The Trail it is a Changin'

During the Civil War, able bodied men were called upon to fight, and the westward migration dwindled.  The garrisons along the trail was emptied of soliders, replaced by volunteer "galvanized Yankees", Confederate prisoners who were released to fight the Indians.

The migration pressed on, 6000 strong. Ignorance had not stopped them in the 1840s, cholera had not stopped them in the 1850s, neither Civil War nor Indians would stop them in the 1860s.  In the 1860s little had changed according to the women's journal.  Louisa Rahm, an 1860s pioneer emigrant wrote that she "washed and baked and had a hail storm."

Telegraph and stagecoach had made the route more secure.  One thing that hadn't changed was death

on the Overland Trail.  Losing a loved one on the journey, whether to cholera, dysentery, or mountain fever, left the family with the horrible dilemma of leaving the body buried alongside  the trail alone.  Natural instinct was to mark the gravesite.  Often the sun baked the ground until breaking through was similar to concrete.  Rains would wash graves away.  No matter how a grave was market - pile of rocks, piece of wood, shred of cloth, no marker would survive the weather or passage of time. 

On the other hand, Indians made a habit of digging up the dead for clothing.  This spread cholera among them.  Pioneers tried to hide the graves, often digging under the trail itself so that the oxen would trample any evidence of a grave.  Even if a grave escaped the Indians' notice, there was little chance of escaping prowling wolves or coyotes.

It was a very difficult decision for pioneers to simply bury their dead. 

Next time...Changing travel methods in 1860s on the Overland Trail

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On this Day in Pioneer History: "On April 15, 1912,  a 20th century version of the strong and resourceful women of the Wild West, Molly Brown wins lasting fame by surviving the sinking of the Titanic."