our speaker this afternoon joey pool 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 and autobiography of dr. roland willard. at that time she mentioned she was researching first-hand account. so several women specifically young rides. he traveled to santa fe trail in the mid 19th century. with this year marking the 200th anniversary of the opening of the trail. we figured it was a perfect time to invite joey back to tell us the stories of these women. who will 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 cool is devoted much of her career to studying santa fe trail history. 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 10 years on the santa fe national historic trail advisory council for the national park service. simply put she is an authority on trails history, which is very much a part of kansas city's early history as a frontier town in western outposts. thank you for being here joy and i will turn it over to you. well, thank you and 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 trail and it's from the stories are from their reminisces memoirs diaries and letters but 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 us with santa fe in northern, mexico. the 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 frated west consisted mainly of manufactured cloth like silk linens calicos all kinds of sewing notions foodstuffs like sardines and olives liquor champagne as well as iron tools that the people of new mexico needed the cargo frated east consisted of silver pesos furs wool and mules and 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 10 tons of freight were going across the trail pulled by 6,000 mules over 25,000 oxen. a 3000 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. and i will say that the majority of the brides pass 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 the historians here in santa fe said oh you 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 donahoe a cattleman who was visiting santa fe the his birthplace indeed had been born in new mexico and as the story unfolded one fact remained clear that mary donoho had alluded historians for over 150 years. so, 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 dotson 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 marianne was born to them. and shortly after his daughter's birth william started selling off his properties there in colombia and 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 donahos arrived in santa fe in august of 1833 and and i will say that members of the caravan had elected charles bent as their captain who alone was freeding 40,000 worth of cargo across the trail. she was she in her nine month old baby were accumied by 184 men 93 wagons, and there was even a military just x military group captain by captain wickman in 44 soldiers who were ordered

to accompany the caravan as far as arkansas to the lower cross 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 the exchange hotel customers that they had and she was described as having energy and a commanding spirit or in this day 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 underfoot 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 it's surely mary and her husband william learn 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 donna william donahoe learned that three american women were being ransomed. they had been taken by comanches the previous year and it's spent a year and a half with them. and donna hoe who was a great public servant had 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, and 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 and anticipation of retaliate in retail in anticipation of retaliation. fortunately, nothing happened but still out of this out of safety concerns for his family and with the goal of returning the captives to their family. donoho 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 their mules and horses and then he returned to missouri where he took his family to texas and they operated the very successful donoho house.

sadly william died in 1845 which left mary a widow at 40 years old with five children. she lived fairly long life to passing away in 1880 at the age of 72. now our next bride is susan shelby mcgoffin. who was the first woman to write an account of her journey on the santa fe trail. she was the granddaughter. are the granddaughter of the first governor of kentucky? isaac shelby she was born to wealth and privilege and at 18 she married kentucky traders samuel mclaughlin who was 45? now samuel took his bride susan on a honeymoon to new york. but while he was there, he purchased merchandise for his next trading expedition. therefore giving susan if you will and extended honeymoon on

the santa fe trail. for the previous two decades samuel and his brother james had engaged in trail in trade on the santa fe trail and they had a very lucrative business and they were very well connected. they arrived in independence where susan started her ld audio de doña susanita magoffin. and indicated that these were going to be her travels in mexico commencing on june 1846. on friday the 12th. she said that my journal tells a story tonight rather different from what it is ever been before the curtain raises now with the new scene this book of travel is act to literally and truly. while they were there and independence samuel purchase cargo for the trade expedition that he and that would be frated

on 14 big wagons. pulled by six yolk each and that you can tell they were very big wagons if they had six yoke that were pulling those wagons. they were quite heavily loaded. i will tell you that 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 just learned mary donahoe 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 stephen 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 appearance is the 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 dearborn carriages. there was one for her and another one for her made jane who was a slave. among the travelers and 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 meal. for her husband and in english that translates to my soul.

