Pioneer Life in the West
Library of Congress
People moved west for many different reasons. Pioneer life was not easy and many people gave up on their dreams and returned home. The push/pull factors specific to each individual played a huge role in whether that person felt content with the decision to move west or ultimately decided that pioneer life was not what he or she truly wanted.
This set of primary sources paints a picture for students so they can better understand what was involved in homesteading.
This set of primary sources paints a picture for students so they can better understand what was involved in homesteading.
Life in the East:
Advertised images of the West:
Daily Life in the West
Chores
Homes
The Land and Agriculture
Dear Wife & Baby
ma this is as pretty a country to look at as any one ever saw but it has it drawbacks as well as other places one
objection is the depth to water wells back from the streams vary from 50 to 150 ft in depth…another objection is no
timber at all you might say all there is stand along the streams and it is all taken up some of it however stand on rail
road land and settlers go for that but is a limited supply at best. If I get either of the pieces selected I will have to haul
my wood 10 to 12 miles…
A man can come here with $500.00 and manage properly and in a few years he can have a good comfortable home in a beautiful looking country and the most I see unfavorable is the timber & water…
Ma there is several with me today but I am lonesome without you and baby and I tell you there is a vacant place to me
wherever I go and no one can fill fill [sic] it but Ma & baby well good by for the present…
Letter from Uriah W. Oblinger to Mattie V. Oblinger and Ella Oblinger, November 3-5, 1872
http://contentdm.unl.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/nebraskastu/id/14857/rec/94
Benefits of Homesteading
Moses Speese, his brother. The brothers had different names because they had taken the names of their masters when
they escaped slavery by way of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War." - National Museum of American
History
http://amhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/sodhouse/sodhouse_detective.pdf
"In search of economic and social freedom, thousands of former slaves and their families joined the mass migration of
Americans, seeking homesteads in the West after the Civil War. Those African Americans who moved from southern
states to Kansas after Reconstruction became known as Exodusters. In search of economic and social freedom, tens of
thousands of former slaves left the South between 1879 and 1881 and headed for homesteads in the West. This
"exodus" from the South occured largely between 1879 and 1881 and began on the Mississippi River, seen to many as
the Red Sea that, when crossed, would lead to freedom."
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/history.html
Chrisman sisters' twelve claims totaled 1,920 acres. Many homesteaders found that 160 acres could not support
enough cattle or crops to sustain a family, so combining resources was a good solution. The sisters took turns living
with each other so they could fulfill the five-year residency requirement without living alone." (Women of the West
Museum)
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/chrismans_full.html
Letters Home
- Farmhouse in Barnet, VT
- Hartford, VT 1860
Advertised images of the West:
- “Nebraska Sketches,” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, May 21, 1859 http://www.teachushistory.org/Westward/ps-nebraska.htm
- The “New Home” in the Far West http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g02744/
- Land Office and Emigrant Depot at Burlington http://www.teachushistory.org/Westward/ps-getland.htm
- American Progress
Daily Life in the West
Chores
- Gathering Water (Women of the West Museum) http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/water_full.html
- Gathering Chips (Women of the West Museum) http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/chips_full.html
- Building a sod house (Women of the West Museum) http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/buildsod_full.html
- Cutting sod (Women of the West Museum) http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/cuttingsod_full.html
- "…I had a big washing and ironing to do house to straighten out bread to bake etc. and when Sat night came about 5 P.M. I had to lay down was just about give out. and my feet hurt me so I could scarcly stand. the balls of them even swelled. Mon & Tues this week we have worked in the garden, as the weeds and grown pretty bad. Then we washed this morning. I have been so tired since we got back. seems like I cant get rested, but has been to much push work I guess.
My garden is pretty good. have had radises onions, lettuce peas & beets. we started 200 strawberry plants this spring they are doing fine.
