ABSTRACT
The Moore family emigrated to Kansas in 1857 and settled on “broad prairie” five miles from LeRoy. Moore's account includes typical homesteading situations. She describes two families (fifteen members living in one room), running out of provisions during a blizzard, the drought and the grasshoppers; the mother making the children's shoes from the men's old boots, the variety of preachers passing through—Dunkards, Campbellites, and Methodists. When Melissa's father decided their homestead was not a good one, they moved to Allen County. Melissa married at a young age (probably at the age of fifteen), and she and her husband took out a claim on a homestead. Melissa is one of the few writers who discusses politics; she homesteaded in Kansas when the debate was hot between “free state” men and those who were pro-slavery. Of particular interest is her account of 200 Osage Indians who lived nearby and provided the family with protection.
