Nancy Kelsey

Nancy Roberts Kelsey was the first white woman to visit Utah, and she was the first to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains, arriving in California on November 25, 1841.

"Where my husband goes I can go. I can better stand the hardships of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband."

With those words Nancy Kelsey began a journey across country no white woman had ever made. With her baby on her hip, Nancy, who had just turned 18 a few days earlier, became the first woman, other than Native Americans, to walk on Utah soil. The year was 1841 and the Kelsey clan, often on the move, once again had itching feet. A letter from a Dr. John Marsh in California praising the new land excited many Missourians yearning for a great adventure.

However, when spring came, only a small group gathered at Sapling Grove near Weston, Missouri, to actually make the trip. Among them were several members of the extended Kelsey family, including Nancy, her husband Ben, and their daughter Martha Ann. Known as the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, this group followed dim traces of the new Oregon Trail. Thomas "Broken-Hand" Fitzpatrick, famous mountain man, was their guide as far as Soda Springs, Idaho. Then they were on their own. Seven long, weary months would pass before they arrived at Sutter's Fort in California. The second lap of the trip earned Nancy Kelsey the distinction of being the first white woman to cross the Sierra Nevada.

References

• Cecelia Holland. An Ordinary Woman: A Dramatized Biography Of Nancy Kelsey ISBN 0-312-86528-7

External links

• Nancy Kelsey, at utah.gov
• Nancy Kelsey at Find a Grave

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Name	Kelsey, Nancy
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