The others were taken captive, but only four were ransomed back the other fell ill and died. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. There, on May 12, they became a part of a main wagon train headed west. About this time, fear began to set in as provisions were running low and time was against them. Caching their provisions in Bear Valley, they returned to Sutters fort hoping to recruit more men and supplies for the rescue. However, the Mexican War had drawn away the able-bodied men, forcing any further rescue attempts to wait. Extra foodstuffs, and one account even talked about the 20,000-odd pounds of bacon left behind. When it was obvious a person wouldnt last the day, the train would often hold up moving in order to wait for the end. As was their custom, the Indians attacked at dawn, and the whites were compelled to run their coaches alongside each other, pile mail-sacks between the wheels, and throw sand over them for breastworks. The next day, on May 12, 1846, they headed west again in the middle of a thunderstorm. With the trail blotted entirely from sight, all that could be done was wait for the storm to blow over. Surviving the Oregon Trail was just the beginning for some people just ask Lewis Keseberg. Along the way, they discovered that some of their wagons would have to be abandoned and before long, morale began to sink and the pioneers began to adamantly blame Lansford Hastings. It was usually safer to keep rifles unloaded.and the third cause was stampeding livestock.Indians proved not to be any real danger to most pioneers. Mormon Handcart Horrors - HistoryNet With George were his third wife, Tamzene, their three children, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza, and Georges two daughters from a previous marriage, Elitha and Leanna. They estimate one in ten travelers didn't survive, and the National Oregon/California Trail Center says the 2,000-mile trail averaged 10 deaths per mile. Tales and Trails of the American Frontier, Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Easy Travel Organization Tips You Will Love, Bidwell-Bartleson Party Blazing the California Trail. More than 40 whites were killed, and the destruction of property was extensive. Roadtrippers says Blue Mound, Kansas, was the site of the first accidental gun death on the trail, and it happened to the ill-named John Shotwell. On the Trail - The Akin Wagon Train - 1852. The dragoons turned short about and again charged through and over their enemies, the fire being continuous. About 55 miles of the telegraph line was destroyed, stage stations razed, and employees killed, for long distances east and west. Reed would continue west on horseback while the rest of his family remained with the Donner party. Susannah was passed into the care of a new mother breastfeeding her own child, and Altonen says in order to keep that woman's child away from any possible infection the orphan might be carrying, the caregiver opted to give the baby cow's milk instead of breastfeeding. Leave late, and you'd be waiting on the shores of a river where people and animals had been doing their business for months and months, and yes, you were drinking that water, too. The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,000-mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, that was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mid-1800s to emigrate west.. On March 1stthe second relief party finally arrived at the lake, finding grisly evidence of cannibalism. With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off . Stantons partner, William McCutchen had fallen ill and remained at the fort. Murphy, Idaho. Whether it's better to eat or be eaten is a discussion for another time, but the tragic footnote is that the entire thing could have been avoided. With James and Margaret Reed were their four children, Virginia, Patty, James, and Thomas, as well as Margarets 70-year-old mother, Sarah Keyes, and two hired servants. He swore he only ate and never killed, writing, "A man, before he judges me, should be placed in a similar situation.". Satisfied, the emigrants rested for a few days at the fort, making repairs to their wagons and preparing for the rest of what they thought would be a seven-week journey. Brian Altonen, a medical science and public health expert, took a look at the diseases running rampant through wagon trains and found the heartbreaking case of Susannah, a little girl who died just a month after her mother. The Hide Hunters. This new route enticed travelers by advertising that it would save the pioneers 350-400 miles on easy terrain. About the same time, a force of over 2,000 Indians made a determined attack upon a detachment of troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Collins at Rush Creek, Nebraska, 85 miles north of Julesburg. In those early days of stage-coaching along the Santa Fe Trail, the two most noted leaders of Indian raids were Satanta(White Bear), a chief of the Kiowa Nation, and George Bent, a half-breed desperado. Some members of the party suggested that Reed be hanged, but he was instead banished from the company. The Wagon Box Grave headstone marks the burial site of the emigrant family. With John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson. Omissions? On August 11th, the wagon train began the arduous journey through the Wasatch Mountains, clearing trees and other obstructions along the new path of their journey. The Government offered $5000 for his capture, dead or alive, but death finally came to him in the form of malarial fever. You'd totally sign up for that until you hear the list of problems. His description was first published as an article in a Nashville, TN newspaper in the spring of 1847 and later in a book published in 1879. Ross is a woman who gets handed a double With over 100 men under him, he robbed ranches and attacked wagon trains, coaches, and army caravans. 