November 21, 1909—excerpt from BACHELOR BESS

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919 contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family after she staked a homesteading claim in Fort Pierre, South Dakota.

November 21, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To: Mrs. Margaret Corey

"I haven't had to carry water—just melt snow you know—have had my tub full of snow water by the stove all the time and more than once I've gone to bed at nine-thirty with a good fire and when I got up at five-thirty have had to strike quite hard with my fist to break the ice on the tub while smaller things freeze up solid. My house is one of the warmest and best built houses in the country so you see we are having a spell of weather."

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909–1919, edited by Philip L. Gerber