Ghost Towns

The Western landscape by nature reflected the moving on spirit. The remains of wagon train settlements were abandoned by those looking for a fresh start. A nearly empty continent with fast moving families  left behind the abandoned places we know as ghost towns - places left before they were used up.

in Iowa, for example a list from 1930 of towns, villages, even post offices that had been abandoned since 1838 were 2,205 ghost towns.   This list did not count towns and villages that become parts of other places, nor name changes. or those never built up.  These were actually abandoned places where people had once lived. Mail was delivered there.   Houses were built.   Hopes and dreams were lived out before the people moved on. The time frame for this list only concerned places abandoned between 1852-1912 -  a period of 60 years.  A comparable list of Kansas abandoned towns is over 2,500 considered ghost towns.

The western settlers moved on because they had more need, more temptation and more opportunity to do so. They had no roots and no time to make roots. The uncertain America from as far back as the first
settlement of Jamestown was one of the first ghost towns. Founded in 1607, it had the first legislative assembly in 1619 and was actually the capital of Virginia until 1698. By 1722 a visitor noted that
"nothing but abundance of brick rubble and three or four inhabited homes" remained of Jamestown.

Like the West, our capital was mobile and the eastern states capitals as well. By 1812 eight of the original 13 states had different capital cities than they had in 1776.  Most of these new capitals were moved once the new capitals had gained enough population.  Many were were settled for that specific purpose. New Hampshire's capital moved from Portsmouth to Concord (1808). New York City to Albany (1797), Princeton, New Jersey to Trenton (1790) with Pennsylvania, Delaware,  North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia all following suit. These were the signs of rapid population growth in America's early days

 

Unlike the western territories, these capitals did not become ghost towns, just cities of lesser importance.  The western territories however went about their capitals a bit differently…

Next time- The Western Capitals

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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 17, 1862, Minnesota erupts in violence as desperate Dakota Indians attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. The Dakota were eventually overwhelmed by the U.S. military six weeks later. The Dakota Indians were more commonly referred to as the Sioux, a derogatory name derived from part of a French word meaning “little snake.”

No Johnny-Come-Latelys

These ruling "Association Clubs" in the western settlements were not always democratic.  The honest settler didn't always win against the scheming speculator.  They acted not only to protect the squatters title to the land they lived on and farmed, but also helped to gain second and third claims against later settlers.  

A better name for these "Settler's Associations" would have been "First-Arrival Associations."  They protected the first settlers against anyone else.  The non-resident speculator rarely made any money as unimproved land by absentee owners was exploited, sometimes it was simply seized.  Other times taxes was levied on it for local improvements such as schools or roads without the land owner's knowledge, thus forcing the land owner to sell the unoccupied land for taxes.  

The Association law stood for the "Priority Principle" which meant that those who arrived first were the priority.  The rules that existed before the formal government were the superior law.  The principle helped to show that the Johnny-come-lately, the laggard, the slow starter, had no place on the new frontier.  They were the weak, and weak men would not do in the West.

The priority principle was at first about the emptiness and newness of America.  It was first about the law of the land, but it would come to be applied to the race for America's treasures - for gold and silver, for water, for grasslands, for oil.

Next time....Law in the Treasure Towns

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 2, 1809, Chief Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnee tribe, urges his people of the Old Northwest and Deep South to unite and resist the the white settlers  squatting on their lands.  Together he said the tribes were strong enough to stop the whites from taking further land.  A year later he organized the Ohio Valley Confederacy and for several years he was successful in delaying further white settlement in the land.  

Skirting the Land Offices

Federal land office finally opened under the Pre-Exemption Act of September 1841. Under these federal laws a man had to have a house on the land at least 12 feet square.  The house had to have a glass window.  Settlers, however, played games with these federal laws, so to speak by claiming they had a 12x14 house which in reality was actually a 12x14" house or hanging a window sash on the inside of the house to look like a window when there was none.  

