Temporary record

This small group of letters portrays, through one woman's life, some of the hardships associated with Americans' movement west in the 19th century. Jane Foster's letters to family members back east express, in the plain-spoken language of a simple farm woman, the homesickness which never left her even as she and her husband succeeded at farming in Illinois, and her sadness at the departure of her own children as they, too, move on, and she is left to find comfort in her religious faith. There are some details on the "hard and dirty" farm work required of women as well as men.

M-2858.3

Family farms--Illinois
Farmers' wives--Illinois
Keyes, Franklin
Keyes, Peter
Migration, Internal--United States
Pioneer women
Foster, Jane Keyes

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