Letter from Estella Stilgebouer to Ella Roesch, June 21, 1911
- Saturday forenoon 11 Oclock Aprl 25th 1874
Fillmore Co Neb
Dear Father & Mother & Bros & Sister
To day finds Ella & I alone as the boys (Giles & Uriah have gone to Sutton I have finished my Saturdays work and thought I would write until the boys come for their dinner Nett my Saturdays work does not amount to much To day I give the house a general sweeping & brushing cleaned out the cupboard and washed off all my dishes then washed {Begin deleted text}the{End deleted text} down the windows & doors Last Wednesday I washed & then scoured my tin ware so we will live bright for a few days Now Mother are you ready to say well Marth what do you scour tin ware with away out in Neb Well I use sand just as I use to in Ind but I can not go to the Creek here and get it for we are not near any runing stream the sand I useed come out of Mr Powells Well it was some Mrs Allkire give me Then I give the table a genuine scouring with it I had scoured it frequently with ashes but it would never look the way I wanted it to
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ps:@field%28DOCID+l122%29
- Fillmore Co Neb1
Nov 24th1874 Tuesday evening
Dear Father & Mother & Bro & Sister
I made a nice little lot of {Begin deleted text}sop{End deleted text} soap last week the fir{Begin inserted text}s{End inserted text}t I have made with ashes since I have been here I have enough grease yet to make a kettle full I have not bought any soap since I have been here
We are all well I inted to wash bed clothes to day would like to borrow your washer I washed two blankets a monday when I washed
M V Oblinger
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/ps:@field%28DOCID+l126%29
Homes
- Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Matthews and family, Custer County, Nebraska (nebraskastudies.org)
- Rural Life in Nebraska (Library of Congress)
- Dugout on the South Loup River, near Virge Allen Homestead, Custer County, Nebraska (nebraskastudies.org)
- Three motherless children and a caved in soddy (nebraskastudies.org)
The Land and Agriculture
- Sunday Nov 3rd 1872
Dear Wife & Baby
ma this is as pretty a country to look at as any one ever saw but it has it drawbacks as well as other places one
objection is the depth to water wells back from the streams vary from 50 to 150 ft in depth…another objection is no
timber at all you might say all there is stand along the streams and it is all taken up some of it however stand on rail
road land and settlers go for that but is a limited supply at best. If I get either of the pieces selected I will have to haul
my wood 10 to 12 miles…
A man can come here with $500.00 and manage properly and in a few years he can have a good comfortable home in a beautiful looking country and the most I see unfavorable is the timber & water…
Ma there is several with me today but I am lonesome without you and baby and I tell you there is a vacant place to me
wherever I go and no one can fill fill [sic] it but Ma & baby well good by for the present…
Letter from Uriah W. Oblinger to Mattie V. Oblinger and Ella Oblinger, November 3-5, 1872
-
"…I suppose you would like to know if we have been Grasshoppered again They were here several days pretty thick and injured the corn considerable Some fields they striped the blades all off and other pieces striped partly They nibbled the ends of most all the ears and eat of all the silks so it will not fill out and be as good Neb would have had a splendid corn crop if the hoppers had stayed away awhile It looked rather gloomy when they begin to light on the corn They were not so large nor did not eat near so fast as they did two years [a]go They eat nearly all of my cabbage…
Letter from Mattie V. Oblinger to Thomas Family, September 10, 1876
- Family members on Mr. Brown's ranch with hogs, cattle, sheep and sod house in background, Custer County,
http://contentdm.unl.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/nebraskastu/id/14857/rec/94
Benefits of Homesteading
- The Shores family near Westerville, Custer County, Nebraska http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/nbhips/lca/105&topImages=10527r.jpg& topLinks=10527v.jpg&displayProfile=0&title=The%20Shores%20family%20near%20Westerville,%20Custer%20County,%20Nebraska.&m856s=$dnbhips$f10527&dir=ammem&itemLink=h?ammem/psbib:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28p10527%29%29
Moses Speese, his brother. The brothers had different names because they had taken the names of their masters when
they escaped slavery by way of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War." - National Museum of American
History
http://amhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/sodhouse/sodhouse_detective.pdf
"In search of economic and social freedom, thousands of former slaves and their families joined the mass migration of
Americans, seeking homesteads in the West after the Civil War. Those African Americans who moved from southern
states to Kansas after Reconstruction became known as Exodusters. In search of economic and social freedom, tens of
thousands of former slaves left the South between 1879 and 1881 and headed for homesteads in the West. This
"exodus" from the South occured largely between 1879 and 1881 and began on the Mississippi River, seen to many as
the Red Sea that, when crossed, would lead to freedom."
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/history.html
- The Chrisman Sisters on a claim in Goheen settlement on Lieban (Lillian) Creek, Custer County, Nebraska
Chrisman sisters' twelve claims totaled 1,920 acres. Many homesteaders found that 160 acres could not support
enough cattle or crops to sustain a family, so combining resources was a good solution. The sisters took turns living
with each other so they could fulfill the five-year residency requirement without living alone." (Women of the West
Museum)
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/chrismans_full.html
Letters Home
Related Websites
Library of Congress
Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters, 1862-1912
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/prairie-settlement/history4.html
Women of the West Museum
"There are no renters here"
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/daily.html
Life in a Sod House
Darkroom Detectives
http://amhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/sodhouse/sodhouse_detective.pdf
Teach US History.org
Westward Expansion
http://www.teachushistory.org/Westward/ps-contents.htm
Nebraska Studies.org
http://contentdm.unl.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/nebraskastu
Library of Congress
Prairie Settlement: Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters, 1862-1912
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/prairie-settlement/history4.html
Women of the West Museum
"There are no renters here"
http://theautry.org/explore/exhibits/sod/daily.html
Life in a Sod House
Darkroom Detectives
http://amhistory.si.edu/ourstory/pdf/sodhouse/sodhouse_detective.pdf
Teach US History.org
Westward Expansion
http://www.teachushistory.org/Westward/ps-contents.htm
Nebraska Studies.org
http://contentdm.unl.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/nebraskastu