In June 1846 Susan Shelby Magoffin; eighteen years old and a bride of less than eight months; set out with her husband; a veteran Santa Fe trader; on a trek from Independence; Missouri; through New Mexico and south to Chihuahua. Her travel journal was written at a crucial time; when the Mexican War was beginning and New Mexico was occupied by Stephen Watts Kearny and the Army of the West. Her journal describes the excitement; routine; and dangers of a successful merchant's wife. On the trail for fifteen months; moving from house to house and town to town; she became adept in Spanish and the lingo of traders; and wrote down in detail the customs and appearances of places she went. She gave birth to her first child during the journey and admitted; "This thing of marrying is not what it is cracked up to be."Valuable as a social and historical record of her encounters—she met Zachary Taylor and was agreeably disappointed to find him disheveled but kindly—her journal is equally important as a chronicle of her growing intelligence; experience; and strength; her lost illusions and her coming to terms with herself.
#1715258 in Books University of Nebraska Press 2000-06-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x 1.03 x 5.25l; 1.28 #File Name: 0803266235396 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Love this bookBy Jennifer L. TheissenLove this book! Mary Daley is a very interesting individual. If you want a glimps into to New York high society at the time of the Civil War; this is a GREAT book for you!3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Engaging book; preachy introductionBy Alexandra GriggsMaria Lydig Daly seems to have had an opinion about just about anything and did not hold back from sharing them in her diary. Sometimes she's just dead wrong; other times she issues a telling observation. We need all we can get about Northern women; and this diary testifies to their diversity of voices. However; as for the introduction; what's got Jean Berlin in a snit? The introduction is preachy and sanctimonious; and that's the good part. Maybe she had better go to Tiffany's and mingle with the people she mocks.
