down my tent, saddled the horses, found the Captain so as to stand on his feet…”
And she continues on towards Oregon. Remarkable. And there are many more narratives like this in the book.
I read a lot of these non-fiction pioneer and Native American history books (more about these in a latter review) as I traveled recently through the west, crossing and re-crossing the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. I read books about a woman homesteading alone on the prairie, the first homesteading couple in what is now Glacier National Park, another about a widow hiring a helper and traveling on the first trek over the Oregon trail where they broke the trail, a book about a woman and her family crossing the Mojave Desert and this incredible collection of women’s narratives and I realize we’ve all been robbed with the books, movies and folklore of “the old west,” that have focused on the cowboys and male explorers, and mostly ignored the incredible fortitude, bravery and contribution of these pioneer women.
Riveting reading. Highly recommend.
March 29, 2015
‘Covered Wagon Women’ is not only a collection of letters and excerpted diaries written by women who traveled across America in covered wagons. I discovered there are informative introductions to each woman as well, written by researchers who tracked, through official records births, deaths, marriages and real estate documents, supporting information which fills out the historical context behind the letters and diaries. The researchers also interviewed descendants. There is a map included and it shows the routes taken by the wagons.
This particular volume, Volume 1, covers the time period from 1840 to 1849. There are additional volumes in the series which include more letters and diaries from later years. For example, the next book covers the year 1850, a year which gets a single volume because 1850 saw far more emigrants making the journey to California and Oregon from the eastern United States.
The letters and diaries are printed almost exactly as they were originally composed, with misspellings and strange punctuations. Although many of these women were obviously minimally educated in the art of writing, and up till now, ignored by historians, they had important things to say about their journey, amazing and powerful things. It is crystal-clear to me that domesticity is a means to survival, much on the same level as a gun. They cooked meals every day under dire circumstances. They sewed, weaved, knitted and mended clothes and bedding. They washed up when they had enough water, but went dirty for weeks if required. They walked miles over some of the roughest terrain America possesses - rocks, sand, dust, mud - over flat rutted trails and up and down mountain paths. They fed and milked cows, helped keep oxen and horses alive, birthed babies and buried them. They wrote back to relatives giving them advice about what to bring if they made the trip. Many included prices of items they purchased from the occasional store or farmer they came across, and told of trading with various Indian tribes.
While many women would not have chosen to move west in a covered wagon, they went because their husbands wanted adventure, wealth (the gold rush of California) and land. However, as some of these letters make clear, there were women who wanted adventure, wealth and land as much as their husbands did. They found beauty, peace and a vigorous life they enjoyed very much, as much as the men, and established businesses and families with determination and hope for the future. Some died in their 40’s, others lived long lives into their 80’s and 90’s.
I was surprised at how many marriages these folks had - most had buried two or more spouses before they moved west, along with multiple sets of babies and toddlers. Some arrived in Oregon or California alone, having lost their spouse (and children) during the journey. Most quickly remarried - a married couple received more acres of property from the government. They could buy land outright, or work it for three years with the hope of having the money through farming, home businesses and the raising of animals for sale. Not many made a fortune through gold mining, although some mined enough gold (a few women, too) for a stake in a business or to buy land.
There is much unsaid in these letters. They rarely speak of their personal suffering, but instead relate what happened simply and factually. Despite the brevity, when a letter mentions how long they went without water and how many animals and people died because of it, it is easy to read between the lines.
The most amusing revelation is how much the Mormons scared people. It becomes obvious from some of the letters that many Americans traveling west thought the Mormons were more dangerous than the Indians! People might keep a hand on their guns when Indians came around (mostly because of theft problems), but if they heard rumors that Mormons were in the area, they went miles out of their way to avoid them. A letter from a Mormon woman is included in the book; they hid their religious affiliation from fellow travelers in order to trade or travel safely with others they met. The Mormons did indeed practice polygamy and child marriage, and it was these particular tenets of their religion which seemed to damage their reputation most among the other emigrants, causing terror along with disgust.
