Episodes

In this final episode, Elinore gets an education in the Mormon practice of polygamy in the early 1900s. She also recounts her successes growing and raising food on her homestead. She definitely paints a rosy picture, rosier than the one we saw during the Women Homesteader's episode. Was that Elinore having a positive attitude, applying a positive spin, or something else? Maybe we can just say, Elinore being Elinore.

Image credit: James Owen on Unsplash I crossed a ravine with equal frequency, and all looked alike. It is not surprising that soon I could not guess where I was. We could turn back and retrace our tracks, but actual danger lay there; so it seemed wiser to push on, as there was, perhaps, no greater danger than discomfort ahead. The sun hung like a big red ball ready to drop into the hazy distance when we came clear of the buttes and down on to a broad plateau, on which grass grew plentifully. Th...

Sally Hemings’s Quarters (image credit: monticello.org) Someone On The Internet said, “Studying history will sometimes make you feel extremely angry. If studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, you probably aren’t studying history.” I must be doing it right! I had forgotten that Elinore was born and raised in the antebellum South, but she reminded me with her Christmas letter and racist party “game.” As I was trying to figure out a way out of recording it, I remembered why the ...

It is true, I want a great many things I haven’t got, but I don’t want them enough to be discontented and not enjoy the many blessings that are mine. I have my home among the blue mountains, my healthy, well-formed children, my clean, honest husband, my kind, gentle milk cows, my garden which I make myself. I have loads and loads of flowers which I tend myself. There are lots of chickens, turkeys, and pigs which are my own special care. I have some slow old gentle horses and an old wagon. I can ...

Image credit: Adam Jahiel Photography Elinore continues her awe-inspiring descriptions of the Wyoming frontier. Her signature humor is also alive and well. This time, Elinore gets a little taste of cowboy living, and of cackle-berries. And though she doesn’t mention the race of the cowboys she meets, it is worth mentioning that at least one in five cowboys was African American. Two of the most famous were Nat Love and Bass Reeves, but there were hundreds of other black men who made their living...

image credit: goodreads Leatherstocking Tales, James Fenimore Cooper February, 1912 Dear Mrs. Coney,—…Soon we started again, and if not quite so jolly as we were before, at least we looked forward to our supper with a keen relish and the horses were urged faster than they otherwise would have been. The beautiful snow is rather depressing, however, when there is snow everywhere. The afternoon passed swiftly and the horses were becoming jaded. At four o’clock it was almost dark. We had been goin...

Rock Springs, Wyoming Railroad Depot Train Station (image credit: hippostcard.com) October 6, 1911 Dear Mrs. Coney, … Aggie was angry all through. She vowed she was being robbed. After she had berated me soundly for submitting so tamely, she flounced back to her own room, declaring she would get even with the robbers. I had to hurry like everything that night to get myself and Jerrine ready for the train, so I could spare no time for Aggie. She was not at the depot, and Jerrine and I had to go...

image credit: homesteader.org September 1, 1910 Dear Mrs. Coney, —It was just a few days after the birthday party and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy was with me again. We were down at the barn looking at some new pigs, when we heard the big corral gates swing shut, so we hastened out to see who it could be so late in the day. It was Zebbie. He had come on the stage to Burnt Fork and the driver had brought him on here…. There was so much to tell, and he whispered he had something to tell me privately, but ...

image credit: homesteader.org August 15, 1910. Dear Mrs. Coney,— … Grandma Edmonson’s birthday is the 30th of May, and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy suggested that we give her a party. I had never seen Grandma, but because of something that happened in her family years ago which a few narrow-heads whom it didn’t concern in the least cannot forgive or forget, I had heard much of her. The family consists of Grandma, Grandpa, and little Cora Belle, who is the sweetest little bud that ever bloomed upon the t...

image credit: homesteader.org “June 16, 1910 My Dear Friend, Your card just to hand. I wrote you some time ago telling you I had a confession to make and have had no letter since, so thought perhaps you were scared I had done something too bad to forgive. I am suffering just now from eye-strain and can’t see to write long at a time, but I reckon I had better confess and get it done with.” In this fourth episode in a multi-part series, Elinore shares big news with Mrs. Coney, her former employ...

Image credit: homestead.org November 22, 1909 My dear Friend,— I was dreadfully afraid that my last letter was too much for you and now I feel plumb guilty. I really don’t know how to write you, for I have to write so much to say so little, and now that my last letter made you sick I almost wish so many things didn’t happen to me, for I always want to tell you. Many things have happened since I last wrote, and Zebulon Pike is not done for by any means, but I guess I will tell you my newest ex...

Image Credit: N.C. Wyeth, Letters from a Homesteader September 28, 1909 Dear Mrs. Coney,— … it was still snowing, great, heavy flakes; they looked as large as dollars. I didn’t want to start “Jeems” until the snow stopped because I wanted him to leave a clear trail. I had sixteen loads for my gun and I reasoned that I could likely kill enough food to last twice that many days by being careful what I shot at. It just kept snowing, so at last I decided to take a little hunt and provide for the d...

Image Credit: Sweetwater County Historical Museum Burnt Fork, Wyoming April 18, 1909 Dear Mrs. Coney, … There is a saddle horse especially for me and a little shotgun with which I am to kill sage chickens. We are between two trout streams, so you can think of me as being happy when the snow is through melting and the water gets clear. We have the finest flock of Plymouth Rocks and get so many nice eggs. It sure seems fine to have all the cream I want after my town experiences. Jerrine is making...