On the Trail from Dawn to Dusk - Part 3

Jesse Applegate (photo) concludes his story of night time on the Oregon Trail...

"Everyone is busy preparing fires of buffalo chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and otherwise preparing for the night.  All able to bear arms in the party have been formed into three companies and each of these into four watches.  Every third night it is the duty of one of these companies to keep watch and ward over the camp.  It is not yet eight o'clock when the first watch is to be set. 

The evening meal is just over, and the corral now free from the intrusion of the cattle or horses, and groups of children are scattered over it.  Before a tent near the river a violin makes lively music, and some youths and maidens have improvised a dance upon the green.

It has been a prosperous day, more than 20 miles have been accomplished of the great journey.  The encampment is a good one.  But time passes.  The violin is silent and the dancers have dispersed.  Enamored youth have whispered a tender good night in the ears of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss from the lips of some future bride - for cupid here as elsewhere have been busy bringing hearts together."

Sadly, that is the end of Jesse's story.  Don't you wish we could follow them to the end of their journey?

Next time...The Trail of Hardships
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Today in Pioneer History: "On February 17, 1820, The Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories.

On the Trail From Dusk to Dawn Part 2

Jesse Applegate's story continues...

"A band of horses with two or three men/boys follow, the docile and sagacious animals scarce needing attention for they have learned to follow in the rear of the wagons and know that at noon they will be allowed to graze and rest.  Not so with the large herd of horned beasts that bring up the rear - lazy, selfish and unsocial.  They seem to move only in fear of the driver's whip. 

The pilot, by measuring the ground and timing the speed of the wagons, the walk of his horses, has determined the rate of each so as to enable him to select the nooning place, as nearly as the requisite grass and water can be had at the end of five hours travel.

The wagons are drawn up in columns, four abreast, the leading wagon of each platoon on the left - the platoons being formed with that view.  This brings friends together for the noon stop as well as the night.

It is now one o'clock, the bugle has sounded and the caravan has resumed its westward journey.  It is in the same order, but the evening is far less animated that the morning march, as a drowsiness has fallen apparently on man and beast.  The sun is now getting low in the west and at length the pain-taking pilot is standing ready to conduct the train in the circle which he has previously measured and market out, to form invariable fortification for the night.

The leading wagons follow him so nearly round the circle that but a wagon length separates them.  Each wagon follows in its track, the rear closing on the front until its tongue and ox chains will perfectly reach from one to the other.  So accurate is the measurement and perfect the practice that the hindmost wagon of the train always precisely closes the gateway.

As each wagon is brought into position it  is dropped from its team (the teams being inside the circle).   The team is unyoked, the yokes and chains are used to connect the wagons strongly to each other.  The entire process from the first wagon to the last takes 10 minutes and the teams are out to pasture.

Whee - I am exhausted!

Next time... On the Trail From Dusk to Dawn Conclusion
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On February 13, 1822, Missouri Lieutenant Governor William Ashley places an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette and Public Advisor seeking 100 “enterprising young men” to engage in fur trading on the Upper Missouri.

On the Trail from Dawn to Dusk

May 1843, Independence, Missouri - 1,000 pioneers set out for Oregon Country led by Jesse Applegate, who would go on to be instrumental in the building of a government for Oregon's statehood in later years.  He wrote about the journey and here is his story as it is preserved for history.  Maybe you can become part of his story.  This is "Morning", in his words...

"It's 4 o'clock in the morning.  The sentinels on duty have discharged their rifles - the signal that the hours of sleep are over, and from every wagon and tent are pouring out tenants. Slow-kindling smoke begins largely to rise and float away on the morning air.  Sixty men ride out from the corral, spreading as they ride through the vast herd of cattle and horses that form a semi-circle around the encampment, the most distant perhaps maybe two miles away.

By 7 o'clock the herder begin to contract the great moving circle, and the well-trained animals move slowly toward camp, clipping grass on the way.  In about an hour, 5000 animals are close up to the encampment and the teamsters are busy selecting their teams and driving them inside the corral to be yoked. 

From six to seven o'clock is a busy time - breakfast to be eaten, tents struck, the wagons loaded and the teams yoked and brought up in readiness to be attached to their respective wagons. It is on the stroke of seven that the rushing to and fro, the cracking of the whips, the loud confusion of the last few minutes is over.  Everyone has been found and every teamster is at his post.  The clear notes of the trumpet sound from the front, the pilot and his guards mount their horses and the leading divisions of wagons move out of the encampment in the line of march as the rest fall into place with precision of clockwork, until the spot, so lately full of life, sinks back into that solitude that seems to reign over this broad plain. 

Feel it?  You must be a pioneer at heart!

Next time...All in the day's journey
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Today in Pioneer History: On February 6, 1891, the Dalton Gang commits their first in a long line of train robberies.