Pioneer Mother

By Ella Hull Fulton

From the Winchester Star, Dec. 2, 1927

While in Kansas City we looked with admiration on the beautiful statuary, in Penn Valley park, called the “Pioneer Mother” with her child on her tired horse.

She stands in a high windy bare place without protection, asking no favors; her face is not the face of a martyr, but like one going on a trip reassured that come what will she is ready; that she has God and her husband and child, and what else matters. Was it, do you think, for wealth she looks toward the great west? We think not. She has left all perhaps to follow the man she loved to a far country with its dangers and hardships, perhaps for just a plain home.

As I stood and looked I wondered, did she see the prairies with their flowers, the clouds with their shadows on the grass; the red of the morning sun, the purple and gold of the evening, did she enjoy dreaming of the future? Others did, she must have had a God-given vision of better things to come or she could not have endured, but her faith in God and in the love of her husband and children kept her faithful and ready to endure for their sake, and who can say she did not have the best things of life.

—Mrs. Fulton

Note: The Pioneer Mother statue by Alexander Phiminster Proctor stands in Penn Valley Park, Kansas City, Mo., near a branch of the Santa Fe trail. It was presented to the people of Kansas City by Howard Vanderslice. The inscription reads: “To commemorate the Pioneer Mother who with unfaltering trust in God suffered the hardship of the unknown west to prepare for us a homeland of peace and plenty.” Vanderslice’s own mother had traveled across the plains in search of a better life. Proctor created the piece in California, had it cast in Italy and the molds and casts were destroyed after completion. This huge monument weighs over 16,000 lbs. and stands on a pedestal of Minnesota pearl pink granite with a concrete base. https://kcparks.org/places/pioneer-mother-memorial/

This article appeared in “Yesteryears” in April 2025. https://www.jchsks.com/publications