Manuscript draft of [“My first trip Across the Plains in 1861. By Mrs E.H. Collins nee Mary A. Hodgson”],

Mary A. HODGSON COLLINS (1839-1928).

Manuscript draft of [“My first trip Across the Plains in 1861. By Mrs E.H. Collins nee Mary A. Hodgson”], [undated, but circa 1900?]. Quarto (9 3/8 x 7 ¼ in; 138 x 84mm), recto only of 33 (of 34) sheets , numbered upper right ‘1- 28’, ‘Extra put in between pages 28 & 29th’, ‘29-32’, each written recto only, each on E.H. Collins headed notepaper. (Unbound, but missing the final leaf [a total of about 60 words], in addition there are tears to about eight leaves – most clean tears, but in three cases there are voids, but with no loss to the text). 

An important eyewitness account of crossing the Great Plains in a ‘Prairie Schooner’ – this is a manuscript draft of the fair copy manuscript in the same hand that we sold in the first of our sales in the US  (see lot 85, US #1 sale) 

Mary Hodgson was prone to tuberculosis, and on 1st April 1861 set off from her parent’s home in Ansable Forks, Clinton County, NY to visit her brothers Joseph and William Hodgson’s ranch on Bear Creek, in what is now part of Jefferson County, Colorado: ‘I came with my brother Joseph H. Hodgson and his wife Lucretia Vallean Hodgson to Colo[rado] for my health’.  

Charmingly, she goes into great detail about the outfits she and her sister-in-law wore as they set off ‘Our bonnets were of black Straw, alike in shape … Coats were Burnoose or loose fitting, made from fawn coloured Broadcloth. Dresses were of light brown with white checks made plain short waists, buttoned in front long sleeves, & plain full skirts, with one large double boxed pleat in front & one in the back & silk belts with buckles on the front. We had both been down in New York City a short time before & considered ourselves dressed in the latest style’.  ‘We were accompanied by two cousins, George W. Hodgson, Joel Hodgson, and a Frenchman August Roberre who was being taken by brother to work on the Ranche [sic.]’  

From Plattsburgh the party travelled by train to Toledo, Ohio (where they stopped for breakfast: ‘coffee, hot rolls & fried oysters. Never again have I tasted Oysters so as they.’). They then changed trains: ‘This days travel was through … Illinois prairie country…. The night after leaving Quincy [Illinois] I remember we had a car attached that was arranged something like a bunk house, just one bunk over another in which we could pay for the privilege of lying down with our clothing on ; but we all enjoyed it …’ They spent a week in St.Joseph, Missouri, getting together a party to cross ‘the Plains’. Mary’s brother buys ‘a fine pair of Horses, harness & a white canvas covered Studebaker wagon with one spring seat in front for the driver, that could be removed when camping …’ The eventual party included ‘our two cousins & their passenger, also a Missourian with five passengers who desired to keep up with us’. These passengers were ‘John Yule, Thomas Carter, and Wm. Stone, from Kenosha Wis. Bradford B. Stiles a lawyer from Chicago, Illinois & Judge Bacon who was returning to Pueblo … How little did we then think that [Stiles] … would be twice elected Mayor of Denver, and his portrait painted in the rotunda of our Capitol!’    The first night they thwart an attempt to steal their horses, described in detail by Mary. She is also very fond of describing what the ate during the trek, going into detail about a number of meals.  

The momentous events happening back east intruded at one point:  ‘When we were several days out from St.Joseph we were camped by the roadside … when a “Pony Express’ rider passed by & one of our party asked him “What is the news from America?” & he shouted back “Southern States have seceded, & were firing on Fort Sumpter on the 14th April”’

“We were often visited by Indians … they were Cheyennes & Arapahoes”. Mary continues with observations and comments including the fact that the ‘Indians’ were friendly until ‘their war of 1864’ [i.e. the Colorado War]. This is mentioned later with descriptions of how her brothers’ house was used as a ‘fortress’, and of the way some reacted in Denver when news of a supposed massacre reached the city.  

Mary goes on to give a description of Denver as they found it, staying at the Fremont Hotel (owned and kept by Nelson Sargent), describing some of the stores and churches, and finishes by down-playing the ‘hardships’ they encountered on the trek across the plains and also describing the final arrival at her brothers’ ranch: ‘We arrived at the house after dark and surprised our Brother William at the kitchen table just cutting out some cream biscuits…’ The account finishes with a short aside about the clothes her brother was wearing, and the final missing page includes a close version of the following (taken from the fair copy) ‘… I afterward [found it was a Fashion that most pioneers had adopted unless they wore an entire suit of fringed buckskin as friend once did that was visiting brother, and did not know that we ladies had arrived – the visitor was Mr Hal Sayre a surveyor who had come down from the Mountains to locate the lines and corner-stones on our brother’s ranche [sic.]’ 

Mary (aka Mrs Edward H. Collins of Denver. Co.), an accomplished artist, went on to present a watercolour of her brothers’ ranch house to the Colorado State Historical Society. She and her husband were also prominent supporters of Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy (see https://www.longyear.org/learn/research-archive/pioneers-in-the-west-1880s-1890s/  and https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2019/Mss.00131.pdf )