The Divison of Labor on the Trail

The division of work on the Overland Trail was heavily weighted on the woman's side.  Martha Morrison recalls:

"the women helped pitch the tents, helped unload, helped yoking up the cattle.  Some of the women did nearly all the yoking.  One time my father was away hunting cattle that had been driven off by the Indians and that left Mother and the children to attend to everything."

Esther Hanna recorded her thoughts:

"I am now sitting in our carriage in the middle of a slough.  Our mules all fell down attempting to get through.  I have never witnessed anything like it.  We have put 14 yoke oxen to the wagons to get them out.  Our provisions got wet and they had to be unpacked to air and then packed again."

And we've learned that that fell under a woman's job, of course!  Many women on the trail felt reduced to hired hands. 

Martha Morrison later realized:

"We  did not know the dangers we were going through.  The idea of my Father was to get to the coast, no other place suited him and he went on until we got there where we settled in the Clatsop Plains close to the mouth of the Columbia River.  We did not arrive until the middle of January or first of Feburary.  We went down the Deschutes River in an open canoe, including all the children.  When we got down there was no way to get to the place my Father had determined to locate us,  but to wade through the tremendous swamps. 

I know some of the young men laughed at us girls, my oldest sister and me, for holding up what dresses we had to keep from miring, but we didn't think it was funny.  We finally waded through and got through and got all our goods.  Mother was a very fleshy woman and it was a terrible job for her to go through."

Yes it was an adventure for the young, but Martha's diary brings alive her father's determination who wouldn't give up until he reached the Pacific, and the hard work of that "fleshy" wife of his to get him there!

Next time...