Polly Coon -- Journal of a Journey Over the Rocky Mountains

Polly Coon (1825-1898) traveled from Wisconsin to Oregon in 1852. Her parents, the Crandalls organized and led the excursion of a "wagon train." The Crandalls first moved from New York to Wisconsin and from there to Oregon. It is this last journey which is the subject of Mrs. Coon's diary. Mrs. Coon refers by name to the many people she meets and knows on the journey.

Emily French -- Diary of a Hard-Worked Woman

Emily French does not, in her journal, discuss a journey from east to west. She is a domestic day laborer who is already in the west at the beginning of her journal. She acquires land and a house of her own. Her longing for a home and her gratitude and effort to keep her own home are a gratifying conclusion to the journal.

Eliza Ann McAuley -- Iowa to "The Land of Gold"

Eliza McAuley (1835-1919) traveled from Iowa to California in 1852. She went with her brother and sister and a handful of others to meet her father in California while her mother and sister stayed behind in Iowa. Ms. McAuley is seventeen years old at the time .

Martha Stone Read -- A History of our Journey

Martha Read (1811-1891) traveled from Illinois to Oregon in 1852. She and her husband first moved from New York to Illinois, and from there to Oregon. This is a woman not a little bit obsessed with death. Her diary is filled with notations of dead livestock and dead human graves along the path West.

Christiana Holmes Tillson -- A Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois

Christiana Tillson (1798-1872) traveled from Massachusetts to Illinois in 1822. Mrs. Tillson traveled to Illinois as a young bride from Massachusetts. She was in a position to expect some servant help and while she does have a few servants in her new home, she finds that she can make a life without them. In her memoir, Mrs. Tillson relates how her migration was in every step "charming."

Jennie Atcheson Wriston -- A Pioneer's Odyssey

Jennie Wriston traveled from Missouri to Colorado in 1873. In this memoir, written so her grandchildren would have her stories, Mrs. Wriston has linked dozens of vignettes to a chronological progression. In her Forward, she mourns the loss of the buffalo, antelope, Indians, and "hardy pioneers" as the "history makers of the Great West."