Frances Fuller Victor's history of Joe Meek, 'The River of the West,' was a 'barbaric yaup of joy' * Oregon ArtsWatch

"Born in Rome, N.Y., in 1826, Victor soon moved to Ohio and Pennsylvania. She completed her education at a ladies' seminary in Ohio and returned to New York, where she lived with her sister Metta Victor. She married, and she and her husband tried farming in Michigan and Nebraska. But those agricultural efforts - as well as her marriage - failed."

"Victor's first book dealing with Oregon - her mammoth history, originally titled The River of the West: Life and Adventure in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon ... Its Inland Waters, and Natural Wonders - appeared in 1870 in two large parts. It later was reprinted as The River of the West: The Adventures of Joe Meek - Vol. 1, The Mountain Years and The River of the West: The Adventures of Joe Meek - Vol. 2, The Oregon Years."

"The first section deals with Meek's early years and his rambunctious life as a mountain man in the Rocky Mountain fur trade. He arrived in the mountains in his late teens and stayed nearly a dozen years before moving to Oregon. Victor portrays Meek as an energetic, vivacious, never-stop young man who soon made a remembered name among the trappers. As one reviewer put it, in the opening chapters of The River of the West, Victor had created a "barbaric yaup of joy.""

Frances Fuller Victor arrived in Oregon in 1864 and published The River of the West in 1870, which became the first Oregon history to gain regional and national acclaim. Born in Rome, New York, in 1826, she moved through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nebraska, and California before settling in Oregon, and she completed her education at a ladies' seminary in Ohio. Early farming efforts and a first marriage failed, prompting a return to New York and partnership with her sister on dime novels. The River of the West appeared in two large parts and was later reprinted in two volumes focused on Joe Meek's mountain years and Oregon years, portraying Meek as a rambunctious, energetic figure and covering broader Oregon subjects.

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