Sometimes the same cabin was moved from claim to claim to satisfy the requirements.  In Nebraska there was said to be a house on wheels, drawn by oxen, for that very purpose.  At the cost of $5 a day a settler could hire out the house, thereby swearing that he had a residence of the land he was claiming.  It worked for many a "residence" in the community.

Women were not allowed to claim land unless they were widows who could claim "head of family."  Not to be outdone by the men, women came up with a plan to borrow a family.  A baby or child was hired out to serve as the movable house did.  The women would sign the adoption papers, swear to be head of the family and claim her land.  Afterwards, she would annul the adoption papers, and return the child to the rightful parents.  

From the early days of Western settlement age up until at least the Civil War, "association" (or club) law ruled the West.  It mean proper, quick judgment and procedures.  The do-it-yourself kind of law that for most practical purposes served to settle the West.

Next time...Not Always So Democratic

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Today in Pioneer History:  "On June 29, 1613, London's original Globe Theater was destroyed by fire.  The fire was started by a cannon shot that went off during the performance of Henry VIII.  The Globe was the theater where many of Shakespeare's play were performed.  

Rules are Rules

Membership in these "association clubs" that governed new settlements prior to Federal guidelines, was  usually acquired easily and quickly.  The membership rules varied from length of residency  (2 months) to whether one could see his chimney smoke from the location of the meeting.  The rules adopted by these community clubs however, were simple and easily understood - and religiously enforced.  They provided protection to the members from outsiders and from each other in unlawful actions.  There was no patience with legal technicalities, nor did they tolerate anyone taking advantage  of the law or each other.  The law was enforced promptly and effectively. 

One example from Johnson County Iowa dealt with a claim jumper with a good whipping by the committee.  A more drastic example in 1839 in Iowa City involved another claim jumper (someone who tried to take over someone else's land already claimed).  Mr. Crawford tried to take over the claim of one William Sturgis, the rightful owner.  Crawford refused to surrender the claim as requested several times.  A meeting was called for on November 7 and sixty men marched to Crawford's cabin where he was still inside building.  After another request to leave the claim was refused, and even an offer to pay him for the labor he had done, the men took the four corners of the cabin and in 15 minutes there was not a log left standing.  Mr. Crawford was still standing with ax in hand in the center of the vacant lot.  

The ruling of these association clubs was law since no lawyer, judge or jury could be found that were not members of the ruling association.  Apparently there was no appeal or recourse for a person, as Mr. Crawford discovered when he tried to get his own justice against their actions.

Next time...Land Offices Arrive

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 25, 1876, Native American forces and Sitting Bull defeat the U.S. Army troops of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer near Montana's Little Bighorn River.  Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, leaders of the Sioux tribe of the Great Plains, had resisted the government confining their people to reservations, and even though they killed Custer and most of his men, within five years, they were confined to reservations.  A sad fact of our history as Americans.

Taking the Law into Their Own Hands

The early farmer settlers organized to protect their lands.  There were no courts of law - only "associations" or "unions" which sprang up virtual everywhere settlers formed communities.  For example, in Elkhorn Creek, Wisconsin, 40 families settled in a grove before the land was actually for sale by the Federal government.  A Methodist circuit rider passing through in 1835, noted in his journal, "They had, in the absence of all other law, met and made a law for themselves...appointed commissioners to take care of the land, preserve the timber so as to make it valuable...when it was settled by township law."

These families in Elkhorn Creek had allowed each family 40 acres of woodland  and as much grassland and each one needed.  No man was allowed to monopolize the timber, but that they should sustain each other against any new settler coming in.  At no time should any settler bid on another man's land.  Such a man would be "knocked down and drug out of the land office", tried in court and fined.  No spectator bid on a settler's land and no settler bid on his neighbor's land.  That was "the law."

These associations or unions guaranteed that a settler's land, even if not surveyed yet, remained his land, any improvements made, his profit and any crops grown, his crops.  These groups grew up quickly in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa - wherever settlers "broke the sod."  They began with a mass meeting of all settlers, forming a committee to draft by-laws and elect official leaders.  Each association had a procedure for choosing juries to settle disputes, a president and a marshal.

