December 8, 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.

December 8, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

"You folks think you know something about cold weather but you dont. I had got used to having my hair, eyebrows and eyewinkers covered with frost and ice till I looked like Santa Clause when I got to school but Sun. night beat that all hollow. I went to bed with the covers over my head and just a little air hole over my right eye and when I woke up in the night I found when I put up my hand to turn down the covers that my hair and the blanket were covered with hoar frost. . . ."

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

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

October 13, 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.

October 13, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota

To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

     "Monday morning I awoke to find it growing colder every minute. By night it was awful cold and I was sick or almost . . . got my feet hot just before noon and wasn't prepared for the consequences-- got chilled coming home. . . .

     "Mrs Nielsen brought my boxes out Monday evening and I got into some warmer duds and got my blankets on my bed so after unpacking some I got a good warm nap and felt as good as new.

     "I had heard them tell how things froze in this [homesteader's] shack but didn't think much of it till I went to wash my face yesterday morning and found I was up against the 'cold hard facts' of the case. Froze up! well I should say! even the tank froze up and the Speer kids have been sliding on the dam."

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

February 15, 1906, Tennant, Iowa—excerpt from AN IOWA SCHOOLMA'AM

An Iowa Schoolma'am: Letters of Elizabeth "Bess" Corey, 1904–1908, contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family during the years she was living with various rural Iowa families while teaching at nearby one-room schoolhouses.

February 15, 1906, Tennant, Iowa

     "Monday when I wrote to you. . .  I told you it was raining well Monday evening it turned colder and we had a blizard all day Tues. . . . They wouldn't let Gertie [the school-age child of the family she was living with] go to school but I went anyway—had to follow the fence and then it wasn't any too safe. I went early and had the stove red hot before half past eight. The three Miller boys came and that is all the [students] I had. They had taken some of their books home the evening before and had learned their reading and spelling so we hurried through and got out about eleven. I got to Wevers about half after eleven and I couldn't have gone a quarter of a mile farther to have saved my life and if I had attempted to cross the ploughing I wouldn't be writing to you now I don't think. When I got here my clothes from my legging tops to my waist were wet through and getting stiff so I had to change every dud I had on."

An Iowa Schoolma'am: Letters of Elizabeth "Bess" Corey, 1904–1908, edited by Philip L. Gerber and Charlotte Wright