In the summer of 1866, Amelia Buss left behind everything she knew. Accompanied by her husband and eight year old daughter the small family traveled westward for over two months. In her diary, Buss describes the journey as long, arduous,and often times lonely because she "is all the women there is in this big train." On her entry for September 8th, 1866 Amelia laments that she "almost feels forgotten by her friends." Buss' frankness towards her journey highlights the stark reality that many frontier women faced as the ventured miles from from friends, family, and the comforts of home. Separated from everything familiar early pioneering women had to contend with dangers of frontier life (Indian raids, thieves, disease, etc.), as well as the demands of running a household. Upon arriving at their home on September 21, 1866, Buss wrote "When I went in, such a sight it sicked me; but everything but the windows looked as I imagined it would before. And I was not in Mrs. Jones hoped happily disappointed, but here I am and now much clean and work and always be over run with bugs and dirt." Her comment on bugs and dirt expose how Buss felt the need to meet societal expectations of women, even while living in the periphery of society. As the diary progresses, it becomes more and more evident that these
household chores occupied her time, as Buss' entries become more and
more sporadic. Overall, Amelia Buss' diary reveals a primarily solitary life that centered around domestic duties and religion. On one particularly despondent night she wrote, "Oh if I had wings of a bird, I would this moonlight night fly away from this place and the red man." And while many entries in her diary are quite melancholy in tone, it is apparent that she took great solace in religion. Reading sermons and signing hymns at home seemed to comfort Buss, who often felt "shut away from all their religious privileges" of relatives back East.
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While a photograph does not exist of Amelia, the Archive at the Fort
Collins Museum of Discovery does hold one picture of her husband,
Captain George E. Buss, who served in the American Civil War before moving West.
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A copy of Amelia Buss' diary is located the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery Archive.