One of the things I took away from the experiences of these women: never take so-called cutoffs or shortcuts, especially if the advice comes from a guide who wants to be paid for revealing the secret path which is guaranteed to get you there first to good land. Included in this volume are letters from survivors of the Donner party - yes, that Donner party!
This particular volume, Volume 1, covers the time period from 1840 to 1849. There are additional volumes in the series which include more letters and diaries from later years. For example, the next book covers the year 1850, a year which gets a single volume because 1850 saw far more emigrants making the journey to California and Oregon from the eastern United States.
The letters and diaries are printed almost exactly as they were originally composed, with misspellings and strange punctuations. Although many of these women were obviously minimally educated in the art of writing, and up till now, ignored by historians, they had important things to say about their journey, amazing and powerful things. It is crystal-clear to me that domesticity is a means to survival, much on the same level as a gun. They cooked meals every day under dire circumstances. They sewed, weaved, knitted and mended clothes and bedding. They washed up when they had enough water, but went dirty for weeks if required. They walked miles over some of the roughest terrain America possesses - rocks, sand, dust, mud - over flat rutted trails and up and down mountain paths. They fed and milked cows, helped keep oxen and horses alive, birthed babies and buried them. They wrote back to relatives giving them advice about what to bring if they made the trip. Many included prices of items they purchased from the occasional store or farmer they came across, and told of trading with various Indian tribes.
While many women would not have chosen to move west in a covered wagon, they went because their husbands wanted adventure, wealth (the gold rush of California) and land. However, as some of these letters make clear, there were women who wanted adventure, wealth and land as much as their husbands did. They found beauty, peace and a vigorous life they enjoyed very much, as much as the men, and established businesses and families with determination and hope for the future. Some died in their 40’s, others lived long lives into their 80’s and 90’s.
I was surprised at how many marriages these folks had - most had buried two or more spouses before they moved west, along with multiple sets of babies and toddlers. Some arrived in Oregon or California alone, having lost their spouse (and children) during the journey. Most quickly remarried - a married couple received more acres of property from the government. They could buy land outright, or work it for three years with the hope of having the money through farming, home businesses and the raising of animals for sale. Not many made a fortune through gold mining, although some mined enough gold (a few women, too) for a stake in a business or to buy land.
There is much unsaid in these letters. They rarely speak of their personal suffering, but instead relate what happened simply and factually. Despite the brevity, when a letter mentions how long they went without water and how many animals and people died because of it, it is easy to read between the lines.
The most amusing revelation is how much the Mormons scared people. It becomes obvious from some of the letters that many Americans traveling west thought the Mormons were more dangerous than the Indians! People might keep a hand on their guns when Indians came around (mostly because of theft problems), but if they heard rumors that Mormons were in the area, they went miles out of their way to avoid them. A letter from a Mormon woman is included in the book; they hid their religious affiliation from fellow travelers in order to trade or travel safely with others they met. The Mormons did indeed practice polygamy and child marriage, and it was these particular tenets of their religion which seemed to damage their reputation most among the other emigrants, causing terror along with disgust.
One of the things I took away from the experiences of these women: never take so-called cutoffs or shortcuts, especially if the advice comes from a guide who wants to be paid for revealing the secret path which is guaranteed to get you there first to good land. Included in this volume are letters from survivors of the Donner party - yes, that Donner party!
April 29, 2022
“Another thing to keep in mind is that the overland trails were not narrow lines to be followed, but were what Archer B. Hulbert called ‘ganglia of trails often spreading out miles in width.’ […] This helps one to understand, although many miles apart, how rival towns may claim to have been located on an old trail; often both claims are perfectly correct” (21).
June 29, 2025
A great selection of journal entries kept by women on the covered wagon routes in the 1840s. The hardships which the families endured is heart-breaking in places. They certainly had to be resourceful and tough to survive the journey!
