A Melting Pot of Pioneers

The West in the early 1800s actually consisted of the Wilderness Trail - through Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. By the 1860s and 1870s the West referred to Kansas, Oklahoma, California and Oregon, to name a few.

Many folks when thinking of the pioneers in our American History think of the "Little House" stereotypical family and community, but if you look further you'll find that many of those hardy, tough frontier people were Women, Blacks, Hispanics and Chinese.

This "melting pot" of settlers had in common a bitter battle with the environment and each other. Most of their lives were actually not devoted to fighting with Native Americans over land, or even a dealing with a great crop disaster - they led ordinary lives. They devoted their days to farming, mining, ranching, trapping and trading, and church.

One of the funniest commercials on TV is a couple on a covered wagon - he complaining about her 50 wagons of shoes and suggesting they use Public Storage next time. This is a great favorite because I too love shoes :) and second because it shows humor associated with the frontier life. We often times think of the sepia photos of their hard faces and conclude that these people were anything but happy. But they enjoyed life! They loved adventure and took wagons full of their possessions, suffering long journeys to find that adventure and new life.

I often think of what it must have been like for a child whose parents came in one day and said "pack up your bed, we are moving west" with no idea what was ahead of them but setting out with everything they could carry, including the family's milking cow and working oxen. What fun to have been a child on that adventure!

On the other hand, I imagine how I would do day-to-day tasks without those inventions that we have come to take for granted. Milking a cow at 6 am, churning the butter and baking the bread everyday would make me appreciate my daily bread a whole lot more!

Check out the short poll on the side - what modern convenience would you be most unwilling to live without?

Since we started on the wagon train today, one of the most popular meal for traveling was beans. And with only an open campfire to cook on, soup was easy and kept well for the next meal.

Here is a basic pioneer bean soup recipes circa 1863.

Bean Soup
1/2 pound uncooked navy beans
3/4 pound of ham shank or fat back/salt pork
1 cup diced potatoes uncooked
3/4 cup diced onion
Salt and Pepper, Parsley
Optional if available: 3 tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped

Cover beans with cold water and soak overnight. Rinse beans, cover with fresh water and cook until tender and then strain. Cover the meat with cold water and simmer until tender, skimming off any fat. Add the beans, potatoes and onion to the meat and simmer gently. When the vegetables are almost tender, add the tomatoes (if using them), salt, pepper and parsley. Cook slowly until the vegetables are ready. Serve immediately - tastes better the second day.
Serves 6.

If you have comments about the diversity of pioneers or the Westward journey from a child's perspective, please post below. I will explore more in the next week or so about the diversity of pioneers.

Have a great day!