Covered Wagon Women, Volume 9: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1864-1868

In their simplicity is their poignancy. On August 7, 1865, Mary Louisa Black noted in her journal that they were "nooning on a nice stream in a valey in the mountains." A day later she observed that one of the men in the overland expedition had "buried an infant here yesterday-still born." One can only imagine her emotional turmoil-she had buried her own daughter three months earlier, just as she and her husband set out for Oregon.

While each diarist and letter-writer had her personal joys...