Carrie Adell Green Strahorn

Carrie Adell Green Strahorn was born on January 1, 1854 to a family of “old settlers” in Merengo, Illinois.  Her father had been a surgeon serving in the Civil War under Ulysses S. Grant.  He encouraged all three of his daughters to get as much education as they wished. Adell graduated from the University of Michigan and studied voice in both the United States and Europe. She enjoyed a comfortable life and listening to tales of her elders she vowed that she would “never be a pioneer.”  

However, for over thirty years she traveled thousands of miles by stage, saddle and rail into raw, wild and remote areas of the West with her husband, Robert A. “Pard” Strahorn who was a publicist for the new Union Pacific Railroad.  He had also written a guide book extolling the virtues of the Wyoming and Dakota territories. They married in 1877.  At the bride’s request, the word “obey” was left out of the wedding ceremony; they were going to Wyoming, where there was Women’s Suffrage. Railroad officials at first balked when Strahorn asked that his wife be allowed to accompany him on all his journeys, arguing that it was not a life suitable for a young lady. When he refused to take the job under any other condition, the railroad gave in.

 The first year alone they traveled over 6,000 miles with Adell assisting “Pard” in the writing of his informative travel guides. Together they established seven towns including Caldwell, Weiser, Payette, Shoshone, and Hailey Idaho as well as Ontario Oregon.  They often referred to these towns as  “our children of which we are justly proud.”

Adell was the first white woman to make a complete tour of Yellowstone Park and she described its breathtaking scenery.  In 1911 she published the popular Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage which was a witty and observant memoir that was illustrated by famed Western artist Charles M. Russell.  

“The multitude of friends thought it no less than a calamity in 1877 that a girl should choose as a life partner one who would carry her out into that mysterious and unsettled country,” Adell Strahorn wrote in the preface to her book.