test test. test. test test. test. test test. test. is my pleasure to introducr speaker this afternoon joey pool who joins us from new mexico j . >> it is my pleasure to introduce my speaker this afternoon, joy poole, who joins us from new mexico. joy is a returning missouri valley sunday speaker. in 2019 she gave a talk on her book, "over the santa fe trail to mexico," the travel diaries of dr. role and willard. at that time she mentioned she was researching firsthand accounts of several women, specifically young brides that traveled the santa fe trial in the 19th century. with this year marking the 200th anniversary of the opening of the trail, we figured it was a perfect time to invite joy back to tell us the stories of these

women. poole currently serves as deputy librarian for the new mexico state library. previously she was director of the el camino real international heritage center in new mexico, and a museum director for the colorado historical society. poole has devoted much of her career to studying santa fe trail hits torrey. in 1986 she helped organize the first santa fe trail symposium in trinidad, colorado. at that conference she was named the first vice president of the santa fe trail association. she also served for ten years on the santa fe trail advisory council for the park service. thank you for being here, joy. i will turn it over to you. >> thank you. welcome, everyone. i almost feel, given the topic

and the fact that we have descendants of the brides in our viewing audience that maybe you can think about hearing the strains of the bridal march, and it might be appropriate for me to say, "please rise." during this presentation i'm going to provide you a brief biography of the brides who traveled the santa fe trial, and it is from -- the stories are from their reminiscences, memoirs, diaries and letters. first, let me just give you a very brief framework about the santa fe trail trade. soon after mexican independence in 1821, the santa fe trail evolved into an international trade route linking the u.s. with santa fe in northern mexico. the trade was characterized by annual caravans of trail freighters who would leave

missouri and/or new mexico in the spring, traveling in large groups for protection as they crossed over indian territory. cargo freighted west consisted mainly of manufactured cloth like silk, linens, calicos, all kinds of sewing notions, food stuff like sardines and olives, liquor, champagne, as well as iron tools that the people of new mexico needed. the cargo freighted east consisted of silver pesos, furs, wool and mules. i know many of you in missouri have heard about the good old missouri mule. the commerce generated by trade in the 1850s was estimated at over 5 million, and by 1860 some ten tons of freight were going across the trail, pulled by 6,000 mules, over 25,000 oxen,

3,000 wagons and employing some 10,000 men. now, by the 1830s, independence was the eastern terminus of the two-way route across the prairies and the plains, ending, of course, on the western terminus of santa fe. i will say that the majority of the brides passed through and/or departed from independence on their santa fe trail honeymoon. so let me tell you about the very first bride. in 1987, the year that congress designated the santa fe trail a national historic trail, a local historian here in santa fe spotted a headline in an old new mexico newspaper that said, "first white child born in new mexico." well, it caught her attention, but all of the historians here in santa fe said, oh, you can't believe everything you read in

those old newspapers. but the person persevered and she verified that from an 1880s texas census that james donaho who was visiting santa fe, his dirth place, indeed, had been born in new mexico. as the story unfolded one fact remained clear, that mary donahoe eluded historians over 150 years. let me tell you a little bit about her. she was born in tennessee in 1807. she was the daughter of dr. james and lucy dodson, and when she was a teenager the family moved to missouri just south of columbia. there she met william donahoe and in november of 1831 they were married in boone county apparently by a justice of the peace. within a year a daughter, mary ann, was born to them. shortly after his daughter's birth william started selling

off his properties there in columbia to purchase inventory to trade so that when they joined the annual spring caravan over the santa fe trail he had something to trade. the donahoes arrived in santa fe in august of 1833. i will say that members of the caravan had elected charles bet as their captain, who alone was freighting $40,000 worth of cargo across the trail. she was -- she and her 9-month-old baby were accompanied by 184 men, 93 wagons, and there was even a military -- military group

captained by captain wickman and 44 soldiers who were ordered to accompany the caravan as far as arkansas, to the lower crossing of the arkansas, which at that time i might add the arkansas river was the international border of -- between mexico and the united states. in 1830 -- during the four years that mary was in santa fe she learned all kinds of hotel management skills. she was organizing employees to cook and clean the exchange hotel customers that they had, and she was described as having energy and a commanding spirit or in this day and age leadership skills. two more children were born to the donahos and during their years in santa fe their hotel business was quite profitable. but with three children under foot and the hotel to run, she was way too busy to leave any

