TRANSCRIPT

The New Arrival
A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
By H.B. Adshead

Books have been written on the pioneers of the west. Empire builders they have been called, and recognition of the hardships they endured has been accorded and praise given, and justly so, but little has been said or written of the part that the women, wives of pioneers, and mothers of the men of today, played in the conquest of this last best west.
Women, who not only shared the hardships and discomforts of pioneer life, not only did the housework, but in many cases helped with the chores, and often times driving a team a disc or a hayrake, and helping to stack the hay and grain, and last but not least, faced childbirth bravely and unflinchingly; faced possible death, knowing in many cases that medical aid was impossible, and from this cause more than one mother has passed to the beyond.
The year 1899 was the beginning of the wet years. Sleepy Creek was narrow in places and had small lakes, swimming holes here and there, but it's banks, like the banks of all creeks where there was deep soil, were perpendicular and crossing places had to be made or found where possible, and the trails led to these few crossing places. We didn't travel on the road allowances; we often did not know where the road allowances were. We followed the old high land trails across country. There was a crossing place below my sod shack where I could get to John Deans with a team when necessary.