Rebecca : At home in the Oregon Territory

A letter received in the fall of 1850 prompts Rebecca Harrigan's family to join a wagon train and head for the Oregon Territory in the spring of 1851. One hundred seventy-five days later, the Harrigans reach Oregon City, the capitol of the Oregon Territory. This tale relates the Harrigan's first two years of living in the Oregon Territory. After the free land that lured them west is staked and claims filed, the work begins. Building a house, privy, barn and other outbuildings is priority. Winter will soon be upon them and shelter is needed for the family and its animals. A cooperative effort is established of neighbors so everyone is sheltered by the first snowfall. Rebecca soon learns how to keep house as well as help her father in the fields. She is 'growing up' and is not sure she likes the new responsibilities. There is much laughter and joy, as well as pain and sorrow, in the Oregon Territory.