The editors have done a great job in researching the people mentioned in the diaries. It is so enriching to read what became of these pioneers. I would like to read more in the series if they became more easily and cheaply accessible in the UK.
The editors have done a great job in researching the people mentioned in the diaries. It is so enriching to read what became of these pioneers. I would like to read more in the series if they became more easily and cheaply accessible in the UK.
December 14, 2020
Fortitude. Grit. Perseverance. Vision. Worry. Exhaustion. Willpower. Hope.
And many more adjectives to describe the 14 women in this first volume of Covered Wagon Women diaries and letters series. This time period of 1840-1849 recounts the first recorded and researched collection of women who crossed the plains, deserts, and mountains to a new life in the United States West.
Not all that made the trip necessarily willingly, some because it was the thing to do to follow your husband and take care of your family. These women often fulfilling both roles of carrying on and moving their wagon forward if a husband fell ill or died, as well as the child care and household duties on the trail, some while pregnant. Death was an all too familiar occurrence; their children, husbands (one even had two husbands that died!), their cattle and oxen.
The writing entries are short, unedited, and cited by author Kenneth L. Holmes to share with us their actual feelings and encounters. Holmes left the writing intact and original so the education level, writing style, and length from either short supplies or intentional recording of their trek was clearly shown.
I do wish the map of the trails would have been better laid out or enhanced. It was very tiny writing and the spine encompassed the middle states where forts and other stops were noted. I referred to it often throughout the various stories and wish it could have been more readable.
It was interesting to refamiliarize myself with how long people waited for communication. Often months and then carried on with everyday life until they heard from loved ones again. So vary different than our instant communication and gratification world we live in now.
And many more adjectives to describe the 14 women in this first volume of Covered Wagon Women diaries and letters series. This time period of 1840-1849 recounts the first recorded and researched collection of women who crossed the plains, deserts, and mountains to a new life in the United States West.
Not all that made the trip necessarily willingly, some because it was the thing to do to follow your husband and take care of your family. These women often fulfilling both roles of carrying on and moving their wagon forward if a husband fell ill or died, as well as the child care and household duties on the trail, some while pregnant. Death was an all too familiar occurrence; their children, husbands (one even had two husbands that died!), their cattle and oxen.
The writing entries are short, unedited, and cited by author Kenneth L. Holmes to share with us their actual feelings and encounters. Holmes left the writing intact and original so the education level, writing style, and length from either short supplies or intentional recording of their trek was clearly shown.
I do wish the map of the trails would have been better laid out or enhanced. It was very tiny writing and the spine encompassed the middle states where forts and other stops were noted. I referred to it often throughout the various stories and wish it could have been more readable.
It was interesting to refamiliarize myself with how long people waited for communication. Often months and then carried on with everyday life until they heard from loved ones again. So vary different than our instant communication and gratification world we live in now.
February 28, 2025
I have ready all 11 books in this series. The early volumes are a tough read, but very interesting. The early travelers weren't always the best school educated women so their entries are short, but still interesting. The later volumes usually have entries that are more story like in their account of their daily chores/events and I seriously wanted to hear more about the women's life after they got to CA, but.... either they stopped writing (they were busy with their new life) or they just weren't included. It took me time to read the earlier volumes since they are a bit slow/boring, but I still enjoyed seeing what these women wrote. The later volumes are an easier read. This is a part of history that we are not (sad to say) taught in school, but it's still a major part of this country!
July 15, 2012
I read bits and pieces of this book containing diary entries from women who traveled west in the 1800's -- many of their entries are very interesting. Reading things like this really makes one appreciate our modern conveniences such as automobiles. To think they only traveled as far in a day as we can in roughly 1/2 an hour really makes you realize just how long these trips took.
September 2, 2012
This is one of those books that makes you appreciate our ancestors who crossed the continent to settle the West. Women had worked so hard to keep their families fed and cared for while traversing through rough country and tough times. Every time I cross the desert in a car, on a road, with air conditioning I think of these women and admire them.
