Hearts West Read Free

sweet, sweet indeed.

    Elkanah Walker—August 18, 1837
    On Tuesday, November 7, Elkanah appeared unexpectedly at the Richardsons’ home. Mary was thrilled to see her fiancé, and after supper the two enjoyed a beautiful moonlit walk. His visit was short, but he promised they would be together soon and onto serving the Lord. Shortly before Christmas, Mary received a letter from Elkanah with news of their joint missionary assignment. She recorded her sentiments in her journal. “The Board wishes him to go beyond the Rocky Mountains. The proposal strikes me favorable . . . They wish to be ready to start in April. I hope we shall be able to go.”
    Between letters Elkanah had traveled to Independence, Missouri, to purchase supplies and make preparations for their journey across the plains. From there, he wrote to inform his soon-to-be bride what she needed to pack for the trip.

    A change of clothes is all we want. Buckskin drawers are the best for riding on horseback. Our ladies should also have drawers to prevent being chafed in riding. We should carry no baggage excepting such as what we want to wear or use on the journey . . . all the baggage we carry will cost us one dollar per pound.

    Elkanah Walker—December 18, 1837
    The missionary board told Mary and Elkanah to be ready to leave for the West by March 20, 1838. The pair then decided to wed earlier than originally planned. They exchanged vows on Monday, March 5, at 11:00 a.m. in front of a small audience of friends and family. It was a Richardson tradition that brides wore black during their wedding ceremonies to symbolize the grief over parting from their relatives. When Mary bid farewell to her parents that day, it was the last time she ever saw them alive.
    The newlyweds left Independence heading to Oregon on April 23, 1838. They were deeply devoted to one another and excited about the adventures that lay ahead of them. Four months later they reached the Tshimakain Mission in Waiilatpu, Oregon. While en route to their new home, Mary gave birth to the first of their seven children.
    The Walkers served as ministers to the Pacific Northwest Indians for more than nine years. They left the area after natives attacked the mission and killed many of the missionaries living there. The couple relocated to Forest Grove, where Elkanah took a position as pastor for the local church. He later helped found the Tualatin Academy, which later became Pacific University.
    When Elkanah died in 1877, Mary missed her husband terribly and recorded thoughts about her loss in the journal she had started five years prior to their marriage.

    It seems as though I can’t live without my husband. I feel so lonely. I think of so many things I want to tell Mr. Walker. I realize more and more how much more I loved him than anyone else.

    Mary Walker—December 18, 1877
    Mary passed away twenty years after her beloved Elkanah. The relationship, which had begun in writing, endured for close to four decades.

ELEANOR BERRY & LOUIS DREIBELBIS
The Schoolmarm and the Scoundrel
    Lonesome miner wants wife to share stake and prospects. Please respond to Louis Dreibelbis in Grass Valley, California.
    San Francisco Magazine
—April 12, 1873
    P lease come out, Eleanor,” the frail voice of an elderly Ida Eigleberry pleaded from one side of a closed door. She knocked lightly, but urgently, on the frame. There was no answer. Ida turned the knob and gently pushed the door open. Her senses were immediately assaulted with chloroform fumes.
    Choking back violent coughs, she made her way to a still body on the other side of the suite. Twenty-two-year-old Eleanor Berry was face down on the mattress, with a handkerchief covering her head. The old woman quickly evaluated the desperate scene and panicked, racing out into the hallway. “Norman!” Ida called out to her husband. “Run and get the doctor. I’m afraid our Eleanor has gone and done something