Miranda: English II, Section F

Uriah Oblinger was a Nebraska settler who made use of the Homestead Act (1862) and wrote a series of letters (in the early 1870s) to his wife and family, who he left at their home in Indiana, while he traveled to Nebraska with his wife’s two brothers to stake a claim to a plot of land and make a new life for him and his family.

Uriah seems to be a very sentimental, compassionate man. The main object of his letters are focused on describing his journey, while minimizing the hardships he faces, and always keeping a positive attitude about the future and especially seeing his wife and children once again. Uriah writes the letters to his first wife, Mattie, his baby daughter Ella, and the rest of his family (in a more general sense). Although he describes the hardships of the weather “a hard storm of wind and rain set in and continued nearly all night” (Letter # 1), he seems to have a positive attitude about everything, and he often contradicts the hardships by saying that everything was better the next day. Uriah seems to be trying to almost console his wife, without actually saying that he is doing that, by maintaining a positive attitude about everything and telling her how much he misses her, and describing how happy he will be when he finally sees his family again. Uriah describes to his wife the conditions of the weather and climate, the topography of the land, the conditions of the horses he is traveling with, and the physical aspects of his journey and claiming land for he and his family to settle on. Uriah is courageous and daring, to be willing to be among the first to settle in Nebraska, and make the journey to the West. He is also compassionate and loving in the way that he seems to console his wife and tell her how much he misses her and longs to see her and their baby Ella. Uriah shows his strength and bravery in the third letter when he manages to keep one of his horses from running away, while also making she that she did not trample or step on him. Uriah displays humility, determination, and he refuses to complain, when he writes: “it is going to cost some privations, but I have made up my mind to stand them for the sake of a home. I know it will seem pretty rough to those who have never tried to do without wood or timber but it looks rougher on paper than the reality seems” (Letter # 3). This quote basically sums up the fact that Uriah has a positive attitude, determination, and he attempts to comfort and console his wife by making his conditions seem less bad than they really are.

Uriah Oblinger and his letters help me to imagine the settler’s life because he describes the hardships of settlement and being away from his home and family, trying to recreate a new life for him and his family. His letters also display the things that a settler has to think about, such as provisions, the legal necessities for claiming a plot of land, the weather, conditions of horses, and more. I think that Uriah’s life and experiences that I have seen through his letters have shown me that settlement was much harder than I ever thought. More than the physical hardship of reaching their destination and claiming a plot of land, and legally, actually having it become legitimized, trusting the government to protect that, Uriah’s letters showed me that sometimes the hardest part of settlement was simply being away from your family and home, and the things you know and love, and trying to almost make a new life for yourself. It makes me miss my family and my home, even though they are much closer to me that Uriah’s were for him.