June 6, 2014
Diaries & letters from the women who, with their families, traveled the covered wagon trail to the Western U.S. The book gives us a hint of the extreme strength it took to make this arduous, long journey and the dangers they faced but they did it almost as "matter of everyday life". Incredible stories!
March 21, 2010
I am a sucker for trail diaries, so it is hard to be objective, but this was pretty great. It includes advice from a member of the Donner Party not to take any cutoffs, and relates the story of an angry woman traveling overland who torched her family's wagon.
July 14, 2023
This book sucked. It SUCKED BEYOND ALL NOTION OF SUCKINESS. Hang on, because you're going to read a rant. I read this sort of material, and this collection sucks.
I'm sorry if you read it and came to conclusion that the women who pioneered the American West were nothing but a bunch of boring, illiterate dumbasses, because this book is filled with boring, illiterate dumbass writing.
If this book killed any interest you had in reading about the pioneers, I'm sorry about that too. Because guess what? There ARE GENUINELY GOOD memoirs written by pioneer women out there. Here's a list of recommendations to get you started:
Mary Mann Hamilton-Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman
Lavinia Honeyman Porter-By Ox Team to California: Crossing the Plains in 1860
Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er
Alice Mendenhall George-Story of My Childhood Written for My Children
Nannie T. Alderson-A Bride Goes West
Mabel Barbee Lee- Cripple Creek Days
Estella Bowen Culp-Letters From Tully: A Woman's Life on the Dakota Frontier
Mary Rose Pender-A Lady's Experiences in the Wild West in 1883
Mary Ann Hafen-Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: A Woman's Life on the Mormon Frontier
Melissa Moore-The Story of a Kansas Pioneer
Mari Sandoz-Sandhill Sundays and Other Recollections
Harriet Fish Backus Tomboy Bride: A Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West
Lavina Day Eastlick-Thrilling Incidents of the Indian War of 1862: Being a Personal Narrative of the Outrages and Horrors Witnessed by Mrs. L. Eastlick in Minnesota
Sarah Ann Horn-A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Horn and her two children, with Mrs. Harris, by the Comanche Indians
Miriam Davis Colt-Went to Kansas: Being a Thrilling Account of an Ill-fated Expedition to that Fairy Land and Its Sad Results
Lydia Spencer Lane-I Married a Soldier: Or Old Days in the Old Army
Frances M.A. Roe-Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888
Mary Leefe Laurence-Daughter of the Regiment: Memoirs of a Childhood in the Frontier Army, 1878-1898
Rachel Calof-Rachel Calof's Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains
Carrie Young-Nothing to Do But Stay
Rebecca Burlend-A True Picture of Emigration
Delia Sheffield-Reminiscences
Olive Clark-In the New Country, Early Days Along the Solomon Valley
Elizabeth Bacon Custer-Boots and Saddles
I'm sorry if you read it and came to conclusion that the women who pioneered the American West were nothing but a bunch of boring, illiterate dumbasses, because this book is filled with boring, illiterate dumbass writing.