she was also a wild game foodie. she wrote that. um when 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 is not surpassed by the marrow taken from the thigh bones of the buffalo these western caravans as they travel through the vast herds of buffalo grazing on the western short grass prairies of short grass prairies of western, kansas supplied a lot of meat for these western caravans. when they arrived at ben's ford 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 pigstyles. but she tempered her initial response by saying that within these places of a parent misery their dwells that peace of mind and contentment which princes and kings off desire, but never found the magoffins reached santa fe on august 31st 1846 and they stayed there for about a

month and susan quickly became part of santa fe's so-called high society which in the months following the us invasion consisted of an eclectic mix of american army officers wealthy anglo traders elite hispanos and even some native american visitors they moved on and traveled on down to mexico arriving in el paso, del norte or modern-day cu dad juarez on february 17 1847 and they stayed with a priest ramon ortiz emietta who was known for his hospitality to visitors and travelers along the trail. eventually the magoffins made it to matamoros 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 at the after the delivery of her second child and at the age of 28 years old was buried there in saint louis, missouri. our next bride is rebecca cohen, mayor and 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 an english word. now henry had 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 tupac. she had two bridesmaids and her aunt fanny also played hymns of praise and played the heart 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 preparation 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's 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 mayor and company were purchasing thousands of dollars of inventory and frating their cargo on mules crossing over the santa fe trail. i will tell you that a couple 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 and charge of our mexican boys altogether. we have 500 mules. some of them never have been in a harness before and there is a

lot of swearing and confusing 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've never seen such an exciting. i've 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 our 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 made the trip often and i know about

what is required. i allow 50 pounds of flour and bacon for each man 10 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 they're mexican cook prepares them and that as soon as they camp the bean pot is the first thing put onto the camp fire. 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 and cold or 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 and 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 twentieth. she was terribly startled when the curtains over ambulance were parted and she saw the painted face and bright feathers of an indian chief looking down at her. i was assured when i caught sight of my husband my my handsome husband who was standingly standingly standing immediately behind the indian. and i was certainly very 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 august october 4th, 1852. they arrived at barkley'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 on the camino real to mexico and when they arrived at the custom house in cu dad juarez henry's business with the custom house at el paso took six days and it took so long because he had to translate the detailed invoice

of his large mercantile stock in dispanish and the custom house officers took advantage of everything possible in settling the amount of the duty according to rebecca. she also said that some goods were entirely prohibited and that she had all the nice things that her mother and grandma had made for her packed in her too trunks. and when she arrived in chihuahua, she found that 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 freedoming across the trail. um, the mayor's continued to have a very adventurous life and 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 and it was unbeknownst to henry and he learned while they were living in england that they 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 is 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 wrote 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. um, it goes on to say that they had lived there into a sense 1874 and i might add that henry died in 1906 at of 89.

her her memoirs and diaries and letters are important because i think it reveals the accultural culturation if you will of european jewish immigrants achieving political equity. social acceptance and economic stability by joining the american middle class if you will. our next bride is mary mamie baird bernard. mamie was born in st. louis, missouri, and she spent the first 10 years of her life in baltimore near her maternal grandparents. when she was about 10 years old the bernard family moved west to missouri. and their her cousin william bernard and aging ag boone, who was the grandson of daniel boone were business partners and neighbors and you can see they had the 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 joined him in the business and they operated the store together and they prospered there on the santa fe trail. they were very successful in an 1860. they grossed over 260,000 from selling and loading freight onto some 2000 wagons. mamie returned to westport from baltimore in 1860. however by the spring of 1861 the civil war had started and as you know, this 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 in in the confederate sea. in the spring of 1862 epiphonio agary and his mexican freighters traveled east on the trail to westport. and epiphonio arrived in a carriage pulled by a team of white horses in advance of his freight wagons the arrival of the mexican caravan was very welcomed given the unrest that was occurring there in westport as a result of the war. he stopped and picked up hoab. mamie's father who was under great duress from the southern and the union officials and over dinner that evening. he begged upafonio to have his men guard his family and that he would give anything if epiphonio's men would protect his family. now epiphonio was very

diplomatic and he said of course he would provide his friend protection for his family. and he also asked. mimi's father had said he would pay any price for epiphonio to protect his family. epiphonio 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 maybe was smitten with epiphonios affections, and he often stopped and took her on rides in his stylish carriage pulled by his white horses. she described his spanish voice as being lyrical.

on august 21st and 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 a bible that made me his gave to epifanio. mamie's father was educated as an anglican methodist minister and if you look closely you can see an inscription there on mimi's wedding band. now epiphonio was also 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 also had a white velveteen

bridle. that really 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 and i will say that this gorgeous set has been passed down in the family and his cherished as a treasured heirloom. epiphonio 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. and while on that trip may epiphonio also had an opportunity to meet his eastern suppliers and to buy much needed equipment for his freight line.

