Martha Gay Masterson (1837–1916)

Martha Gay Masterson was born in Arkansas, the 6th child of 12 in a farming family. Her father moved the family around several southern states before deciding in 1851 to emigrate from Missouri to Oregon. The journey west in a covered wagon along the Oregon Trail took five months, and the family eventually settled in Lane County, Oregon. Thirteen-year-old Martha kept a diary of the family's trials and adventures during the trip, and continued to keep the diary for the rest of her life. In 1871, she married James Masterson, with whom she had three children together, two of whom died young. The diary was first published about 75 years after her death. It was the subject of Lois Barton's 1986 book One Woman's West: Recollections of the Oregon Trail and Settling of the Northwest Country, which became required a popular text for schoolchildren.