journal recording the joys and/or hardships of living on the santa fe trail. i will say that surely mary and her husband william learned to speak spanish since it was the predominant language here in santa fe at the time. then in 1837 two events occurred which led to the donahos departing santa fe. the first was that william donaho learned that three american women were being ransomed. they had been taken by comanches the previous year and had spent a year and a half with them, and donaho, who was a great public servant, was soon very much committed to securing their freedom at any cost and returning these captive women to their families in missouri and in texas. but the next event that occurred

was in august of 1837 when the new mexico governor, albino perez, was assassinated during a rebellion. i will say that that rebellion caused a great deal of apprehension and unrest among the foreigners. they banded together because they thought that the rebellion was going to escalate, and they barricaded their stores in anticipation of -- in anticipation of retaliation. fortunately, nothing happened, but, still, out of safety concerns for his family and with the goal of returning the captives to their family, donaho decided to leave new mexico. he left so quickly that he had to return a year later, and then he sold the exchange hotel, disposed of his merchandise, sold all of their mules and horses, and then he returned to missouri where he took his family to texas and they

operated the very successful donaho house. sadly william died in 1845, which left mary a widow at 40 years old with five children. she lived fairly long life, passing away in 1880 at the age of 72. now, our next bride is susan shelby magoffin, who was the first woman to written an account of her journey on the santa fe australia. she was the granddaughter of the first governor of kentucky, isaac shelby. she was born to wealth and at 18 she married samuel magoffin who was 45. samuel took his bride on a honeymoon to new york, but while

there he purchased merchandise for his next trading expedition giving susan an extended honeymoon on the santa fe trail. he and his brother engaged in trade on the santa fe trail and they had a lucrative business and were well-connected. they arrived in independence, where susan started her eldiario de dofia susanita magoffin. on friday, the 12th, she said, my journal tells a story tonight rather different from what it has ever been before. the curtain raises now with a new scene. this book of travel is act two, literally and truly.

while they were in independence samuel purchased cargo for the trade expedition that would be freighted on 14 big wagons pulled by six yoke each, and you can tell they were very big wagons that they had six yoke that were pulling those wagons. they were quite heavily loaded. i will tell you when her diary was first published in 1926 susan was thought by historians to be the first american woman to travel the trail, but as you have just learned mary donaho traveled the trail before susan, and i'm sure other american women also traveled the trail even before susan. in 1846 her journal was written at a crucial time when the mexican war was beginning, and the army of the west commanded by steven watts carney had already started out on the trail before their caravan had started, but her journal does describe the excitement, the

daily routines and the dangers of traveling the trail for over a year, and she was very good at observing in detail the cultural customs, the appearances of people and places. and once she arrived in mexico, she records their movements as they moved from house to house and town to town. she learns spanish very quickly and she even learns the lingo, if you will, of the traders. she traveled in comfort. her husband had bought two deerborn carriages. there was one for her and another one for her made jane, who was a slave. among the travelers in the caravan was john mix stanley who painted this very touching scene of samuel and susan on the trail. and throughout her diary she uses the term of

endearment mi oma for her husband, and in english that translates to my soul. she was also a wild game foodie. she wrote that -- she wrote that such soup as we have made of the hump ribs, one of the most choice parts of the buffalo, i never eat its equal in the best hotels of new york or philadelphia, and the sweetest butter and the most delicate oil i have ever tasted, tis not surpassed by the marrow taken from the thigh bones of the buffalo. these western caravans as they traveled through the vast herds of buffalo grazing on the western short-grassed prairies of western kansas supplied a lot of meat for these western

caravans. when they arrived at bent fort, the army of the west was already there and they were developing their strategy to launch their invasion into mexico. after six weeks of travel on the trail, susan, who apparently was pregnant and was probably also enduring morning sickness, suffered a miscarriage which delayed their journey. when she arrived in new mexico she described the houses as genteel pigsties, but she tempered her initial response by saying that within these places of apparent misery there dwells that peace of mind and contentment which princes and kings oft desire but never

found. the magoffins reached santa fe on august 31st, 1846 and stayed there about a month, and susan quickly became part of santa fe's so-called high society which in the months following the u.s. invasion consisted of an eclectic mix of american army army offices, wealthy anglo traders, elite hispanics and even some native american visitors. they moved on and traveled down to mexico arriving in el paso del norte or modern day ciudad juarez in 1847 and stayed with a priest who was known for his hospitality to visitors and travelers along the trail. eventually the magoffins made it to matamoris where susan,

