The author was a young child in the 1890s when her family settled among the Osage Indians in Oklahoma territory. Her book, As It Was, originally published in her local newspaper, chronicles of the author's childhood on the frontier and the events that transformed the region through cattle ranching, Oklahoma statehood, the oil boom, and beyond. This is a personal account of a white woman who grew up on the Osage reservation, delivered in a series of articles in the Barnsdall Times. It is a bit disjointed and not chronological, but a fascinating look into the Osage reservation at the turn of the last century. She reflects on the changes that the first half of the 20th century brought as well.