Ruth Galloway Shackelford was born and raised in Boone County, Missouri, in a family that had emigrated from Kentucky. Ruth's family and upraising formed her character, which is evident in her diaries. She was not alone in being reluctant to uproot her family to travel to California, as is evident from the testimony from other women in Lillian Schliessel's book "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey".

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