A Prairie "Soddy"...typical first home for a homesteader
Homesteader Webquest
Handout for this activity
Letter from Uriah W. Oblinger to Mattie V. Oblinger and Ella Oblinger, November 3-5, 1872
Letter from Uriah W. Oblinger to Mattie V. Oblinger and Ella Oblinger, January 19, 1873
- What were the hardships faced by people trying to establish homesteads on the Great Plains?
- Which of these hardships do you think was most likely to cause a homesteader to give up the claim? Explain your answer.
- What can you infer from Uriah's letters about Mattie's concerns during their separation?
- What kinds of questions from Mattie does he answer in his letters?
- How do Mattie's first impressions of the homestead upon her arrival compare with Uriah's first reports from Nebraska?
Elinore Pruit Stewart (Rupert)
Letters of a Woman Homesteader
The writer of the following letters is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day as house-cleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scottish cattle-man, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell the story of her new life in the new country.
Read thru some of the first eight letters. What seems to be Elinore Rupert’s feeling about her situation?
Read “Proving Up”....what do you think the phrase “proving up” means?
Read THE HOMESTEADER'S MARRIAGE AND A LITTLE FUNERAL …..how did Elinore originally deal with the loss of her first born? What allowed her to get the original phase of grief? What allowed her to deal with it in the present?
Read “Success”....what was the evidence of Elinore’s success?
The writer of the following letters is a young woman who lost her husband in a railroad accident and went to Denver to seek support for herself and her two-year-old daughter, Jerrine. Turning her hand to the nearest work, she went out by the day as house-cleaner and laundress. Later, seeking to better herself, she accepted employment as a housekeeper for a well-to-do Scottish cattle-man, Mr. Stewart, who had taken up a quarter-section in Wyoming. The letters, written through several years to a former employer in Denver, tell the story of her new life in the new country.
Read thru some of the first eight letters. What seems to be Elinore Rupert’s feeling about her situation?
Read “Proving Up”....what do you think the phrase “proving up” means?
Read THE HOMESTEADER'S MARRIAGE AND A LITTLE FUNERAL …..how did Elinore originally deal with the loss of her first born? What allowed her to get the original phase of grief? What allowed her to deal with it in the present?
Read “Success”....what was the evidence of Elinore’s success?