Each association also handled the land title records, in many ways acting as the Federal government would act.  These unions became the whole government, punishing crimes against person or property.  You could say they were technically "outside the law" but it was through such organizations that law and order was brought to the West.

Next time...Association Membership

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the G.I. Bill designed to compensate members of the armed forces for their efforts in World War II allowing my father and many of yours to go to college.  The bill was actually called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act and it was hoped to avoid the 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families who protested in Washington in 1932 from happening again.

Who Owns My Land?

The Federal government's land surveys lagged behind the settling of the Western lands.  The settlers had little or no patience with Federal bureaucracy assigning lands.  Only gradually did Federal laws begin to take into account the needs and life of the new residents out West.

One of those who championed the rights and interest of the settlers was Thomas Hart Benton during his 30 years in the Senate, 1821-1851.  He argued for a fixed minimum price for all Western lands, and urged that the price be based on the quality of the land.  Benton secured changes in the laws to protect the settlers who had cultivated land on public domain without prior formalities.  The law was slowly changed to save the "squatters" rights.

Even so, these changes were incredibly slow to materialize.  In 1830, but not made permanent until 1841, the settlers was give some temporary legal protection against purchase by a non-resident.  Now a settlers had the first bid on a tract of land up to 160 acres at minimum price, but acreage over 160 acres usually went up for public auction.

The Homestead Act of 1862 enabled a settler to secure Federal title of 160 acres free of any charge except the registration fee.  The settler had to have lived continuously on the land for five years at the time of application.  By that time though most of the best land had been settled and a Western lifestyle established.

Next time...Protection Unions

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 18, 1983,  Dr. Sally Ride becomes the American women in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger on its second mission.  

This Land in My Land

Traveling back in time to a wide open West.  Before the Gold Rush.  A nearly empty continent west of the Allegheny Mountains.  The Great Land Rush of the 19th century in America.  When there was no government rule, just land for the taking.  Or was there?

The western public lands were technically under the control of the Federal government headquartered in the East.  The belief was that you could not deal with land at a distance without an accurate definition of what you were dealing with.  This led to surveying the lands into rectangle townships - each six miles square with 36 sections, each a mile square of 640 acres.  The sale of these large tracts of land to those in the East with money seemed the simplest and most orderly way of settling the West.  Beginning with Ohio in 1803 (the first public land state) the government kept the title to all ungranted land with the exception of that for education.  Nice and orderly...

That's not how it actually happened though...the first settlers, called "squatters" were those that got there first and they didn't wait for any laws or deeds to tell them they owned the land.  They cared less and knew even less what the government said.  To have waited for protection by law would have been to lose all the advantages of being there first.  So they made their own laws.

These settlers came without proper documentation, nor the intention of adhering to any program or surveys.  They stopped here, they stopped there, according to how the land looked, how the wagon was faring, if the oxen were tired.  More times than not they didn't stay put and moved on - not really knowing where their final destination was, but hoping for the best land.  However orderly and neat might the Federal plan be, the settlement of the West was anything but that - nearly all westward movement in America in the 19th century was a land rush.

Next time...building a system of laws.

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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 15, 1846, the Oregon Treaty is signed between the US and Great Britain, establishing the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Georgia as the boundary between the United States and British Canada.  The United States gained control of the Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana while the British retained Vancouver Island and navigation rights to part of the Columbia River. 

The Sager Family's Troubles Continue

The nightmare journey of the Sager family continued to Fort Laramie where a buffalo stampede on the edge of what the settlers called "The Great American Desert", led Henry Sager, Catherine's father to try to turn the giant beasts away from his family's wagon and lost his life in the process.  His daughter records the event:

"It soon became apparent to all that he must die.  He himself was fully aware that he was passing
away and he could not be reconciled to the thought of leaving his large and helpless family.  Looking upon me as I lay helpless by his side, he said to me, 'Poor child.  What will become of you?'  Soon after camping Capt. Shaw came to see him and found him weeping bitterly.  Mother was feeble in health, the children were small and one (me) likely to be a cripple for a long time from my broken leg with no relatives in the country and a long journey still before us.  Father begged Capt. Shaw in piteous tones to take charge of us and see us safely through."