10 Things You Should Know About the Donner Party - History The Donner Partycontinued to travel along the Humboldt River with their remaining draft animals exhausted. There were two coaches loaded with mail and nine men, the leaders being Lem Flowers, a division agent, and the conductor named Brown. Tamsen Donner left her dead husband and joined him only a short time before she died, too. There are many examples of bungling, bad decisions and charlatans who conned the settlers, but the tragedy that befell the Donner Party in 1846 outranks them all. The Bonnie Brooke Story: Directed by Allen H. Miner. Patriarch Henry Sager took ill by the time they reached the Rockies, and they buried him alongside Green River. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Utter Disaster, Murphy, Idaho - RoadsideAmerica.com From September 10ththrough the 25th, the party followed the trail intoNevadaaround the Ruby Mountains, finally reaching the Humboldt River on September 26th. The Hastings Cutoff was a fairly untried shortcut, and Fort Bridger (pictured) sat at the trailhead. I can not describe the unutterable repugnance with which I tasted that first mouthful of flesh. Sounds great, right? It was a west-bound Concord, containing a full complement of passengers, including a Mr. White, his wife, child, and colored nurse. The letter ended up in the hands of Fort Bridger's founders, owners, and the people who stood to gain the most if thousands of settlers started passing through their trading post, so you can probably guess what happened next. Two men who had joined the party at the lake also died. On July 20, 1846, the company divided, with most of the wagon train then turning north toward Fort Hall (modern southeastern Idaho) and using the well-known Oregon Trail to continue the journey west. Photo courtesy of Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop https://www.hansenwheel.com . They killed and ate the cow, and the officer in charge was actually pretty diplomatic about the whole thing. On October 31 the weary migrants approached what is now Donner Pass across the Sierra Nevada and found their progress blocked by deepening snow. On August 6, the party reached the Weber River after having passed through Echo Canyon. The soldiers had with them as guides several famous frontiersmen, Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wootton, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin. With scarcely any opportunity for defense, the unfortunate whites were shot down, scalped, and their mutilated bodies left upon the ground. The troopers charged twice, killing and wounding more than a hundred Indians, but the chief escaped, and, when the soldiers finally captured the village, they found there the body of Mrs. White, yet warm, with three arrows in her breast. Then, in January 1848, gold was discovered in at John Sutters Mill in Coloma and gold-hungry travelers began to rush out West once again. In the twenty-one days since reaching the Weber River they had moved just 36 miles. There was actually someone riding ahead of the Donner Party acting as a scout, and Edwin Bryant sent a letter back warning them it was too dangerous to take the so-called shortcut. The Donner party stranded in the Sierra Nevada Range, 1847. Diseases and serious illnesses caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers. Sutters Fort in Sacramento, California, 1847. Talk about incentive. Both children and adults could slip while getting out of a wagon and fall beneath the wheels. The journey was not an unpleasant one across the vast expanse of Plains. Leaving his family, Reed was last seen riding off to the west with a man named Walter Herron. In nine brand new wagons, the group estimated the trip would take four months to cross the plains, deserts, mountain ranges and rivers in their quest for California. Parrish also wrote several other books, including When Wilderness Was King, My Lady of the North, Historic Illinois, and others. Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail - Legends of America In the beginning, the wagon train was lucky to make even two miles per day, taking them six days just to travel eight miles. Road agents also became very much in evidence, and the robbery of stages was not uncommon. The migrants began the ascent of the Sierra foothills low on food, and Paiute warriors killed several of the remaining oxen. The fertile farmlands of central California drew a steady stream of settlers in the 1840s, and in the spring of 1846 several families from Springfield, Illinois, joined the westward migration. Unfortunately, while cutting timber for a new axle, a chisel slipped and Donner cut his hand badly, causing the group to fall further behind. Details emerge in tragic wagon train accident "Tragedy at Mountain Meadows takes . Plenty of people had the misfortune to listen