Thomas F. (hardtack) - , reviewed on 7/29/2022 + 2569 more book reviews

An interesting series of diaries from women who traveled west by wagon from Texas, Iowa, and further east. It's a mixture from many different women, some very interesting, others boring.

The two I liked the most were from young girls. One, Virginia Reed, was the 13-year-old daughter of one of the co-leaders of the Donner-Reed party. Her letters to friends struck me as she just casually mentions some of the members of this infamous party eating the dead.

The one I liked least was from a Mormon woman whose diary was pretty dry. The only thing interesting about her was she was a mid-wife who "...delivered 3,977 babies and to have lost very few of them." This at a time when the death of new-borns and their mothers were common. Obviously, she practiced cleanliness, as the opposite was the cause of many of the delivery deaths, even those by medical doctors.

I noticed an interesting mistake too, which amazed me. In the Introduction, the editor mentions the diary of Susan Magoffin. I read this book earlier this year. The editor says he would not include extracts from that book as her diary was so well known. Then he states, "...Susan Magoffin, wife of a United States military officer..." Well, if there is one thing Susan Magoffin states over and over again in her diary it is that her husband was a trader. Makes you wonder if the editor of this book even glanced at Susan Magoffin's diary.

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