so I am reading this...
Phoebe Judson was a young bride in 1853 when she and her husband crossed the plains from Ohio to the Puget Sound area of Washington Territory. She was ninety-five when this book was first published in 1925. The years between were spent in “a pioneer’s search for an ideal home” and in living there, when it was finally found at the head of the Nooksack River, almost on the Canadian border. Phoebe Judson's account of the journey west is based on daily diary entries detailing her fear, excitement, and exhaustion. At the end of the trail, the Judsons encountered hardships aplenty, causing them to abandon a farm and business in Olympia before their arrival in the Nooksack Valley. During the Indian Wars they holed up in a fort at Claquato. In time, Phoebe overcame her fear of the Indians, learned the Chinook language, and won their friendship. All this is told in vivid detail by a woman of great dignity and charm whom readers will long remember. In a foreword, Susan Armitage, professor of history at Washington State University, calls A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home a "classic pioneering account," important for its woman's point of view.
More details
A pioneer's search for an ideal home: a book of personal memoirs
By Phoebe Goodell Judson
Contributor Susan M. Armitage
Published by U of Nebraska Press, 1984
ISBN 0803275595, 9780803275591
309 pages
I always think I was born during the wrong time, I cannot help but wonder if I would have made it then, if I would have died early from cholera, or smallpox. Or if I would have managed to build a sod home, and would be able to stand snakes in my home.
5 comments:
Well, I think you'd make it if your "girl equipment held out. Folks didn't have much trouble with snakes, if they had a few pigs around. A hog or sow will eat a snake like I'd eat a bbq rib.
I'm collecting Louis L'Amour's paperbacks right now, some of which have some really believable woman leads.
Drop me a note and I'll mail some to you, mail 'em back when you're done.
I love those kinds of books and shows. Into The West, which was on TNT, is also a book. It is a really good read.
..... I've never read the book, but I do know the story........ and yes, I think you would have made it........
.... I think that lots of women wonder much as you do..... just as a lot of men do as well...
Eric
I don't wonder, because I know I wouldn't make it!
It amazes me how Phoebe Judson was able to learn Chinook the hard way. No books or classes back then!
I would've liked to have tried to make it with you as frontiers neighbors. We could've knitted and crocheted together.
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