pregnant again, contracted yellow fever. she survived that sickness but her son that she delivered did not. they returned to the united states where two daughters were born. however, she died after the delivery of her second child at the age of 28 years old and was buried there in st. louis, missouri. our next bride is rebecca cohen mayer. by today's standards rebecca was considered a child bride. henry met rebecca when she was just a year old and she seemed to take a fancy to henry from the very first. he would set her on his knee and she would tell him everything that she knew. after that, he called her his little wife. in between trade expeditions he never came without a present and he bought her her first doll,

which was a very large doll and, i might say, a novelty at that time. when rebecca was 10 years old her father died and henry continued to visit rebecca and her mother, and when he visited he would often help her with her german and her french languages, and in turn she would help him with his english and would often laugh at him when he would mispronounce and english word. now, henry also had learned spanish and rebecca had henry teach her spanish as well. the bridal wedding march was played for rebecca's ceremony, and as you can imagine all heads turned toward the stairs when she appeared there on june 20th, 1852. her wedding dress was a light shade of gray silk, nearly

white, and her veil was a very fine net which along with her dress trailed down the floor. they were married in cincinnati in a traditional jewish ceremony standing under the canopy or chupa. she had two bridesmaids and her aunt fanny also played hymns of praise and played the harp during the ceremony. for the week leading up to the wedding, presents had arrived from all over the country and from germany where henry's family lived, and then after the ceremony preparations were made for henry to take rebecca on her honeymoon over the santa fe trail. when she left her family urged her to write a diary, and here is a picture of rebecca as a young woman and then henry as a much older man on his 50th wedding anniversary to rebecca. he took her on a honeymoon with 50 men and 500 mules.

can you imagine? he had started trading on the santa fe trail in 1838 with one wagon which gave him an initial profit of $1,000, and by the 1850s mayer and company were purchasing thousands of dollars of inventory and freighting their cargo on mules crossing over the santa fe trail. i will tell you that a couple of years ago i was at the jackson county historical society and looking at a ledger of another santa fe trail merchant and discovered that henry was one of his customers, and throughout that whole ledger there's literally thousands and thousands of dollars worth of cargo that the merchant was selling him. they arrived there in independence and rebecca says that, our wagons are being loaded at wayne city landing, and our mules are out at grass in charge of our mexican boys. all together we have 500 mules,

some of them never have been in a harness before and there is a lot of swearing and confusion when the men begin to lasso the new mules and get a harness on them for the first time. i have never heard such a deafening roar, and i have never seen such an exciting -- i have never seen such an exciting scene. henry told me that he prefers mexicans for teamsters because they understand how to handle the mules better than do any other class of men. they are cool and calm when danger threatens. most of the men speak english and are friendly, and they seem glad to see me. she continues on by saying, henry, i cannot understand how you can tell how much food it will require for all these men. henry smiles and responds, well, at first when i made this trip i

ran short, but now i've made the trip often and i know about what is required. i allow 50 pounds of flower and bacon for each man, ten pounds of coffee, 20 pounds of sugar, some salt, and we use many pounds of dried beans. and you can see there where she says that the beans are especially good the way that their mexican cook prepares them and that as soon as they camp the bean pot is the first thing that put on to the campfire. henry went on to say that he does give them as much coffee as they want, always twice a day. it is wonderful how it refreshes them after great toll in cold, heat, rain or sunshine, and he also says that they get considerable fresh meat as they go along and that they're all very good shots and there's plenty of buffalo, elk and antelope that's abundant. he also said that he never gave

any of his men liquor unless they had gone through very hard work or they had been chilled in some manner, and even then he would only give brandy as a medicine. now, she continued in her diary and saying, when i last wrote in my diary i mentioned that i had never seen an indian, but suddenly on august 20th she was terribly startled when the curtains of her ambulance were parted and she saw the painted face and feathers of an indian chief looking down at her. i was quite sure when i caught sight of my handsome husband who was standing immediately behind the indian, and i was certainly proud of my husband for there was no sign of fear on his face as he stood there so tall and erect with his wonderful, big, black eyes looking straight into

mine. henry introduced me to the chief as his wife, whereupon the chief said he would give him 20 horses for me, and with a hearty laugh henry told him she was not for sale. by october 4th, 1852 they arrived at barclay's fort, and here she said that they were resting for the entire day for the sake of the mules. henry bought some corn for them, which they needed after their hard toil and the poor food of the withered grass that they had subsisted on, but they were very proud that so far they had not lost a single animal on their drove. now, from here they left the santa fe trail and continued down the camino real to mexico, and when they arrived at the custom house in cuidad juarez henry's business at the custom

