Susan Shelby Magoffin
Susan Shelby Magoffin the wife of Samuel Magoffin and sister-in-law of James Wiley Magoffin, was the daughter of a wealthy, political, and prominent Kentucky family. Susan married at the age of eighteen and began her travels across the infant nation. She traveled in a wagon with as many "luxuries" as could be had-she had her maid, a driver, and two servant boys.

  Samuel provided her with a tent house, a private carriage, and her books. Her tent had side walls which could be raised and lowered for ventilation, as well as a canvas floor, and she slept on her bed rather than in a bed roll. She traveled in as much luxury as could be had on the trail. Susan suffered a miscarriage at Bent's Fort, near today's La Junta, Colorado and in her journal she mentioned her poor health at that time which was unusual because she rarely uttered a complaint.

  She was inquisitive and wrote accurate observations of the things she saw and heard and the people she met. Her journal, which was published as the Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin: Down the Santa Fe Train and into Mexico, 1846-1847. She met, talked to, and entertained most of the people who were of import in those very important years of our history. Susan was on the cusp of Mexican War in which her brother-in-law was deeply involved.

  The years of her travels were the first years of the Mexican War and the events that marked her travel were reflective of the turmoil in the West at that time. There are many interesting entries in her journal, which have made it a prime source for many of the writers who followed her. Susan Shelby Magoffin is still the source for many books written about the period of western expansion and Manifest Destiny.

Contributed by Marilyn C. Gross