If this book killed any interest you had in reading about the pioneers, I'm sorry about that too. Because guess what? There ARE GENUINELY GOOD memoirs written by pioneer women out there. Here's a list of recommendations to get you started:
Mary Mann Hamilton-Trials of the Earth: The True Story of a Pioneer Woman
Lavinia Honeyman Porter-By Ox Team to California: Crossing the Plains in 1860
Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er
Alice Mendenhall George-Story of My Childhood Written for My Children
Nannie T. Alderson-A Bride Goes West
Mabel Barbee Lee- Cripple Creek Days
Estella Bowen Culp-Letters From Tully: A Woman's Life on the Dakota Frontier
Mary Rose Pender-A Lady's Experiences in the Wild West in 1883
Mary Ann Hafen-Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: A Woman's Life on the Mormon Frontier
Melissa Moore-The Story of a Kansas Pioneer
Mari Sandoz-Sandhill Sundays and Other Recollections
Harriet Fish Backus Tomboy Bride: A Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West
Lavina Day Eastlick-Thrilling Incidents of the Indian War of 1862: Being a Personal Narrative of the Outrages and Horrors Witnessed by Mrs. L. Eastlick in Minnesota
Sarah Ann Horn-A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Horn and her two children, with Mrs. Harris, by the Comanche Indians
Miriam Davis Colt-Went to Kansas: Being a Thrilling Account of an Ill-fated Expedition to that Fairy Land and Its Sad Results
Lydia Spencer Lane-I Married a Soldier: Or Old Days in the Old Army
Frances M.A. Roe-Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888
Mary Leefe Laurence-Daughter of the Regiment: Memoirs of a Childhood in the Frontier Army, 1878-1898
Rachel Calof-Rachel Calof's Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains
Carrie Young-Nothing to Do But Stay
Rebecca Burlend-A True Picture of Emigration
Delia Sheffield-Reminiscences
Olive Clark-In the New Country, Early Days Along the Solomon Valley
Elizabeth Bacon Custer-Boots and Saddles
September 30, 2023
These are the collected diaries and letters of fourteen pioneer women traveling west in covered wagons during the 1840’s.
Mr. Holmes, a historian has left everything in its original source — unedited diary entries, letters and other correspondence. This is how the women actually wrote then, complete with original dialect, spelling, and punctuation — and with mistakes.
The women speak in their own voices, without any modern influence. It will take you a few pages (or chapters) to get into the rhythm of their voices — and figure out the spelling — but after a bit, you get the hang of it. Whenever I re-open this book and read an entry or two, I always feel like I am actually there in the wagon listening to their personal accounts.
Every entry gives a slightly different viewpoint on the hardship and horror these remarkable women experienced and endured to discover new lives out west. Some are mundane, others soul-crushing, and some spirit-lifting. We read of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon.
There are 11 books in this series, and maybe someday I will tackle more, but for now this first in the series is enough to remind me of the luxuries in my life – water at the turn of a faucet, a warm bed, soap – well, you know what I mean. More at: https://www.bookbarmy.com
Mr. Holmes, a historian has left everything in its original source — unedited diary entries, letters and other correspondence. This is how the women actually wrote then, complete with original dialect, spelling, and punctuation — and with mistakes.
The women speak in their own voices, without any modern influence. It will take you a few pages (or chapters) to get into the rhythm of their voices — and figure out the spelling — but after a bit, you get the hang of it. Whenever I re-open this book and read an entry or two, I always feel like I am actually there in the wagon listening to their personal accounts.
Every entry gives a slightly different viewpoint on the hardship and horror these remarkable women experienced and endured to discover new lives out west. Some are mundane, others soul-crushing, and some spirit-lifting. We read of Tamsen Donner and young Virginia Reed, members of the ill-fated Donner party; Patty Sessions, the Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail between Omaha and Salt Lake City; Rachel Fisher, who buried both her husband and her little girl before reaching Oregon.
There are 11 books in this series, and maybe someday I will tackle more, but for now this first in the series is enough to remind me of the luxuries in my life – water at the turn of a faucet, a warm bed, soap – well, you know what I mean. More at: https://www.bookbarmy.com
January 7, 2019
This book is a collection of letters and diary entries made by the women who crossed the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. They speak of the troubles they came across, the death of husbands, children, loved ones. They talk about how their wagons overturned, and how they had to lay under their dogs at night to keep warm. There is a story of a midwife who delivered babies while she was on the Trail - how she would travel back 5-10 miles sometimes to reach a woman in labor.
The collection comes from many museums across the United States. It was interesting to hear the journey from a woman's point of view. Very rarely did the woman complain about her dire circumstances, or about the death of her loved ones. They would bury their husbands and children, and the next day they would start again on their travels. Most of the women had around 8 children to care for, plus her husband. They would cook for their families and keep things in order day after day. Through the snow and rain and across the Snake River. It was truly remarkable to read.
I really enjoyed this book, and cannot believe I almost forgot to blog about it!! GREAT book - check it out. I can't wait to read volume #2.
