Detailed Grave Counting - Journal Records from the Trail

Celcia McMillen Adams kept a record of her family journey from Illinois to Oregon in 1852.  She traced the wagon journey in this peculiar way:

"Child's grave, small pox
  Child's grave, small pox
we passed 7 new made graves .  One had 4 bodies in it - cholera.  One man died this morning with the cholera in the camping ground ahead of us.  Another man died.  Passed 6 new graves.

We have passed 21 new made graves. Made 18 miles.
Passed 13 graves today.
Passed 10 new graves.

June 25 passed 7 graves.  made 14 miles.
June 26 passed 8 graves.
June 29 passed 10 graves.
June 30 passed 10 graves, made 22 miles.
July 1 passed 8 graves made 16 miles.
July 2 one man in our company died passed 8 graves, made 16 miles
July  4 passed 2 graves made 16 miles
July 5 passed 9 graves made 18 miles
July 6 passed 6 graves made 9 miles
July 11 passed 15 graves made 13 miles
July 12 passed 5 graves made 15 milles
July 18 passed 4 graves made 16 miles"


The journals goes on like this until October 17 when she writes "we have seen 35 graves since leaving Fort Boise."

Births were not recorded with such regularity as deaths.  The epidemic bred a certain hardness.  Lucy Cooke recorded "June 2 did what we could for her.  Her husband died and with no one left to care for her, we hated to leave her but we went on.  A man rode by and said she was almost dead, and they were digging her grave so as not to loose time.  There is humanity on the plains."

That's a far cry what I would call humanity...how about you?

Next time...How the Overland Journey Changed in the Later Years 1860s...

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Today in Pioneer History:  On January 12, 1838,  Joseph Smith  flees Kirtland, Ohio, after his Mormon bank fails in the Panic of 1837, to avoid arrest and heads for Missouri to rebuild his religious community.