Day After Day
While the challenges of the countryside varied,
the daily tasks remained the same.
Women and girls performed backbreaking
camp chores and cared for the little
children and the sick. Men and boys did
most of the work with the wagons and livestock,
hunting and fishing when possible, and
settling disputes. Bachelor men often had to
perform unfamiliar tasks such as cooking,
washing, and mending. Children helped their
parents, but also found time to play house
under the wagon, gather flowers and berries,
or ride horses together.
Day after day, week after week, we went
through the same routine of breaking
camp at day break, yoking the oxen,
cooking our meagre rations over a
fire of sagebrush... packing up again,
coffee pot and camp kettle; washing
out scanty wardrobe in the little streams
we crosses; staking camp again at
sunset, or later if wood and water
were scarce.
Luzena Stanley Wilson, 1849
We now pursued our journey quietly
and even monotonously. Each day the
same program, the men gathering up
the stock, harnessing the teams to the
wagons, the women cooking, washing
dishes, packing away their utensils,
putting up lunches for the noon hour.
Sarah J. Cummins
1845
In respect to women's work the days are all
very much the same except when we stop
for a day. Then there is washing to be done
and light breat to make and all kinds of
odd jobs. Some women have very little help
about camp being obliged to get the wood
and water... make camp fires, unpack at
night and pack up in the morning...
Helen Carpenter
1847
When we come to camp, we pitch our
tents, spread our blankets and there
rest our weary frames. Thus the days
and weeks wear away...
Sarah Smith
1848
