Pioneering the West, 1846 to 1878

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. There is always a degree of interest in the pioneering of any locality in which one lives; and as time goes on, more importance and interest is attached to it.<br><br>When a great inter-mountain commonwealth grows up and develops in a few short years, the memory of those hardy pioneers, who were the first to make possible such progress, are looked upon with greater interest as the years go by and the records of all who took an important part are sought after.<br><br>It was well known by all who were in any way acquainted with Major Egan that his life work, if written, would make a remakably interesting book provided the information could be obtained. Neither himself or family were of a literary turn of mind, and hence much that would be of great interest was never committed to paper. During his life time no thought was ever given to anything of a literary nature.<br><br>The family all knew that Father (as Mother and all the family called him) had a private desk packed full of papers, but that any of them had any thing of value more than private correspondence none of the family knew. Even at the time of his death (1878) no attempt was made to exmine his papers and see if there was anything worthy of preservation until Mother died (1905) which took place some twenty seven years after. At the time of her death this writer was on a mission to the Eastern States and was unable to return until after the funeral and the old home had been ransacked ready to be pulled down when he returned.<br><br>Howard R. Egan, the principal writer of the latter part of the book looked over Father's desk and took home with him what he judged might be interesting to read over when he got home. The rest were scattered over the floor and later the house was pulled down. In looking over the papers Howard got interested and having plenty of time on his hands, not being able to walk or work much, and he read and re-wrote Father's entire Diary of t