Mrs.  Sager herself saw her family to Oregon , hiring a young man to drive the team, but he turned out to be less than honorable.  Taking the family's rifle in the ruse to hunt he instead held up the wagon ahead of them where his "Lady Love" was. Mrs. Sager (who had just given birth on the trail by the way and buried her husband), came down with camp fever in Utah.  Women on the train cared for her newborn.  She died on the trail and was buried on the side of the road. 

In 26 days, the 7 Sager children were ophans, the eldest just 14 years old. 

Next time...what happened to the Sager children??

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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 11, 1806, while hunting for elk along the Missouri  River, Meriwether Lewis is shot in the hip, probably by one of his own men.

Fremont's Survey

In 1842 Senator Thomas Benton (the Patrick Henry of Manifest Destiny) supported a survey of the wagon road across the Plains to the South Pass.  The South Pass had been traveled for 15 years, so this seemed a bit redundant.  The actual purpose of the survey was to increase public awareness and make it desirable to go west.

The surveyor's  job went to John Charles Fremont who just happened to be Senator Benton's son-in-law.  Captain Walker thought Fremont was a fool and a coward...I agree but let's just tell the story...

Charles Fremont was to become the Great Pathfinder, or the Great Publicist of the West, depending on your perspective, but he did have more influence than any single man on the overland migration of the 1840-50's.  He was a notable glory hound...

Fremont offered Walker the job of chief guide which Walker suggested Kit Carson instead, saying "Kit could guide him to any point he wanted to go".  After checking Carson's references, Fremont hired Carson.

Carson was well-qualified to guide an expedition like this one and was better suited to satisfy Fremont's temperamental requirements than Joe.  Carson would serve very well as far as the mission's real purpose was - publicizing and romanticizing the West.  He was an attractive and modest guy who provided Fremont the raw material to become the new Daniel Boone.

The Story of Fremont continues next time...

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This Day in History:  On this day in 1864, the town of Helena, Montana, is founded by four gold miners who struck it rich at the appropriately named "Last Chance Gulch."

The Mysterious Joesph Walker

There are 3 unsolved mysteries in the life of Joseph Walker...

What he did and where he went as a Taos Trappers in the early 1820s?

What was his true relationship with Benjamin Bonneville?

Who was his Indian wife and their feeling for each other?



Walker married most likely in 1836 after he returned from Crow country because in 1837 a journalist recorded Walker and his "wife". They were married until at least 1846 when they were last seen as a couple and she attended a ladies party as Mrs. Walker.  They had children, but their names and sexes are unknown.  She was a Snake Indian, no doubt but her name was never mentioned. The only known picture with Joe is the one presented here...


Walker would have been the greatest catch around - leader, feared warrior, affluent, and handsome.  It would probably have been someone of standing in the tribe, maybe a chief's daughter because she is known to have been beautiful and well-educated.  Snake women had the reputation of dressing well - one that Walker also shared.

Joe took her home to meet the kinfolk in Missouri and they attended church there as recorded in the family records.

She probably died around 1848 because Walker went home and spent a year "out-of-character" and what we would call these days as depression.  Walker never remarried.  She may have died in childbirth as many women did in those days or in one of the many illnesses that affected the western frontier.


Next time...Torn to pieces with canyons.

What Makes a Good Husband?

Indian women saw white men as safer, more considerate, less demanding and less disciplinary.  To them, white men were rich, valiant,  warriors, energetic hunters, and shrewd traders.  Who could ask for more?

It was the ultimate status symbol to attract, keep and support a good white man - like a Coach bag on your arm!
Joe Meek, when he married a Shoshoni - Mountain Lamb - is said to have spent his entire year's profit on his bride - $300 horse, $150 saddle, $50 bridle, $200 worth of blankets, boots, beads and a blue broadcloth skirt, scarlet blouse, and leggings. Mountain Lamb was one of the great beauties of the frontier west and Meek was very much smitten.