to one of the quack doctors who hit the trail, too. The others escaped after a hard run. The Tragic Fate of the Donner Party, 1847 - EyeWitness to History With the Sierra pass just 12 miles beyond, the wagon train, after attempting to make the pass through the heavy snow, finally retreated to the eastern end of the lake, where level ground and timber was abundant. At Fort Laramie, James Reed ran into an old friend fromIllinoisby the name of James Clyman, who had just traveled the new route eastwardly with Lansford Hastings. On March 12ththe third relief led by William Eddy and William Foster reached Starved Camp where Mrs. Graves and her son Franklin had also died. On July 20, 1846, the company divided, with most of the wagon train then turning north toward Fort Hall (modern southeastern Idaho) and using the well-known Oregon Trail to continue the journey west. You'd be pretty mad, too. January 17, 2016 Late one afternoon in July 1864, a party of American Indians rode up to a small wagon train on the Oregon Trail and, using signs, asked in a friendly way for something to eat. Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated December 2021. As the disillusionment of the party increased, tempers began to flare in the group. Katharine Ross whose stardom still awaited gives a stunning performance in the The Santa Fe Trail was the first used for staging purposes and was also the first to be reddened with blood and witness the hardships of prairie travel. The boy died as they hacked off the leg with a butcher knife and a handsaw, and it wasn't a happy ending. That's not a joke. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail. The Donner Party soon reached the junction with theCalifornia Trail, about seven miles west of present-day Elko, Nevada and spent the next two weeks traveling along the Humboldt River. Attack on the Kelly-Larimer Wagon Train | WyoHistory.org As soon as Cody got a glimpse of the Indians, he handed the reins to Flowers and began applying the whip. The most important of these, situated in the very heart of this blood-stained territory, was Julesburg, Colorado. The forty-four member wagon train was composed of four families with twenty-one children, some single men, five recently discharged soldiers and an army deserter. Everyone was in the same boat, so to speak, and traders didn't have much use for the more impractical items they'd brought along. Her disease wasn't contagious no one else caught it from her but the pioneers didn't know this at the time. At last, we were all in the wagons. A few days later their last few cattle were slaughtered for food and party began eating boiled hides, twigs, bones and bark. This occurrence took all desire for further peace talk from him, and the fight was on. Twenty men stayed at Devil's Gate to guard the wagon-train goods for the rest of the winter. More than 155 years ago one of the worst tragedies in American travel occurred during the westward migration. The Oregon Trail Was Filled with Hardship and Surprises, these 16 Facts W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was a driver between Split Rock and Three Crossings, one of the most perilous sections. Despite the disastrous crossings of Willie and Martinthe worst single tragedies to befall any overland travelersthe church continued to support the handcart scheme. Between early September and late October 1860, 34 of the 44 would die, including Elijah and his entire family. The wagon tragedy also known as wagon massacre was an incident which occurred during the Malabar rebellion against British colonial rule in India that led to the deaths of 70 Indian prisoners. Five days later, on August 30th, the group began to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert, believing the trek would take only two days, according to Hastings. Many of those who survived lost toes to frostbite. Donner Lake,named for the party, is today a popular mountain resort near Truckee,Californiaand the Donner Camp has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Major threats to pioneer life and limb came from accidents, exhaustion, and disease. Though he strongly suggested that the party take the regular wagon trail rather than this new false route, Reed would later ignore his warning in an attempt to reach their destination more quickly. However, what they didnt know was that the desert sand was moist and deep, where wagons quickly got bogged down, severely slowing their progress. In the Spring of 1865, the Plains tribes again became very troublesome and raided the stage line almost from end to end. The pioneers lost valuable days conducting a fruitless search for the missing oxen before beginning a circuitous navigation of the Ruby Mountains in modern northeastern Nevada. Over the next four months, the remaining men, women, and children would huddle together in cabins, makeshift lean-tos, and tents. The group had elected to use a shortcut to California that had been recommended to them by an unreliable guide named Lansford Hastings. Ironically, on the very day that theIllinoisparty headed west from Springfield, Lansford Hastings prepared to head east from California, to see what the shortcut he had written about was really like. Here they fought their assailants all day, six of the men being wounded, and all their stock was driven off.
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