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

say that i was very impressed with mamie who would marry a mexican freighter, fell in love with epifanio not knowing anything about the mexican culture and language. and she was the only bride that remained in the southwest and went onto become a spanish instructor and contributed much to new mexico and arizona given her position as epifanio's wife. >> an amazing story, right? 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. you just gave the answer to that. was there anything in your research you came across. you've been studying this santa fay trail for many years. there's something that struck you as -- surprised you in your research on these women? >> 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 womens health, and of course as susan suffered a miscarriage 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 jennie culver to boa

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