An Ordinary Woman: The Remarkable Story of the First American Woman in California(1999)

Cecelia Holland

In the spring of 1841, a courageous young woman named Nancy Kelsey set out her husband, Ben, and infant daughter, Martha Ann, from their Missouri homestead on a harrowing track that would lead her into the pages of history. With a small band of pioneers, Nancy and Ben blazed a trail across a wild and unforgiving continent to find a new life in the golden lands of California.

Historical novelist Cecelia Hollnd gives us an intimate portrait of a remarkable woman who played a crucial role in the settlement of the West. Nancy Kelsey was a courageous young pioneer, and the first American woman to set foot in California. drawing upon Nancy's own accounts of her harrowing journey, as well as the writings of those who traveled with her, Holland has crafted a stunning biography of this amazing woman that is filled with all of the action, passion, danger, and determination that have made her novels bestsellers around the world.