Brother Joel joins Captain Walker

In the fall of 1840, Joe's older brother, Joel, went west in a covered wagon to the Pacific coast.  He was the first group of 300,000 pioneers who would make this trip in the next 20 years.  Joel has been with his brother on the first Santa Fe trip back in 1823 after which Joel had settled down as a farmer in the Fort Osage settlement.  By 1839 though, he had had enough of being a Missouri farmer and sold off his land and everything he couldn't carry with him on his journey west.

Overland trips of this length were new, so Joel got 40 of his neighbors together to go west with him. 
By now the Mississippi River Valley's population and pressures from increase in that population, along with reports of the wealth and wonder of the Wild West made the trip pretty darn desirous!

Few families like the Walkers were as strong in the west and Joel was as restless as his brother - even more confident that the risks and hardships were worth all that trouble.

Next time - Father DeSmet...