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What she failed to gain scholastically from the schools she was privileged to attend. was supplemented by the training of her "schoolteacher" mother. She learned to play the 'piano as well as to be an expert seamstress. Having assisted her mother in the struggle to conquer "three mischievous brothers," she was delighted with the arrival of the wee baby sister, Frances Emily. Many dainty articles were fashioned by her hands for the baby as well as for herself. Upon arrival, Frances Emily was so tiny that the dainty clothing had to be laid aside and her bed, for some time, was a shoe box: She was quite a "curiosity."
The city of Omaha stands on a long, narrow plateau on the west side of the Missouri River, in Nebraska. It was originally a stopping place for trappers, traders and explorers, as they made their way west along the Oregon Trail. In 1804 Lewis and Clark, representing the Federal Government, held a conference here with the Omaha Indians. A trading post was set up in 1805. The Oregon Trail had its original base at Independence, Missouri. It followed the Kansas and Little Blue Rivers to Fort Kearney, then along the North Platte River to Fort Laramie. Merchandise and equipment was transported along the old Buffalo Trail by pack animals. It is said that the first wagon tracks along the Trail were made in 1830. When the American Fur Company established regular steamship transportation up the Missouri River in 1832, Omaha and Council Bluffs became important outfitting stations.
As the white population of the United States moved westward, many nations or tribes of Indians found refuge in the rolling plains of what is now Kansas and Nebraska. They established themselves near the many small lakes and creeks and along the North Platte River, while strife continued among them over hunting ground rights. John C. Fremont made a government survey of this country in 1842, and in 1844 the first bill was introduced into the House of Representatives requesting admission as a territory. In spite of repeated pleas to Congress, it was 1854 before the United States Government was able to make satisfactory final negotiations with the Indians for such a movement. The first real white settlement in this vicinity had been made by the Mormons in 1846-47.
Alfred Sorenson, in his Early History of Omaha, tells us that the first legislative assembly of the Territory of Nebraska met at Omaha in 1854 in a building which had been built by the Ferry Company (p.60). It was voted to erect a capitol building and the contract as let to Bovey & Armstrong. Rumors of the impending territorial grant traveled rapidly from city to city. Soon, along the roads and waterways, people could be seen making their way to the first Nebraska capital at Omaha. By this time the eastern terminal of the Oregon Trail had been established at Omaha, Nebraska, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Doctors, lawyers, merchants, territorial officials and artisans in many fields of labor camped temporarily in the vicinity, demanding housing.
Since the Folsom family was unable to go West that season, they traveled en to Council Bluffs, Iowa. After providing the best available comforts for his family, William H. went about inquiring for employment. He contacted Bovey Armstrong and was given the contract for erecting a colonnade at the Capitol Building. Logs for these pillars or columns were cut from the timberlands to the northwest and floated down the Missouri River. Great iron hooks and ropes were used to pull these logs onto the riverbank to dry before the barking, grooving and finishing could be done.