Narcissa Whitman - Diaries and Letters

Narcissa Whitman – Diaries and Letters 1836 – by Narcissa Whitman

Nonfiction/History/Autobiographical

96 pages / 174 KB

Footnotes / Endnotes: No

Illustrations: No

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

5 Stars

This was a good companion piece to my hardcopy Narcissa Whitman, my Journal which does have illustrations. This contains letters, which were very interesting, as well as journal entries.

Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding (Spaulding) were the first two white women to cross the Rockies to Oregon Territory. They were not the first white women in the Oregon Territory, as several had sailed around, and some had come up from California.

Very interesting to read the difference in language since the early 1800s to now. Also interesting to note small things such as how much she and Marcus loved their Indian boys (guides) and would as long as they deserved it.

Some of her descriptions are excellent, and some not so much. I assume she saw the things that interested her, and or that she thought would interest her family. Much as we do today when we travel.

I loved the descriptions of the food, "Our dinner consisted of dry buffalo meat, turnips and fried bread, which was a luxury." The meat was probably jerky, or over cooked. And I could not agree more that fry bread is a luxury ;-)

If you enjoy history of the early Oregon Territory, I think you will like this book, short as it is.