Threads of adventure hot off the press

When Lynda Jordan Johnson came to Wyoming in 1997 to work for the the College of Agriculture, University of Wyoming, the last thing on her mind was writing a book. Johnson was busy with her three children and finishing her bachelor's degree in Family and Consumer Science. She continued her education at the University of Wyoming, completing her Master's Degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with an emphasis in Historical Clothing in 2002.

As fate would have it, Johnson married a rancher from Encampment and made the move from Laramie to Encampment in 2015. Her love of historical clothing and her wealth of knowledge led her to go to work at the Grand Encampment Museum as the Textile Curator. Johnson called it her "dream job." She found clothing and textile artifacts in closets, drawers, trunks and boxes. Drawing on her experience with the University of Wyoming Historical Clothing Collection she was able to organize and properly store the museum's collection of clothing and textiles, as well as take up to date photographs and add additional description to the museum's accessioning program.

Johnson had come across a series of diaries, letters, and other items owned by Hettie Parker Kyner. These items had been donated by Kyner's granddaughter in the 1990s. Susanna Yatman and her husband traveled from Maryland to Wyoming to visit the area where her grandparents had lived at the turn of the century in Encampment. They toured the Kyner Cut area and the Blanche Copper Mine area. Her grandfather had been part owner of that mine. Yatman decided after visiting with Vera Oldman at the museum, to donate several items that had belonged to her grandparents during the late 1890s and early 1900s. Yatman told Oldman about Hettie Parker Kyner's diaries from 1886 and 1896 through 1903 that she had in her possession. She never found the diary of 1901, when her grandparents lived in Grand Encampment. Susanna transcribed the original diaries and sent copies to Oldman to be preserved by the Grand Encampment Museum

Yatman and her husband returned in 2016 and brought with them thirty items of clothing that her grandmother, Hettie Parker Kyner had sewn. Johnson said she felt very fortunate to be able to accession the items. Three years later, Kyner's original diaries, including her 1874 diary, and many photos were donated to the museum to be included in the Kyner Collection.

As Johnson read through the diaries and accessioned all of the materials she was captivated by the similarities between her life and Kyner's. they were both raised on farms and had brothers, but no sisters. They both learned to sew and play the piano very young, and sewed for others as well. The both had a love of horses. Johnson said Kyner's mother passed away on March 13th, which is Johnson's birthday. Kyner had a baby girl on June 29th, the same birthdate as Johnson's daughter. Kyner married a man named James and her daughter married a man named Felix. Johnson's husband is named James Felix Johnson. Johnson feels that this lady from the Victorian era whom she has come to know through diaries, letters, and pictures is a "soul" sister.

In the letters that Yatman had written to Vera Oldman after her visits to the museum, she said, "I do hope so much that, as you say, someday someone will be inspired to use all this wonderful material and turn it into a book." Johnson said that when she read that, she knew that she was the person that would write the book and share Kyner's story. Johnson said she spent hours researching the areas where Kyner had traveled and the people she knew. She felt that she had grown closer and come to know "Hettie". Johnson said she cried with her, struggled with her, and laughed with her.

Johnson dedicated her book to Hettie Parker Kyner, "whose story spoke to me and begged to be told, and to her granddaughter, Susanna Yatman for donating the diaries and letters and all of the other numerous items to the museum, including Kyner's stuffed dog, (but that's another story).