The Genteel Gentile, Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857 - 1858

Genteel Gentile, page 002

ON THE TRAIL The first three letters, dated 25 August, 4 September, and 25 October 1857, describe the trip from Fort Leave,,worth on the Missouri River to Fori Bridger in the Rocky Mountams. The Anne to whom these letiers were addressed was Governor Gumming's younger sister, he being the sixth and she being the seventh oi Thomas and Ann Clay Cumm,ng's children. At the iime of Elizabeth's correspondence, Anne was ftftv-five "ears old and lived in New York with her bus- the eighth child of Tiomas and Ann Clay Gumming. Accoid- ing to the family history, Waliace was not her original middic name. Because she disliked her middle name, Sarah had dis- carded it and had taken Wailace, the married name of her mother's sister, in its place. Sarah never married.