but upon his return to westport mamie learned that she was expecting their first child. and epiphonio 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 one epiphonio returned in august. he was overjoyed to see his wife and his son. but he was also shot. 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 a gary's 10 freight wagons were heading out pulled by 10 large mules with over 10,000 pounds of freight.

now their journey with fairly smoothly when they reached the arkansas river, she said that it took them two days to 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 gary train arrived in las vegas, new mexico where epiphonio 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 were epiphonio 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. i'm packing her prettiest dress and a baby gown for paid row. she really wanted to make a good impression on her in-laws and it was from this hacienda that epiphonio ran the freighting business where he literally like the mayor's one and lost fortunes. in june of 1864. he was awarded a us military contract. it was the largest freighting contract awarded in new mexico at the time an amounted to 138,000. according to another historiance miller in his book soldiers and settlers. he described epiphonio 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 epiphonio was outbid the next year by the sutler of fort union in new mexico and in 1869, there were two other unfortunate incidents that occurred air epiphonio lost to caravans back to back while freighting in new mexico and financially, he just couldn't see any way to recover from the losses. um, so this resulted in epiphonio moving his family to arizona where he had property and other business interests he could leverage to continue to make a living. here's some pictures of the aguirre children epifanio jr. and pedro on the left and then you can see the the three boys

there on the right with mamie's brothers there. after seven years of marriage epiphonio was killed. and it left mamie with three boys to raise. for a time maybe 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 me as a widow to socialize in public. and her biracial children reviewed as different especially with their strong spanish accents, and they were teased at school and she decided that 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. maybe 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, jenny bull culver who was born in latinville, ohio now, she had met and married eno's culver an attorney who had set up law practice in her hometown and i was saying this last bride is a story of heartache. jenny was not in good health and everyone thought that 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 railroad line which at that time was shared in, kansas. and upon arrival in sheridan jenny 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 bar room 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 and 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 gonna go by stage. that next morning the the boy she continued and said that the boy had come with the carriage and we are to start about ten o'clock. they stopped at otero'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. start 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 and for the first six weeks enos. was hired by his brother-in-law thomas to help with the story that he had there and with unloading merchandise eno's painted bull's house and he even touched up some business signs for him. but before long enos and jenny 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 signed

assigned to an area outside of messiah in los pinos about 100 miles away from messiah jenny and enos said that her step-brother thomas bull exaggerated the opportunities that were there in new mexico for enos her husband a lawyer and bull said that he never advised him to come or anything else and as he and that he had only said that he knows since he was a lawyer could do quite well. and jenny was writing to her sister libby in ohio, and she said if i never see thomas again. or if i ever see him, he will hear more from me that he cares to hear. meanwhile enos also learned that through a trip to a nearby military fort for bayer that they were hiring men and he

could maybe make thirty dollars a month and get everything to live on plus some other things. that enos wanted to talk it over with jenny and he came home and he talked with her about it and jenny 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 someday 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. he knows was afraid that that would be too much trouble for jenny and also that they would have to hire a cook but jenny settled his fears and told him that she would do all the cooking herself if he would hire someone to keep her house and do the washing. and 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 her letters. she's telling her sister that she hopes that enos will strike at rich so that they can go back home to ohio and that 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 there were only hope was that again that he would strike at rich and there were many times when she would write that things looked 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's an under awful take it's an awful undertaking to come here. i don't know, but i shall have

an opportunity of visiting these minds this week. and if so, all right until you about them. i wish i was there where i could help you and mall 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's 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 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 step brother tj, bull. enos would soon have you know 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 aborting house for minors and jenny 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 thomas bull has a store and by the time enos does visit his boys. he needs an interpreter to talk to the children because they're only speaking spanish. enos leaves new mexico, and he moves to the dakotas where he marries a school teacher and then the family relocates to wisconsin where he dies in 1926, and this is a picture of jenny's grave site there in silver city.

