A Day In The Life With Sarah Rousseau
Excerpts from Sarah J. Rousseau’s wagon train diary.
July 4, 1864
Monday
The girls went to the Bluffs today with Em Curtis, Richard Curtis and Mr. Parker to take a view of the surrounding country. They said it was a pretty sight. At night we had a speech from Thomas Ellis and Jesse Curtis and finished the 4th of July with a dance.
July 6, 1864
Wednesday
Mattie had quite a sick spell yesterday afternoon. Took medicine last night and feels a good deal better this morning. … We are in Idaho. Got here last evening. Looks an awful desolate country at present. We are camped close by a river at an Indian Missionary Station.
July 10, 1864
Sunday
Our trip has been made exceedingly unpleasant on account of Tom Ellis, his continued profanity whenever he was near. A more wicked man I never saw, and one more ungentlemanly. I believe he will leave this morning as Mattie won’t do his washing any more [sic]. He has treated her so unmanly, cursing her all the time.
July 11, 1864
Monday
We hardly got our horses out to eat when the alarm was given the Indians [sic] were on us. Every man was for his gun and revolver and try to catch their horses as there was a regular stampede, all running in every direction. Tom Ellis had left us a day or two before and we couldn’t get another hand at present.
Meet the Characters: Tom & Mattie
Copyright: Janelle Molony
At twenty-one, Miss Matilda Fields is an unwed spinster, indebted to the Rousseau family for safe passage to California from Pella, Iowa. She gets along wonderfully with Sarah Elizabeth, the diarist’s fourteen-year-old and the two are referred to as “the girls.” Mattie assists the disabled Mrs. Rousseau with practical matters similar to a lady’s maid, though she talks of finding a position as a schoolteacher. An image of her (possibly taken along the trail) matches the diary notation, “The girls had their likenesses taken in their bloomer costume” (June 2 1864, Rousseau).
Mattie’s connection to the horsehand and wagon driver, Thomas J. Ellis seems amiable for the first two months of the seven-month trip. The consistency of sickness, documented by the physician’s wife, creates a suspicion of toxic herb-induced menses – or unsanctioned birth control. After arguing, and Tom’s brusque departure, Mattie becomes unfashionably ill come mid-August. Later, an illicit dalliance with a Utah man publicly compromises her. Shotgun wedding anyone??
Tom, or as wagonmaster, Nicolas Earp calls him, “TJ,” is a foul-mouthed cowboy and opportunist who does two things well: shooting and avoiding commitments. Mattie’s unmistakable face made identifying her easy.
Researcher Comments
A Look Behind the Tent Canvas: Many couples sought comfort through intercourse while camped along the Oregon Trail. Family friend Lucy Curtis delivered her ninth baby in May at the start of the trip, and her tenth in December before arriving in San Bernardino.
Excerpts come from The 1864 Diary of Mrs. Sarah Jane Rousseau. Interpretative material by Janelle Molony, family researcher and author of the creative narrative based on the Pella Company, From Where I Sat. The original Diary covers May 13, 1864, to December 18, 1864, and includes locations from Pella, Iowa to San Bernardino, California.
Ready for the next month’s “Day In…?” Click here!
Need to start over from the beginning? Click here.
Author Byline
Janelle Molony is the g-g-g-granddaughter of Dr. James and Sarah Rousseau and current family historian. With the cooperation of other descendants, Molony is authoring a novel based on the 1864 wagon train.
For questions, or to interview the historian regarding the novel project, please Contact Me.
Special thanks to the Pella Historical Society (https://www.pellahistorical.org/) and San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society (http://www.sbhistoricalsociety.com/) for your cooperation and support!