The collection comes from many museums across the United States. It was interesting to hear the journey from a woman's point of view. Very rarely did the woman complain about her dire circumstances, or about the death of her loved ones. They would bury their husbands and children, and the next day they would start again on their travels. Most of the women had around 8 children to care for, plus her husband. They would cook for their families and keep things in order day after day. Through the snow and rain and across the Snake River. It was truly remarkable to read.
I really enjoyed this book, and cannot believe I almost forgot to blog about it!! GREAT book - check it out. I can't wait to read volume #2.
September 26, 2023
The 12 women whose letters or diaries are contained in this book probably considered themselves as ordinary women doing life as it came to them. But these women were so incredibly extraordinary and inspiring. The hardships and sufferings they endured, mostly without any complaint is incredible. Perhaps the difference between us (modern day women) and them is they said yes to the adventure, yes to hard work, yes to figuring out the impossible and working together with others. If we-modern day women- said yes to all these things I bet we could be extraordinary and change the landscape of our surrounds too. A challenge to consider!
June 4, 2022
A fascinating first-hand look at the journey west made by so many in the 1840’s. The thirteen various women each recorded their experience through letters, journals, and/or diaries. The excerpts printed in this volume are their works unedited for spelling or punctuation, a true gift for the reader. The research and history given as a prologue to each woman’s writing provides the background information helpful to the reader who wants to know more about her past and her future, as well as that of her family.
June 5, 2024
As a student of history, I enjoy reading books that deal with the migration from east to west. What an interesting time in the history of our country. This book fits right into that category, sharing with the reader excerpts from diaries and letters the women wrote from the wagon trains traveling to start new lives out west. There are several books about this topic and this one in particular is fascinating as the editor takes in correspondence from a variety of age groups, giving a look at how the journey affected each one.
May 24, 2017
I loved this book! While it was not a story but rather factual research reporting on the many brave and not so brave emigrants that traversed our land, hoping for a change in their status quo. I found it essential reading for a novel I am currently exploring and hope to write soon. I appreciated the statistics of emigrating west, the number of graves passed and the letters the women wrote home or in their diaries. I will use much of the information as a foundation for my story.
April 10, 2019
Letters from diaries of the settlers western journey
Fairly interesting book of letters written by women as they traveled the trails to the west. I think it would have been better if there was not as much of the back stories told before each letter. I am going to read another volume to see if I am more interested in these letters to see if I want to read the rest of the volumes.
Fairly interesting book of letters written by women as they traveled the trails to the west. I think it would have been better if there was not as much of the back stories told before each letter. I am going to read another volume to see if I am more interested in these letters to see if I want to read the rest of the volumes.
May 23, 2021
Covered Wagon Women was an excellent read for me as I'm writing a historical novel set around the Oregon Trail. Reading the primary sources from women who traveled west helped me to visualize and understand the travails and triumphs of such an arduous journey. There are more volumes of Covered Wagon Women, and I will be reading those as well.
December 3, 2019
Unbelievable stories. Women's diaries from their covered wagon move across the country. 1800 miles, walking, horseback, covered wagon covering 10 to 15 miles a day! Crossing rivers and mountains to fulfill their dreams. It did get a little monotonous reading.
December 31, 2023
I bought this at the End of the Oregon Trail Museum in Oregon City and read the entire thing on the flight back (including dramatic excerpts aloud to my friend sitting next to me). A stark but moving firsthand account of the trail. Cannot wait to read the rest of this series.
March 31, 2025
Diaries and letters from women who went West, to Oregon, California, Salt Lake City, Washington state. I found these letters interesting. I enjoyed getting to know some women who did what I don't think I could ever do.
Want to read
June 28, 2019Entire series: Covered Wagon Women
April 2, 2021
This was an interesting and well-edited collection, providing "slice of life" accounts that I haven't gotten anywhere else.
May 26, 2023
Started reading and then scanned page after page. Could not finish reading. Like true pioneer stories but didn't like this format.