Next Time - The Mysterious Joe Walker

Gender Interactions with Native Americans

Men tended to support the frontier and its native population as one piece, both to be subdued, controlled and made to serve him.  Men believed they had a mission to rescue the Indian women from a primitive culture, degraded status and low sexuality.  Women on the other hand, did not necessarily support the means used to achieve that success.  (Might doesn't always equal right). 

Since women were more welcome in Indian homes than men,  they formed closer relationships with the Indian women.  Hair styling, clothing, child care, domestic matters - all helped form a bond between the females cultures.

One Oklahoma woman recalled an extensive knowledge gained of "palatable, healthy greens and roots" shared by Indian women on the gathering expedition.  They learned how to use herb remedies to treat snake bites with raw turkey meat, for example.  Indian women assisted white women in childbirth as well.

This bond did not extend to the Indian men except in medicine where they were sought out and "cared for my people as a brother would treat a brother" as one frontier woman said of the medicine man who tended her family.

Women attended Indian weddings, funerals, stomp dances, war dances, mock battles and learned respect and empathy for the Indian culture first hand. White women grew more accepting of marriage between cultures than the men who tended to deny the existence or validity of a white female marrying an Indian man.

Next time...The Male Side of Things

Natives of the Western Frontier

We've talked about the image of the Western frontier depicted by the newspapers and magazines of the time - uncivilized, immoral, dangerous - but what about the picture painted of the Native Americans in the West, the Indian, the Red Man, the Savage?

Imagine for a moment that you and your family are about to set out for the open West, a new beginning, the chance to own land and experience the wide open spaces of an uncivilized country.  Along with that excitement is the fear of a people you have only heard about - those who inhabit that new land.  You and your family have been told they are barbaric heathens - dirty, mean, half naked, hostile and prone to attack defenseless pioneer families.  From all you have read about the Indian, he deserves to be destroyed by a progressive, civilized white society.

Let's look at the myths and "tall tales" carried back to the Eastern cities, and as we examine the true Indian (good and bad) that populated the Western frontier, we'll find, surprisingly,  that views were gradually changed by those we would least expect - the frontier women!!

The Diversity of the American Pioneer

The Western Frontier actually began in the late 1700's and early 1800's with the opening of the Cumberland Gap and settling the "other side" of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Wilderness Road, by which Daniel Boone traveled, ran through the Ohio Valley in areas of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and beyond. Parts of Indiana in which I lived were a good distance north of the Ohio River and still had the markers to show it was part of the original Wilderness Road.

These early pioneers were men and women from the Eastern Seaboard wanting more space from the crowded cities of their forefathers and moved as far west as the Great Plains to become farmers, ranchers and fur traders.

In the Southwest, Mexicans and Hispanic pioneers settled in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California as ranchers and farmers.

In Utah the Morman settlers made Salt Lake City their home, and become great farmers, while the post Civil War era saw many freedmen and freedwomen move west to establish a new way of life.

Of course, the Native Americans were instrumental in pioneer life in the West - sometimes at peace and sometimes a war with the settlers, trying to protect the land they had lived on.

As such, many mixed marriages became part of the new frontier including Anglo-Hispanic, Anglo-Black, and Ango-Indian. Although it would be years before the Chinese were afforded citizenship, they also played a role in the founding of the Western Frontier and also married many of the Anglo settlers.

Our American Frontier is made up of many nationalities and races of Americans. All of these pioneers had a common interest - change. Whether they wanted more "breathing room", more opportunity to follow their dreams, or a way to start a completely new lifestyle, they all headed west in the 1800's.

Next time we'll discuss more of the day to day life of these pioneers - how the towns were settled and what were these pioneers' priorities when they arrived at their destination.

If you have something to say, feel free to comment on the topic!

Until next time,
Julie