house in el paso took six days and it took so long because he had to translate the detailed invoice of his large mercantile stock into spanish and the custom house officers took advantage of everything possible in settling the amount of the duty according to rebecca. she also said some goods were entirely prohibited and that she had all of the nice things that her mother and grandma had made for her packed in her two trunks, and when she arrived in chihuahua she found most of the things had been denounced as contraband, and she was certain that it had furnished the custom house authorities with the rich and elegant wardrobe for their wives, free of cost. nevertheless, henry paid over $10,000 in duty. so you can imagine how much cargo he was freighting across the trail. the mayers continued to have a

very adventurous life and made fortunes and lost fortunes. after henry finished trading on the trail, they went to san antonio until the civil war broke out and then they left for europe where he visited his family in germany, and then they moved to england where they lived with high society in london. unfortunately, henry's business partner made some bad financial decisions and it was unbeknownst to henry, and he learned while they were living in england that his company was broke. the local people there in england offered to loan him money, but he was too proud, and with $5,000 they moved to chicago, illinois, and in 1874 started all over again opening up more businesses. this is rebecca's headline when

she died in the 1930s. it said, "pioneer woman of early trail days dies at 93." rebecca mayer, 93, who was a bride of 15 crossed the old santa fe trail and died yesterday afternoon in her home. she accompanied her husband henry, a trader, on horseback and by covered wagon to chihuahua, mexico, from the start of the trail in independence, missouri. on that trip she was surrounded by a buffalo herd, and as she rode horseback was rescued by her husband and other members of the party through what they considered a miracle. subsequently, she took a half a dozen other trips with him from independence to chihuahua, a distance which took them four months to travel. it goes on to say that they had lived there since 1874, and i might add that henry died in

1906 at the age of 89. her memoirs and diaries and letters are important because i think it reveals the cultureation if you will of european jewish immigrants achieving equity, social acceptance and economic stability by joining the american middle class, ifstabil american middle class, if you will. our next bride is mary "mamie" bier bernard. she was born in st. louis, missouri and she spent the first ten years of her life in baltimore near her maternal grandparents. when she was about ten years old the bernard family moved west to missouri, and there her cousin, william bernard, and a.g. boone, who was the grandson of daniel boone, were business partners and neighbors. you can see they had the most

luxurious houses at that time in the area. now, boone was appointed indian agent and left for colorado, and so william had his uncle join him in the business and they operated the store together, and they prospered there on the santa fe trail. they were very successful, and in 1860 they grossed over $260,000 from selling and loading freight on to some 2,000 wagons. mamie returned to west port from baltimore in 1860, however, by the spring of 1861 the civil war had started. as you know, missouri was a slave state so to speak, and the bernards were southern sympathizers.

in fact, mamie and her friends had gathered in a sewing circle to hand stitch a confederate flag to send with the missouri men enlisting in the confederacy. in the spring of 1862, epilanio aguirre traveled on the trail east to west port and he arrived in a carriage pulled by a team of white horses in advance of the freight wagons. the arrival of the mexican caravan was very welcome given the unrest that was occurring there in west port as a result of the war. he stopped and picked up joab, mamie's father, who was under great duress from the southern and the union officials, and over dinner that evening he begged epifanio to have his men guard his family and that he

would give anything if epifanio's family would protect his family. epifanio was very diplomatic and he said, of course, he would provide his friend protection for his family, and he also asked -- mamie's father had said he would pay any price for epifanio to protect his family. epifanio had his eye on mamie and he asked for the hand of mamie in exchange for his men to protect the bernard family. you know, needless to say epifanio didn't speak english and mamie did not speak spanish, and they courted each other using a translator. mamie was smitten with epifanio's affections and he often stopped and took her on rides in a stylish carriage pulled by his white horses.