August 15, 2025
interesting
March 6, 2019
Much of elementary school history in California used to be spent on the 1849 gold rush and overland travel. As I delved deeper, I discovered there was nothing more interesting than the personal narratives. Individual stories of those times were nakedly harsh, stark, and would convey the difficulties endured far more effectively than any dry historical summary.
There are many complete books, focusing on a individual's story, whether written at the time (you can find a diary of traveling across Death Valley, for example, with the ill-fated group that mistakenly headed that way) or years afterwards. I'm afraid my disappointment with this book was that, because it is a compilation of letters and diaries of the overall western journey, it's short on offerings/relevant history, and long on rather gratuitous footnotes.
I have seen the Virginia Reed materials before (edited), and fortunately read extensively about the Donner party (enough to be able to understand what she was writing about). I found Sallie Hester's materials and Louisiana Strentzel's letters most interesting. I do appreciate that they made an effort not to add punctuation or [sic] everywhere. However, I will not be going for the additional editions to this series. I prefer to enjoy the many volumes available that provide complete diaries, rather than short exerpts, of the old west.
As someone who reads quite a bit of history, I was disappointed in this specific effort. I finished it feeling like someone got his masters degree, and some university class has to read this every quarter.
There are many complete books, focusing on a individual's story, whether written at the time (you can find a diary of traveling across Death Valley, for example, with the ill-fated group that mistakenly headed that way) or years afterwards. I'm afraid my disappointment with this book was that, because it is a compilation of letters and diaries of the overall western journey, it's short on offerings/relevant history, and long on rather gratuitous footnotes.
I have seen the Virginia Reed materials before (edited), and fortunately read extensively about the Donner party (enough to be able to understand what she was writing about). I found Sallie Hester's materials and Louisiana Strentzel's letters most interesting. I do appreciate that they made an effort not to add punctuation or [sic] everywhere. However, I will not be going for the additional editions to this series. I prefer to enjoy the many volumes available that provide complete diaries, rather than short exerpts, of the old west.
As someone who reads quite a bit of history, I was disappointed in this specific effort. I finished it feeling like someone got his masters degree, and some university class has to read this every quarter.
March 7, 2017
Writings taken from the personal diaries of settler women on the trails across early America, these are fascinating insights into what life was really like for these ordinary people. Included in this edition are accounts of the Donner party's experiences.
September 12, 2015
Like other American youngsters, I learned about the 19th-century pioneers heading west seeking a new and better life. But my knowledge about their travels was limited, an abstract concept. I certainly had no sense of the remarkable journeys fleshed out by the pioneers themselves in these letters and diaries.
Covered Wagon Women 1840-1849—the first in an eleven-volume series—brings together writings of thirteen pioneer women, including survivors of the Donner Party that went so tragically astray. Most of the women are Anglo Saxon Protestant, but among them are a young Quaker and a Mormon midwife, who delivers babies on her journey from Nebraska to Salt Lake City. The letters, and especially the extended journals, offer great detail about the daily travels, as the groups move slowly onward—“made 12 miles,” “made 20 miles,” “made 4 miles”—struggling with bad weather, bad water, steep inclines, hard-to-ford rivers, runaway cattle, illness, and many deaths.
These writings, Kenneth L. Holmes observes in his introduction to this meticulously prepared book, have not been “edited for readability.” Wisely, he has left alone the misspellings, poor grammar, and incorrect punctuation that convey the authenticity of the accounts and allow us to hear the writers’ voices: individual, down-to-earth, moving. “I have not told half we suffered,” writes Elizabeth Dixon Smith, a mother of eight, who in 1847 crossed from Indiana to Oregon, where she encountered rain, cold, hunger, and lost her ailing husband. On Feb. 1st, nine months after leaving home, she writes: “rain all day this day my Dear husband my last remaining friend died.”
