When Illinois was the frontier

Whew! I just finished my biography of Christiana Holmes Tillson for WOMEN OF THE PRAIRIE STATE. This remarkable woman wrote an account of her years as a pioneer in Illinois. Just getting out there was trial...and she makes some rather acerbic observations of the backwoodsmen she encountered along the way. But when she arrived at her log cabin home, she discovered someone else had taken up residence and all her baggage was lost. She stuck a fresh made candle on a nail and soldiered on.