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 Place for a Lady

 This movable society of settlers going west had guidelines for moving...supplies that should be left behind, like elegant clothing, heavily carved furniture, or a silver service - which were plainly not practicable on the trail going west.  All possessions were to be secure, compact and portable.  Space and weight had to be conserved for food, water, shelter, ammunition and tools.  There were actually guidebooks to explain how to pack your wagon!

One thing commonly left behind in the beginning of the land rush west was women.  The mining camps were notoriously male.  In the spring of 1849 in all of San Francisco, it is said that women numbered only 15.  Every camp had its share of prostitutes, but tough, bearded, weather-beaten men would stand on the street for hours just to have the sight of a real lady or a child.  Often men would travel miles to welcome the first "homemade lady" to camp. And let's face it, mining camps were not the ideal place to raise a family!

The scarcity of women  lowered the morality and made life rougher, but it had some advantages as well.  When women did come later, they brought their morality along with their inequality.  The making of social distinctions was women's work.  "Putting on style" wrote one Montana reporter, "is the detestation of everybody.  It is neither forgiven nor forgotten and kills a man like bullets."  In these movable towns, people seems more equal than men and women do otherwise, not because of a creed, but because of their way of life. 

Women were, however, moving west.  The women who moved in the wagon trains were probably not as interested in "putting on style" as their counterparts back East.  They were interested in survival, in feeding their families and keeping their children safe from the perils of the trail.  These were not your society conscious women - they were rugged and hearty and helped make the frontier what it was - a place for people to find a new life and a new way of living.  

Women became the organizers of schools and churches in the new settlements.  They brought order to the West and a bit of civilization.  Without women, the West would not have been a place for families. Many became honest businesswomen - cooking for the men, sewing clothes and keeping the place "respectable."  Men may not have wanted respectable, but without it the West would have remained just one abandoned town after another.  We will look at that next time.

 

Next time...Ghost towns

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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 13, 1878, Kate Bionda, a restaurant owner in Memphis, Tennessee, because the first to die of yellow fever in the epidemic that spread through America from a steamboat passenger.  Yellow fever, carried by mosquitoes, gets it name from the jaundice that usually accompanies the disease.  The cause was not known in the 19th century and spread to New York, New Orleans and Philadelphia and killed thousands of people over several outbreak years.

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.

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. 

Traitor!!

In March of 1849 when the snows subsided, Crazy Bill Williams and Dr. Kern, two survivors of the relief party went back into the mountains to salvage the notes and equipment Fremont had deserted.  The two were never seen again, but stories came down that they were captured by the Ute's (whom Williams had betrayed). Kern was killed in the skirmish and Williams was taken captive and executed as a traitor to his people and his wife's people.  Thus ends the life of one Crazy Bill Williams who had traveled with the best of the western mountain men, including Captain Joe Walker, Kit Carson, and Jim Bridger.  

Next time...Rancher in California
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This Day in History:  On December 4, 1867,  former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Grange, which became a powerful political force among western farmers. Although the Grange, like the Masons, began primarily as a social organization designed to provide educational and recreational opportunities for farmers, it evolved into a major political force.  The Grange also played a key role in creating the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which called for the first federal regulation of railroads to control unfair shipping rates.

Goodbye Rockies!

While all this was going on with Fremont and his "survey expedition", Captain Walker was once again busy buying and selling horses, furs, and leading wagons to the West.  In fact, it is reported that he passed the Donner Party, warning them that the route they were on was too dangerous and even directing them to use the Walker Pass route...Of course we know the party paid no attention to Captain Walker, resented his advice and called him a "Missouri puke".  They went on their way where 48 of them perished by starving or freezing.  Experienced trailblazers and guide vs.  greenhorn settlers...


It was during that year 1847,  that it is believed Walker's wife, children and family were killed or possibly contracted cholera which was sweeping through the tribes, decimating them.  In one year, half of the Cheyene died in 2 weeks alone. 

Joe Walker was almost 50 years old when he went home to Missouri briefly, but the people were just too "mean to stay" says Joe.
He  left Missouri for good on September 2, 1847.  On his way back to California he stayed in the mountains a bit longer than normal, stopping at Fort Nonesense which was now in ruins.  He met up with an old trail guide, Joe Chiles, who was leading his last group of settlers to California.  This was the last time anyone saw Captain Walker in the central Rockies after spending 20 years in those mountains.  The pleasure of the country had gone for Joe, so alone he returned to California where he spent the rest of his life.

Next Time: 2 Bad Apples...

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This Day in History:  On November 25, 1876,  U.S. troops under the leadership of General Ranald Mackenzie destroy the village of Cheyenne living with Chief Dull Knife on the headwaters of the Powder River. The attack was in retaliation against some of the Indians who had participated in the massacre of Custer and his men at Little Bighorn

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."

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...