she died at 25 years old. some of the characteristics of the bride as you've 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 in 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. now as you've 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'd like to acknowledge for the photo credits and in particular the kansas city public library in the missouri valley room, so it definitely run by jeremy and

then also if you would like some 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'd like to thank you, and i'd also like you to please consider joining our santa fe trail association for history's sake. well, thank you joy. that was excellent. i'm i want to invite the audience to if you have questions about joy's presentation, you can put those right into the comments and and we'll get to to them shortly. i'll start off with the with a question. i guess this was susan macopin. i believe joy you said she did daily entries of sounded like what what were some of those daily entries like i mean, were they maybe mundane details or or were there quite a few maybe

adventures like like the one that rebecca meyer had with being surrounded by a buffalo herd and and i'm sure you know indian encounters on the on the frontier where worth noting in diary entries as well. can you give an idea of some of those entries? i would say that. susan's account is probably one of the most well-known diaries of the santa fe trail trade and is often times referred to for the types of things that she observed as they were traveling across the trail there. 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 have 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 made 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 these this help she had time to write daily in her diary. it is in 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 that you would have to have considerable resources to to make that trip, you know, specifically the what the 50 mules and 50 men and 50 meals i

get that right? yes. that's right, but you have you had to have, you know, considerable resources to you know to to make this four month journey, but that's true and susan of course had married samuel macarthur 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 the macau he was also very well connected and during that army of the west invasion. his brother was used to help pave. 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 down in chihuahua as well. interesting and 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 first-hand accounts. what was the biggest question you had? for what? you could not find the answer. hmm you know, i don't know that i have preconceived notions when i've done the research on these brides. i've been interested in the history of the santa fe trail for decades and at i guess in the twilight years of my career, so to speak suddenly. i realized that i had all these journals letters and diaries written by young brides who had traveled the trail and it's two or three of them are ones that i discovered that are that we're not well nobody new about so and i don't know if i had the you know, the biggest question.

i 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 how 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 epiphonio 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 epiphonio's wife. it versus the amazing story. i someone had asked it.

was there anything that in your research of these women that kind of surprised you? maybe maybe stories one of those. maybe you just gave the answer to that or anything else in your research that he came across that was even studying the santa fe trail for for you know, many years. is there something important you know about that struck you was surprised you in your research on these women. well, you know that i guess the thing that i don't know surprise me, but maybe sadness me a little bit is that traveling the trail took their toll on these women's health and of course. susan suffered a miscarriage at bents ford and i can't i can't even imagine traveling the trail when you're pregnant and having morning sickness getting up every day and and 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 macias 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 occur in dara watched over her and nearly killed her from the the abortion that happened as a result of that miscarriage. so those were you know, in some regards it's a miracle they lived as long as they did and try and would can 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 had asked if you could mention the 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 could go back and look at that slide again, but joy d recall a couple at least a couple of those the titles of those books. yes, yes, of course susan shelby mcgoffins is down the santa fe trail into mexico. the other one is simply titled mary donahoe. the wonderful story about mamie aguirre is called journey of the heart by annette gray and then 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've also have her memoir and more information on a national park service site and if you googled um, rebecca mayer

and my name joypool that that memoir will appear as will the letters in the story of jenny culver couple people want to know and i'm curious as well. you said gary was murdered killed, correct? yes. how what were the circumstances surrounding his death shortly after they had moved to 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. and the stage wagon was difficult to operate. and epiphonio 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 his one of his men to try and drive that stagecoach on um, maybe records that she argued with him and and you know and express her. concerned really mia more must you go and he said yes that he that he should. on during that drive he was shot and killed by apaches. so all i wanted to finish the discussion joy and ask you. how did you get involved in santa fe trail history, you know been a part of you know co-founder of the association and been involved. in promoting that history. i'm just curious how how you became interested in trails

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 mcafee stagecoach house came to visit and during the course of our conversation. he started telling me about stories of the santa fe trail on his end of the trail, and i said gee wouldn't it be interested interesting if we could all get together who are running these museums and historical societies along the trail and share our stories of the of the santa fe trail trade our specific area. and 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. so sandra myers and dr. mark simmons to be our leading presenters of that symposium. and 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 and grabbed the bull by the horn 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. well julio, i want to thank you for for an excellent presentation. i want to thank the kansas city app and am for co-sponsoring this program and i want to thank our audience for tuning in online. and of course, we look forward to the day when we can meet and and auditoriums again, but in the meantime look at the 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, and i hope everyone will consider joining our santa fe trail association.

there's gonna be a lot of events all along the trail commemorating the 200 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 eight or 2021 when we're going to reenact william becknell arriving in santa fe, and we'll have a buffalo dinner at the la fonda ie exchange hotel that the donohos operated and many other and then also professor james writing and will be speaking about indians on the santa fe trail. okay, thank you. thank you.