Reliving life at the fort

This is the commencement of a new year for me."

So begins the opening entry of a diary that details life at Fort Assinniboine for a chaplain's wife during the homesteading era of American history. Written by Eliza Shaw Dodd on Sept. 26, 1881, the entry marks not only the author's birthday, but the day U.S. President James A. Garfield was buried.

For the next three years, Dodd would chronicle her experiences and observations of life, survival and entertainment on the last of the major Army bases constructed during the Indian Wars. The diary, recently given to the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Cla...