Annie Innes Dunbar…Her first Christmas in America

By Eva Hallam Solberg

Written sometime between 1979 and 1982.

The rocking motion of the S.S. California increased to a jarring violence. Would the storm never cease? Already most everyone but Annie had lost a meal. She wouldn’t even eat until the ocean was calm again.

The year was 1911. Annie was 22 years old. On the 11-day voyage from Scotland to New York, Annie also experienced a funeral at sea.

After New York came the long train ride to Malta, and on to Saco the next day. Annie and her friend Lizzie left Saco with others in a wagon drawn by horses. The 50-mile trip northwest of Saco began about nine the next morning. Wagons followed the tracks made in the grass.

Snow began to fall. All day the flakes came down until the tracks were no longer visible. One of the men got out and went ahead, pushing snow aside with his boot to make sure they were following the trail. Annie heard a worried voice. “If we’ve lost the trail…” followed by a prediction she didn’t want to hear. No one else said a word. Finally, “Isn’t that a light?” “Yes, let’s make straight for it.”

Read the rest of the story in "Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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