she described his spanish voice as being lyrical. on august 21st in 1862, they were married and she looked up into his blue eyes and said, "i do." the ceremony, i might add, was performed in the bernard home, and this is a bible that mamie's father gave to epifanio. mamie's father was educated as an anglican methodist minister. if you look closely you can see an inscription on mamie's wedding band. epifanio was quite a showman and he arrived at the bernard house accompanied by his caravan of 26 wagons where each ox yoke was festooned with white satin ribbons and his men all wore

white rosettes. he presented a horse for his bride which had a saddle decorated with silver inlay and it had a white velveteen bridal. it was something out of a fairy tale romance. he also gave a wedding gift to his bride which was a tea and a coffee silver set engraved with their initials, thus signifying their union. i will say that this gorgeous set has been passed down in the family and is cherished as a treasured heirloom. epifanio had to leave his bride and return to new mexico with the freight he purchased, but he returned four months later. and when he returned the bernard family persuaded him to take mamie and her mother back to baltimore for the wedding of mamie's sister, kate. while on that trip epifanio also had an opportunity to meet his eastern suppliers and to buy

much-needed equipment for his freight line. but upon his return to west port, mamie learned that she was expecting their first child and epifanio had to leave her there and resume his freighting business. i mean he had contracts he had to honor or he faced losing his whole business. his son, pedro, was born in july, and when epifanio returned in august he was overjoyed to see his wife and his son, but he was also shocked because he saw armed troops on every street corner of westport. it was like a war zone and it was no place for his wife and his son. fearing for his family, he decided to take mamie and his son with him back to new mexico on his next trip. very soon aguirre's ten-freight

wagons were pulling out pulled by ten large mules with over 10,000 pounds of freight. now, their journey went fairly smoothly. when they reached the arkansas river she said that it took them two days for the train to cross the arkansas and there was quite a jubilee when all were on the other side. the men sang and they had a glass of whiskey all around. the aguirre train arrived in las vegas, new mexico, where epifanio and mamie decided to stay for a week and rest. i suspect that the wagon train continued on and delivered some merchandise to people in santa fe and albuquerque. they also traveled on to santa fe, arriving there at the end of november, and then on to albuquerque where they stayed two weeks, again selling some more of their goods and

attending balls where epifanio could introduce his bride to the leading wealthy hispano families living on their ranches along the rio grande. they arrived in las cruces, but the night before they arrived mamie was so busy unpacking her prettiest dress and a baby gown for pedro, she really wanted to make a good impression on her in-laws, and it was from this hacienda that epifanio where he literally like the mayers won and lost forces. in june 1864 he was awarded a u.s. military contract. it was the largest freighting contract awarded in new mexico at the time and amounted to $138,000. according to another historian, darus miller, in his book

"soldiers and settlers" he described epifanio as being a good example of the hispanic capitalist who tapped into the military reservoir of federal dollars. now, the contract only lasted one year as epifanio was outbid next year by the settler of fort union in new mexico, and in 1869 there were two other unfortunate incidents that occurred. epifanio lost two caravans back to book while freighting in new mexico, and financially he just couldn't see anyway to recover from the losses. so this resulted in epifanio moving his family to arizona where he had property and other business interests he could leverage to continue to make a living. here are some pictures of the aguirre children, epifanio jr.

and pedro on the left, and then you can see the three boys there on the right with mamie's brothers there. after seven years of marriage, epifanio was killed and it left mamie with three boys to raise. for a time mamie and her children returned to westport, and initially they enjoyed being in the bernard household again. however, the conservative nature of westport made it difficult for mamie as a widow to socialize in public and her biracial children were viewed as different, especially with their strong spanish accents and they were teased at school, and she decided there just wasn't a very promising future for her. and so with her sons, she returned to new mexico where they enjoyed a much higher class status, and by 1875 she moved

her family to tucson where she started her career as a school teacher. mamie, like her mother, was a born organizer. she was resourceful. she was industrious, and ultimately she became a spanish instructor for the university of arizona. and as you can see here, she was also inducted into the arizona women's hall of fame. our next bride is henrietta jennie bull culver, who was born in loudounville, ohio. she had met and married enos culver, an attorney who set up law practice in her hometown. i will say this last bride is a story of heartache. jennie was not in good health and everyone thought the climate of the west would help her

health to improve. she left independence in 1869 on the train with her husband. at the time she was 23 years old and she was eight months pregnant with her second child. anyway, they took the train from kansas to the end of the rail line which at that time was sheridan, kansas. upon arrival in sheridan, jennie wrote that they had secured lodging above a saloon. and she went on to say, well, last night we were frightened almost out of our wits. we did not get any sleep at all on account of all the noise in the barroom, drinking and the gambling. finally they got one of the men's money away from them and they undertook to put him outdoors. she went on to say that they commenced firing and fired about 30 shots. i laid and i shook like a leaf