By no means is everything grim. The women here express interest, curiosity, and a sense of adventure, as they describe the foreign landscape, report on the price of goods, and give advice to those who may choose to follow them west. Wear buckskin, says Smith, and “any body in preparing to come to this country should make up some calico shirts to trade to the indians in cases of necessity you will have to hire them pilot you a cross rivers.”
But as the travelers grind on, fearful of the Indians, anxious, nightly, to find a campsite with wood, water, and grazing for their cattle, and dealing with setbacks, we are always aware of just how hard these journeys are. “May it be to you my friends a year of jubilee,” writes Dr. Strentzel wryly in an addition to his wife Louisiana’s letter to her family back home. “And if you have enemies persuade them for a land journey to California.”
**Also recommended: Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865, by Sarah Raymond Herndon. First published in 1882 in The Husbandman. Burr Printing House, 1902. TwoDot, 2003, 128 pp. (Available on kindle.)
Covered Wagon Women 1840-1849—the first in an eleven-volume series—brings together writings of thirteen pioneer women, including survivors of the Donner Party that went so tragically astray. Most of the women are Anglo Saxon Protestant, but among them are a young Quaker and a Mormon midwife, who delivers babies on her journey from Nebraska to Salt Lake City. The letters, and especially the extended journals, offer great detail about the daily travels, as the groups move slowly onward—“made 12 miles,” “made 20 miles,” “made 4 miles”—struggling with bad weather, bad water, steep inclines, hard-to-ford rivers, runaway cattle, illness, and many deaths.
These writings, Kenneth L. Holmes observes in his introduction to this meticulously prepared book, have not been “edited for readability.” Wisely, he has left alone the misspellings, poor grammar, and incorrect punctuation that convey the authenticity of the accounts and allow us to hear the writers’ voices: individual, down-to-earth, moving. “I have not told half we suffered,” writes Elizabeth Dixon Smith, a mother of eight, who in 1847 crossed from Indiana to Oregon, where she encountered rain, cold, hunger, and lost her ailing husband. On Feb. 1st, nine months after leaving home, she writes: “rain all day this day my Dear husband my last remaining friend died.”
By no means is everything grim. The women here express interest, curiosity, and a sense of adventure, as they describe the foreign landscape, report on the price of goods, and give advice to those who may choose to follow them west. Wear buckskin, says Smith, and “any body in preparing to come to this country should make up some calico shirts to trade to the indians in cases of necessity you will have to hire them pilot you a cross rivers.”
But as the travelers grind on, fearful of the Indians, anxious, nightly, to find a campsite with wood, water, and grazing for their cattle, and dealing with setbacks, we are always aware of just how hard these journeys are. “May it be to you my friends a year of jubilee,” writes Dr. Strentzel wryly in an addition to his wife Louisiana’s letter to her family back home. “And if you have enemies persuade them for a land journey to California.”
**Also recommended: Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865, by Sarah Raymond Herndon. First published in 1882 in The Husbandman. Burr Printing House, 1902. TwoDot, 2003, 128 pp. (Available on kindle.)
March 7, 2014
All of the books in this series were very helpful for my research. The letters allowed me to read first-hand accounts of life on the trail from different women's perspectives. If I were to rate it based on helpfulness, I'd have given the book at least 4 stars,
I gave it an overall 3 star rating for enjoyment, because some of the letters were hard to read due to non-standard spelling and punctuation (though this was authentic), and some of the letters were repetitive in content (they were daily journals). The repetitiveness had value, though, because I was able to compare and contrast what each woman saw and experienced on her journey. I wondered what plants and animals they saw, and how trail conditions differed depending on when the woman started. The book(s) helped me answer my questions.
I gave it an overall 3 star rating for enjoyment, because some of the letters were hard to read due to non-standard spelling and punctuation (though this was authentic), and some of the letters were repetitive in content (they were daily journals). The repetitiveness had value, though, because I was able to compare and contrast what each woman saw and experienced on her journey. I wondered what plants and animals they saw, and how trail conditions differed depending on when the woman started. The book(s) helped me answer my questions.
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