Pony Express Women--Sophia Hollenberg and Hollenberg Station

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson www.stephaniewhitson.com

The challenge of learning about the women who were an important part of the "supporting cast" of the Pony Express led me to nineteen-year-old Sophia Brockmeyer (pictured later in life at right),

a German immigrant who settled in Kansas with her family, married the neighbor (the only neighbor at the time) and joined her husband of only one year in establishing Hollenberg Station. Sophia's first home at this location was a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. That one room served as kitchen, living room, bedroom, and store. 

If I had to feed a family using only a box stove like the one pictured below, we'd all be in big trouble, but box stoves were a great improvement over fireplaces. They provided even heat and helped eliminate the threat of long skirts and petticoats catching fire from the open flames in a fireplace. The lack of an oven would have made fine wheat bread impossible, but Sophia could have prepared corn bread and soda bread in iron pans atop the stove. Fueled by the abundant firewood available nearby, this little stove would have kept the log cabin warm all through the long Kansas winters.

A box stove

While the image of a one-room log cabin is often thought of as a synonym for "loneliness," because their business was located on the California-Oregon Trail, the Hollenbergs probably saw as many as 15,000 people a year pass by. Yes. Thousand.

Two years after settling into the log cabin, the Hollenbergs added a post and beam room to one side of the log cabin and a lean-to kitchen on the other. Imagine Sophia's joy at having a dedicated kitchen! Hopefully that included a bigger and better stove, too. A root cellar beneath the kitchen (see the trap door in the photo below) and more expansion continued until the station became what it is today, still located on its original site and cared for by the State of Kansas as a historic site.

Hollenberg Station in the distance

Kitchen showing trap door

Today, visitors cross the Oregon trail when they walk from the visitor's center to the station itself. Hollenberg Station was the 1800s equivalent of convenience store, motel, and restaurant/tavern. Customers would have included immigrants headed west, freighters, Pony Express riders, stagecoach drivers, and stagecoach passengers. Hollenberg offered Sophia's hot meals (billed at 26 1/2 cents each), supplies, postal service (letters could be left for the stagecoach to transport to various destinations), and even a bed for the night, the latter accessed by steep stairs leading to an unfinished attic above the main rooms. 

The Hollenbergs would have worked long hours to keep their station running, with Sophia cooking, cleaning, gardening, and doing laundry while Gerat ran the store located just behind this

counter in the station's main room--and the tavern. Together--and with the help of Louisa, their niece and a young man Gerat helped immigrate from Germany--the Hollenbergs produced much of the food served at their station. Travelers in the late 1800s mentioned a large garden and even an orchard at Hollenberg. Every fall, meat was preserved by drying, smoking, or salting. Garden produce was dried and stored in the root cellar beneath the kitchen. Canning would have also been possible by the late 1800s. 

After the telegraph put the Pony Express out of business, the Hollenbergs continued to operate their store, post office, and stage station until 1872, when they moved into Hanover, a town Gerat had helped lay out--a town named for his home in Germany. Gerat encouraged other Germans to immigrate to the area and began to deal in real estate. He also served three terms in the Kansas Territorial Legislature.

Sophia was widowed in 1874 when Gerat died on a trip to Germany. He was buried at sea. She remarried Judge William Kalhoefer in 1875. The couple had one son who died in infancy. Her tombstone is gray granite and it bears only the name Sophia Kalhoefer, her birth date, and her death date (1914--one year after my own mother was born). No one seeing Sophia's gravestone would imagine the history behind the name or that this woman was witness to the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express.  

See more photos of Hollenberg Station and plan your visit at http://www.kansastravel.org/hollenbergstation.htm.

What's your favorite historic site? Why? Answer to enter a drawing for a free copy of Stephanie's newest book. Keep reading to learn more about it.

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Stephanie's new release, Messenger by Moonlight,
features young Annie Paxton who's been "hornswoggled" into working as a cook at a Pony Express Station near Fort Kearney, Nebraska. Sophia Hollenberg has a cameo appearance ... and even shares a recipe.

In celebration of Stephanie's third book with them, FaithWords is featuring all three of her FaithWords ebooks for only $3.99 each. Here's the link for the newest:

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Pony Express Women

--A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Women aren't often mention in connection with the Pony Express. There's no record of a woman ever taking part as a rider, but that doesn't mean women didn't play an important role. After all, someone had to feed those riders and station keepers and the gaggle of other males working as wranglers and blacksmiths and superintendents. 

But women are often mentioned only in passing as the "wife of" (or as "wives" in the case of stations located in proximity to Salt Lake City, Utah). 

Years ago I read about a woman "in Nebraska Territory" who lived across from a Pony Express station. Here's what was written about her:

"A woman on Plum Creek in Nebraska Territory started a store across from a Pony Express station.  She baked as many as 100 pounds of flour a day, sold bread at 50 cents a loaf and made as much as thirty dollars per day.  She made cheese which she sold at 25 cents a pound and travelers paid as much as $2 for the good meals she prepared."

It wasn't until years later when I visited the Dawson County, Nebraska museum in Lexington, Nebraska, that I learned that woman's name. Louisa Freeman's blue cupboard is on display at the museum. I was thrilled to finally "meet" the woman who worked harder than I can imagine. I wonder if she even had time to see the Pony Express riders flash by!

Other women directly connected to the Pony Express include:

In Kansas 

• Mrs. Tom Perry of Kennekuk Station, a fine enough cook to receive praise in print from none other than Mark Twain (he mentioned her excellent coffee). 
• Seneca Station was actually located at a two-story hotel. According to historian Joseph di Certo, "Pony riders enjoyed this home station not only for its comfortable accommodations, but also because Mrs. Smith was an excellent cook."
• An immigrant from French-speaking Alsatia owned the ranch in Marshall County where one traveler remarked on ham and eggs, hot rolls and coffee, served "fresh and good." 



Sophia Hollenberg

• Sophia Brockemeyer Hollenberg (pictured at right) and her husband, Gerat, founded Hollenberg Station (operated as a historic site by the Kansas State Historical Society). 

In Wyoming

• Molly Slade and her children lived at Horseshoe station where the station keeper (her husband) was not only a division superintendent for the Pony Express but also a notorious gunslinger. 
• Three Crossings (home station to a young rider named William F. Cody) was kept by a Mormon couple named Moore, who'd stopped there instead of going on to Salt Lake City in Utah "upon learning that the men in Salt Lake City had more than one wife." Mrs. Moore is remembered as an "excellent cook and a spotless housekeeper."

When I imagine conversations in the West, I don't think of accents, but:

• An English couple ran Little Sandy station. 
• At Ham's Fork Station a Scot was the keeper--along with his two wives.
• Muddy Creek Station was operated by "a French Canadian and his wife." 

In 1776, Abigail Adams famously encouraged her husband to "remember the ladies." 

What women from history do you think deserve more attention? Tell us in a comment below (no later than Friday, April 15, 2016) and your name will be entered in the Saturday, April 16, 2016 drawing to win a free copy of Stephanie's tribute to the women of the Pony Express, Messenger by Moonlight, releasing in May.

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