all night with fear. i was so afraid that thomas's men were some of them among the gang. now, thomas was her brother-in-law who had said he would meet them in sheridan, but he had left a few days ahead of them. but enos learned that they were all part of another gang, and if any of his men are with them, we're going to go by stage. that next morning the boy -- she continued and said that the boy had come with the carriage and we are to start about 10:00. they stopped at otaro's and enos got a whip for the carriage, and then she said that, well, there is a wagon stuck and so now we've got to stop. bad luck already. well, we're hitching up again. i hope we can all start soon. this evening we've only gotten five miles from sheridan, and now a wagon has upset and we are

going to camp here for the night. oh, some bad luck, but hope for the best. i took a long cry this afternoon. oh, i'm so lonely and my home is always on my mind. god grant that we may have no bad luck and meet no harm or sickness. they continued down the mountain branch of the santa fe trail, and then arrived in mesilla in july of 1869. for the first six weeks enos was hired by his brother-in-law, thomas, to help with the store that he had there and with unloading merchandise. enos painted the house and he even touched up some business signs for him, but before long enos and jennie realized they were on their own to find work and to make a living. enos managed to secure an appointment as inspector and

collector of customs for the el paso district, and he was assigned to an area outside of mesilla in loss penos, about 100 miles away from mesilla. jennie and eno said that her stepbrother, thomas bull, exaggerated the opportunities that were there in new mexico for enos, her husband, a lawyer. bull said that he never advised him to come or anything else. he had only said that enos since he was a lawyer could do quite well. jennie was writing to her sister, libby, in ohio. she said, if i never see thomas again -- or if i ever see him, he will hear more from me than he cares to hear. meanwhile, enos also learned that through a trip to a nearby

military fort, fort bayard that they were hiring men and he could maybe make $30 a month and get everything to live on plus some other things, that enos wanted to talk it over with jennie. he came home and he talked with her about it and jennie told him that she -- of course, she would have him do it, but then she realized, of course, i'm going to have to work a little more but i don't care. i want to get home some day, and by doing this i think enos and i can lay up his full salary and a little more, and they decided that they would start boarding soldiers at fort bayard. enos was afraid that would be too much trouble for jennie and also that they would have to hire a cook, but jennie settled his fears and told him that she would do all of the cooking herself if he would hire someone to keep her house and do the washing so that all she had to

do was cook, albeit three meals a day for these soldiers that they were boarding. this is the sister that she sent letters back home to, and throughout all of her letters she is telling her sister that she hopes enos will strike it rich so that they can go back home to ohio and she only needs enough to dress good and to have some for the poor. there were times when enos didn't make a living for weeks at a time, and their only hope was that, again, that he would strike it rich. there were many times when she would write that things look very dark to me at present, and it may be all yet well. i hope so, but god only knows. and then she writes again that, lib, it is an awful undertaking

to come here. i don't know, but i shall have an opportunity of visiting these mines this week, and if so i will write and tell you about them. i wish i was there where i could help you and ma with your work. i get blue here sometimes, just awful. my little boy howard is crying and i've got to stop and take him. well, he is quiet now, at least for a few minutes. i tell you what, lib, i have my hands full, and more than full. my work daily and children to see to, half the time i have to carry howard in my arms and work with the other, and when i attempt to write have to stop half a dozen times before it is finished. lib, i know of no reason why you should be blamed for us coming to new mexico. i blame no person but myself and my stepbrother, t.j. bull. enos would soon have come had it not been for me, and i have made

up my mind never to leave until he goes with me. i have always said that enos had nothing to do with me coming here. it was my own fault. now, enos ends up in silver city trying to strike it rich. he builds a store and starts a boarding house for miners and jennie essentially works herself to death and dies of tuberculosis. enos can't run the store and finish building the boarding house and he sends his children down to mesilla where his brother-in-law has the story, and by the time he visits his boys he needs an interpreter to speak to them because they only speak spanish. he leaves new mexico and moves

to south dakota where he marries a school teacher. this is a picture of jennie's grave site in silver city. she died at 25 years old. some of the characteristics of that bride, as you have learned, is that they were young. they were all literate. they were adventurous yet naive to the hardships of the trail trade. they came from middle and upper class family homes. they believed in the abilities and the business acumen of their older and well-established husbands. obviously they were totally in love, and in some cases it was a situation of until death do us part. as you have probably learned from this presentation, there were times along the trail when i'm sure the honeymoon was surely over. on the left here you can see some of the people that i would like to acknowledge for the photo credits, and in particular the kansas city public library

and the missouri valley room, so adeptly run by jeremy. also, if you would like books for your library i would recommend these four which captures the memoirs, the letters and the diaries of these brides on the santa fe trail. i would like to thank you and i would also like you to please consider joining our santa fe trail association for history's sake. >> well, thank you, joy. that was excellent. i want to invite the audience to, if you have questions about joy's presentation, you can put those right into the comments and we'll get to them shortly. i will start off with a question. i guess this was susan magoffin, i believe, joy, you said she did daily entries it sounded like. what were some of those daily entries like?

