Introduction: Pioneer Experience

In the middle of the nineteenth century, many brave souls undertook a Great Journey. These were the pioneers who, lured by the promise of 320 acres and a new life, packed their belongings into covered wagons drawn by oxen and set out for the Oregon Territory. Many of these people were young families in search of, as pioneer Phoebe Goodell Judson says, “an Ideal Home.”

Some had family members already established in the Territory. Others came out with only the barest idea of the situations that they faced in the name of survival. Many young women found themselves living in total isolation in a strange forest they viewed as somber while their husbands were away making a living or tending the tract of land.
Most of the new residents were the first white people to live in the area they had moved to, inciting the interest and curiosity of the Indians living in the Oregon Territory, and adding to the challenge of living in the wilderness.

These families faced dangers They could not have imagined. If they lived through the trip on the Oregon Trail, once in the Territory they still faced wild animals, natives who felt intruded upon, diseases that ruthlessly killed adults and children alike, and the dangers involved in cutting down and disposing of the massive trees that covered their parcels of land.

The writings of settler Phoebe Judson provide a case study of the lives of the early settlers of the Puget Sound region. Her story reflects the difficulty of daily life in near isolation, in sometimes-hostile territory, and the strength of social and family bonds that supported these pioneers during the times of greatest hardship. Mrs. Judson, and the others with whom she has this experience in common, give us a glimpse of their lives and how they persevered in this new landscape.

On To Phoebe's Story

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