[Pioneer trek to Denver] Manuscript “My first trip Across the Plains in 1861. / By Mrs E.H. Collins / nee Mary A. Hodgson”

[Denver, COLORADO]. - Mary A. HODGSON COLLINS (1839-1928).

Manuscript “My first trip Across the Plains in 1861. / By Mrs E.H. Collins / nee Mary A. Hodgson”, [undated, but circa 1900-1910?]. Quarto (9 3/8 x 7 ¼ in; 138 x 84mm). 26pp. of text written recto only of the first 26 leaves in an album of 74 leaves. Original cloth binding. 

A fascinating first hand eye-witness record.

Mary Hodgson was prone to tuberculosis, and on 1st April 1861 set off from her parents 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 of 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, and plain full skirts, with one large double boxed plait [sic.] in front and one in the back & silk belts with buckles on the front. We had both been down in New York City a short time before, and 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 and 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, and 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 and their passenger, also a Missourian with a team of horses, and five passengers who desired to keep up with us’. These passengers were ‘John Yule, Thomas Carter, and Wm. Stone, from Kenosha Wisconsin, Bradford B. Stiles a lawyer from Chicago, Illinois and 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.Joe, we were camped by the roadside … when a “Pony Express’ rider passed by and one of our party asked him “What is the news from America?” he shouted back “Southern States have seceded, and were firing on Ft. 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 a description of a visit by surveyor Hal Sayre wearing ‘an entire suit of fringed buckskin’.

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 quite 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