i mean were they maybe mundane details or were there quite a few, maybe adventures like the one that rebecca mayer had being surrounded by a buffalo herd? and i'm sure, you know, indian encounters on the frontier were worth noting in diary entries as well. can you give us an idea of some of those entries? >> just a few. i would say that susan's account is probably one of the most well-known diaries of the santa fe trail trade and is oftentimes referred to for the types of things that she observed as they were traveling across the trail. she's very descriptive on a daily basis about the different things that are going on around her and making different observations, and to some extent her writing is very poetic in

nature as well. the first -- the beginning pages of her diary, i think the first 10 to 15 pages are all filled with poetry. so, you know, she was very well educated, totally in love with her husband. she was fortunate in that she traveled in style because she did have her maid with her. she also had a horse, of course, that she could ride when she didn't want to ride in the carriage. she had her dog with her. she also had a cook. so given that she had all of this help, she had time to write daily in her diary. >> and it seems from your -- at the end you mentioned these were kind of middle class and upper class -- women from middle class and upper class families, that you would have to have considerable resources to make that trip, you know,

specifically, what, the 50 mules and -- 50 men and 50 mules, did i get that right? >> yes, that's correct. >> but you had to have, you know, considerable resources, you know, to make this four-month journey. >> well, that's true, and susan, of course, had married samuel magoffin, who had 20 years of experience in the trail trade. and by the time he married susan, 20 years his junior if you will, he was very well established, very wealthy, and he was also very well connected. and during the army of the west invasion his brother was used to help pave the way for the army of the west to enter into new mexico, and because he knew the politicians and the military officials of mexico, not only in santa fe but also in

chihuahua as well. >> interesting. again, i want to encourage our audience, if you have any questions for joy, it looks like we have one that just came in. as you were reading and doing your research on these firsthand accounts, what was the biggest question you had for which you could not find the answer? >> hmm. you know, i don't know that i have preconceived notions when i have done the research on these brides. i have been interested in the history of the santa fe trail for decades, and i guess in the twilight years of my career, so to speak, suddenly i realized that i had all of these journals, letters and diaries written by young brides who had travelled the trail, and two or three of them are ones that i discovered that were not well -- nobody knew about.

i don't know if i -- you know, the biggest question, i was interested in the hardships that they faced. obviously two of the brides died very young in their lives. i think that was unfortunate. it also revealed, you know, who dominated women were by men at that time in society and what they could and couldn't do. i will say that i was very impressed with mamie aguirre, who would marry a mexican freighter, fell in love with epifanio, not knowing anything about the mexican culture or the language, and she was the only bride that remained in the southwest and went on to become a spanish instructor and contributed much to new mexico and arizona, given her position as epifanio's wife.

>> hers is an amazing story. someone had asked, was there anything in your research of these women that kind of surprised you, maybe mamie's story is one of those and that was -- even studying the santa fe trail for many years, is there something in particular, you know, about -- that struck you as -- surprised you in your research on these women? >> well, i guess the thing that -- i don't know surprised me, but maybe saddens me a little bit is that traveling the trail took their toll on these women's health. of course, susan suffered a miscarriage at bentz fort and i can't even imagine traveling the trail when you're pregnant and having morning sickness, getting up every day and traveling on. for jenny culver to board a

train in kansas city eight months pregnant, traveling the last leg of their journey by wagon, as soon as she arrived in mesilla, she gave birth to little howard. rebecca mayer also had a miscarriage after leaving chihuahua at 15 years old. there was no medical doctors, no medical facilities. she was watched over and nearly killed her from the abortion that happened as a result of that miscarriage. so those were -- in some regards, it's a miracle they lived as long as they did and would even consider traveling under such circumstances. but, of course, again, they were adventurous. they were in love with their husbands, they trusted them and had total faith in their

