Presented by Karen Wyatt Drevo
Member of Humanities Nebraska Speakers

Maria (portrayed by her great-great granddaughter in period attire) looks back at her life as a prairie pioneer in Otoe County, Nebraska, where she homesteaded in 1867. Maria crossed the Atlantic Ocean with seven children to reunite her family after a 7½ year separation. She endured grasshoppers, hail, drought, tornadoes, blizzards, and the loss of her husband and six of her 13 children as she worked to become a citizen and a landowner in a new country. Resilient and resourceful, she lived a life of usefulness to her family and neighbors with her loving deeds and kind acts, delivering babies and nursing the sick.