Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878 - Major Howard Egan's Diary; Also Thrilling Experiences of Pre-Frontier Life Among Indians, Their Traits, Civil and Savage, and Part of Autobiography, Inter-Related to His Father's #228073

There is always a degree of interest in the pioneering of any locality in which one lives; and as time goes on, more importance and interest is attached to it.<br><br>When a great inter-mountain commonwealth grows up and develops in a few short years, the memory of those hardy pioneers, who were the first to make possible such progress, are looked upon with greater interest as the years go by and the records of all who took an important part are sought after.<br><br>It was well known by all who were in any way acquainted with Major Egan that his life work, if written, would make a remakably interesting book provided the information could be obtained. Neither himself or family were of a literary turn of mind, and hence much that would be of great interest was never committed to paper. During his life time no thought was ever given to anything of a literary nature.<br><br>The family all knew that Father (as Mother and all the family called him) had a private desk packed full of papers, but that any of them had any thing of value more than private correspondence none of the family knew. Even at the time of his death (1878) no attempt was made to exmine his papers and see if there was anything worthy of preservation until Mother died (1905) which took place some twenty seven years after. At the time of her death this writer was on a mission to the Eastern States and was unable to return until after the funeral and the old home had been ransacked ready to be pulled down when he returned.<br><br>Howard R. Egan, the principal writer of the latter part of the book looked over Father's desk and took home with him what he judged might be interesting to read over when he got home. The rest were scattered over the floor and later the house was pulled down. In looking over the papers Howard got interested and having plenty of time on his hands, not being able to walk or work much, and he read and re-wrote Father's entire Diary of the Pioneer trip nearly as we have put it in type, also some other trips that were in diary form. This was necessary on account of the difficulty of reading the fine writing, which is shown in fac-simile exact size on page 110.<br><br>The interest in the matter began to grow and correspondence with this writer met with sufficient encouragement and help so the manuscript was typewritten ready for the press. Later some incidents that Howard was so familiar with were written and his family was desirous of having them preserved and they were also typewritten. The work having been done by this writer as also the compiling and editing for the press.<br><br>The value of this book lies in its strict adherence to truth, and fidelity to fact. First of all it is the story of eye-witnesses and it often touches the story and romance of the mountains.