“In the year following I gave a lecture on ‘Woman’s Education,’ on invitation of the Library Association of Omaha, and for its benefit. I so well remember that trip to Omaha! It was in the winter. The river was breaking up and when I reached it I found the ice floating and no way to get across except on a flatboat, which was poled across. I feared to place myself upon it and came near turning back. But I remembered my engagement and saw a carriage waiting for me on the other shore; so, with many misgivings and assurances from the boatmen, I ventured on board and was landed safely on the other side. The lecture that evening was given in the Presbyterian church to a full house, Dr. Miller presiding and introducing me. But if I ran a risk in crossing to Omaha my heart fairly stood still coming back. A high wind was blowing and when I reached the river I found it filled with great blocks of floating ice that endangered any boat it encountered. The ice was running badly, and there was no conveyance over, except a skiff rowed by two boatmen. The flatboat could not be managed in such a gale. The skiff was in great danger of being swallowed up by the high tossing waves or struck by the great cakes of floating ice and capsized.
“BUFFETS THE ICE IN A SKIFF.
“The boatmen at first positively refused to take me into the skiff. The man waiting could go, they said, but the woman must be left behind. I thought of my danger in embarking and being swallowed up by waves; and I thought of husband and child awaiting me at home, and no one to care for them; then I asked why I could not cross as well as the man. The boatmen said, because women would get frightened and jump and rock the boat and upset it, and there was really great danger. Then I said if I will promise to sit very still and not stir, can I go? The gentleman interceded, and on my promise I was allowed to get into the boat. I sat in the middle of my seat and held on to each side of the boat, and I am sure I never stirred a muscle or winked an eye or hardly breathed while those brave men guided their skiff over the tossing waves, which seemed to engulf us at times and anon bore us on their tossing crests. Soon we were safely over and landed, ready to take stage for home, feeling that we had been mercifully preserved on our two very dangerous trips, and on my part resolved never to incur a like danger again.
“WOMAN’S EQUALITY IN LAW.
“On my previous trip to Omaha, I had gone in an old-fashioned stagecoach and crossed the river on a ferry-boat. But the ferry-boat was laid up at this time on account of the ice, so there was no way of crossing but the skiff and the flatboat while the ice was running. Thanks to enterprise and skill, we at this day know nothing of such inconvenience and danger. And thanks to progress and enlightenment, woman’s cause has so far advanced that there is little need of her making extra effort to bring her claims and the knowledge of her rights to equality in law with man before the people.”
DESCRIBES COUNCIL BLUFFS.
Writing in 1855, soon after her arrival in her new home, Mrs. Bloomer describes it as follows:
“Council Bluffs is located on the east side of the Missouri River, in Iowa, instead of on the west or Nebraska side, where it is placed on most of the maps. It lies about three miles from the river, the level lands or bottoms being about that distance in width; and then commences a chain of high hills, or bluffs, which line the Missouri for thousands of miles and which, at this point, extend eastward in the state some five or six miles. These bluffs are composed of immense piles of yellow marl varying in height from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet and thrown into every conceivable shape and form—rounded, oblong, conical, and peaked. Sometimes we see them covered with trees and bushes, but most commonly with only grass and flowers. They present at this season of the year, robed in their rich carpet of green, a delightful appearance. Among these bluffs are numerous beautiful valleys, some of them sufficiently extensive for large farms, and through which clear and pellucid streams of water flow gurgling down to join the mighty Missouri, forming as they find their way across the bottoms streams which glisten as pure as silver in the sun. It was along one of these valleys, a fourth of a mile in width and extending for upwards of half-a-mile into the bluffs, that the old town of Kanesville was built. Here a log city was constructed, and here for several years dwelt from two to eight thousand of those singular people who have now found a home in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake. These people, or most of them, remained here until 1852 when they took their departure, selling out or surrendering up their claims to the gentiles. Hundreds of the log cabins in which they lived have disappeared, but many are still standing. The gentiles who succeeded the Mormons soon began to build better houses. Several good frame and brick buildings have already been constructed, including a three-story brick hotel and the land office, besides a number of stores and private residences.
“Others are in process of creation and will be carried forward as fast as materials and labor can be obtained. On all sides we see the work of beautifying the town going forward. Gardens are being fenced, trees planted, streets opened and graded, and every preparation made for accommodating the population. The city is extending out on the bottoms towards the river, the bottom lands being here high and dry and in no danger of being overflowed, and the probability is that at no distant day they will be covered with dwellings. These lands are considered very valuable and are held at high prices by their owners. The soil is extremely rich and productive and finely adapted to either farming or gardening.
“Situated as we are three hundred miles west of the railroads connecting the Mississippi with the cities of the East, we of course neither hear the shrill whistle of the locomotive nor see the trains of cars dashing through our streets with a velocity that outstrips the speed of the light-footed deer; but we are living in full expectation of the day when these things will be as familiar to us as they now are to my eastern readers. This city will be the western terminus of the first railroad built across the state, and it is fondly hoped and expected that three years hence we shall be startled by the shrill whistle of the iron horse as he comes to bathe his head in the waters of the Missouri, and from here, or from Omaha, directly opposite, will he set out on his long journey to the most western limit of the continent. Then Council Bluffs will no longer be ‘out of the world,’ but directly in the centre of it, and many who now hesitate about making their home here will regret that their doubts and fears debarred them from uniting their labors with their more enterprising countrymen in building up a great and prosperous community in the very centre of the Union.”