ability. >> someone asked if you could list the titles of the books again that you recommended. i'll remind our audience that this program will be archived on our youtube channel so you can go back and look at that slide again. joy, do you recall a couple of the titles of those books? >> yes. of course, susan shelby is "down the santa fe trail into mexico". the other one is simply titled "mary don hoe." the wonderful story called "journey of the heart" by annette gray. and rebecca's story is captured in two places, one is in a book called "with a doll in one pocket and a pistol in the other." and then i have also have her memoire and more information on a national park service site. and if you googled, rebecca

mayer and my name, joy poole, that memoir will appear. as will the letters and the story of jenny culver. >> a couple people want to know and i'm curious as well, you said aguerre was murdered, killed, correct? >> yes. >> what were the circumstances surrounding his death? >> shortly after they moved from arizona there was a stage line that went from arizona down into mexico and in the middle of the night someone arrived, and for some reason the driver could not continue. the stage wagon was difficult to operate and epifanio in his

years of leadership decided that he was the only one that could probably handle the situation. that it wasn't fair to ask one of his men to try to drive that stage coach on. mamie records that she argued with him and, you know, expressed her concern really must you go, and he said yes, that he should. during that drive he was shot and killed by apaches. >> so i wanted to finish the discussion, joy, and ask you how did you get involved in santa fe trail history? you know, you've been a part of, you know, co-founder of the association and been involved in promoting that history.

i'm just curious how you became interested in the trail's history. >> prior to serving as the deputy state librarian for the new mexico state library, i was a museum curator and director, and started my career in trinidad, colorado, located on the santa fe trail. and while i was directing the trinidad museum properties, a colleague from the kansas city area, from the mccavy stage coach house came to visit and during the course of our conversation, he started telling me about stories of the santa fe trial on his end of the trail. i said, gee, wouldn't it be interesting if we could all get together who are running these museums and historical societies along the trail and share our stories of the santa fe trail trade in our specific area. so i had that idea but i sat on

it for a couple of years and ran it up the flagpole with different people. and timing is everything. but in 1986, then, i approached the director of the colorado historical society, and everyone loved the idea of having a symposium on the santa fe trail. so we recruited david lavender, sandra myers, and dr. mark simmons to be our leading presenters of that symposium. we went ahead and incorporated the santa fe trail association at that time. this was before the internet, i might add. and so, it was quite a challenge to work with all the different museums and libraries and historical societies along the trail. but 300 people came to that symposium in 1986. and while we were there, we went

ahead and grabbed the bull by the horns, so to speak, and organized the santa fe trail association. and then, within a year, president reagan signed the santa fe trail designating it -- the legislation which would designate the santa fe trail as a national historic trail. >> excellent. joy, i want to thank you for an excellent presentation. i want to thank the kansas city applinaum for co-sponsoring this program and i want to thank our audience for tuning in online. of course, we look forward to the day when we can meet in auditoriums again. but in the meantime, go to the library's website for more of our online programs to come. thank you again, joy. and we'll see you next time. >> okay. thank you very much. i hope everyone will consider

joining our santa fe trail association. there's going to be a lot of events all along the trail commemorating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the trail here in 2021. including events here in santa fe. so i'd like to invite our audience members to please consider coming to santa fe in november of 2021, when we're going to reenact william backnell arriving in santa fe and we'll have a buffalo dinner at the la fonda exchange hotel that the donahoe's operated. and also professor james writing will be speaking about indians on the santa fe trail. okay. thank you. >> thank you.

♪♪ weekends on c-span 2 bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. saturday on american history tv at 2:00 p.m. even on the presidency a 1988 oval office conversation between president ronald reagan and the bbc on restoring the economy, u.s. soviet relation its, arms control and iran-contra. and at 4:40 p.m. as the u.s. continues to withdraw from afghanistan, we look back nearly

40 years at the country's history with two u.s. information agency films. afghanistan 1982, the struggle for freedom continues, which chronicles the aftermath of the soviet invasion of afghanistan. and afghanistan, a new generation, on the challenges facing afghan children who grew up as refugees in pakistan. then former cia officer dwayne evans talks about "fox trot in kandahar" about his do you remember of duty in southern afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. book tv features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. on sunday at 12:45 eastern senate minority leader mitch mcconnell shares what's on his reading list. at 2:00 p.m. eastern author discussions on afghanistan including wesley morgan with his book "the hardest place: the american military adrift in afghanistan's press valley." peter bergen talks about the

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