""My beloved friends," writes Anna Briggs Bentley, "How often do I wish that you could peep in at us and hear the sound of cheerful voices issuing from our lowly cabin? I have not yet sufficient leisure to tell you how we got here, but it was without accident..."".

"Determined not to lose contact with her mother and sister, Anna began writing them long letters detailing the ordinary activities of her days and the trials of life on the frontier: building a house, growing crops, raising a large family, and bartering for clothes and furniture. Often, the only time she had to write was very early in the morning or late at night when everyone else slept.".

"Anna's letters not only provide us with a revealing look at the life of a pioneer woman, but they also teach much about the medical practices, the religious and political goings-on of the day, and even about the structure of the pioneer family. Her passion to share the daily details of her life with her distant family provides the modern reader with a new insight into the determination, strength of character, and optimism it took to settle and survive on the early Ohio frontier."--BOOK JACKET.