Crossing the Plains: The Diary of Mary Alexander Variel

By Mary Alexander Variel and William J. Variel

This is the diary Mary Alexander Variel wrote as she and her family made the journey from Indiana to the gold fields of California. It includes excerpts from the diary of Joshua Hutchings Variel, her husband.Mary describes her experiences as they traveled from New Harmony, Indiana, to Camptonville, California, in an ox-drawn prairie schooner in 1852."I was married on October 21, 1848, to Joshua Hutchings Variel. My husband and I were greatly interested in the inducements that a trip to California offered, and while we frequently discussed the possibilities of such a venture, we were thoroughly alive to and considered fully the toil, danger, and uncertainty that would attend it, but countless stories of the boundless gold fields, where we could go out with a basket and pick up a supply of gold nuggets at any time overcame any fears we had entertained, and we concluded to join the first expedition that was organized in our neighborhood."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1491248769
• ISBN13: 9781491248768
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 118 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 5.5"