Miriam Thompson Tuller's Story

Born in Illinois, Miriam married Arthur Thompson at the age of 15 and joined the migration to the west with her husband the following spring.  In Miriam's own words:  "My husband is fired with patriotism and myself am possessed with a spirit of adventure and a desire to see what is new and strange."

With no children, strong and eager, the Thompsons brought youth and optimism to the westward journey.  The couple set out on May 11, 1845, as part of an 840 wagon train.

"We were unable to make much headway with so large a train of wagons.  The company divided and then divided again until we had 20 wagons sometimes and sometimes only 4 or 5 wagons.  We were indifferent to fear.  The buffalo were solid masses as far as the eye could reach and we had fresh meat galore."

At Fort Hall, Miriam's group met a  man who told them that Indians would kill them before they reached the West.  The group was of stout heart and weren't afraid and as Miriam said,

"The Indians proved better than represented.  They were there during a sandstorm with their canoes and were more than willing to take us over for some calico shirts.  The wagons were unloaded and taken apart and after many loads, we were safely out."

Missionaries along the road sold beef and potatoes and the travelers felt confident of their travels.
Soon the mountains became treacherous and the men decided to send the women and children ahead on horseback and mules.

"I was mounted on an Indian pony...left husband and camp - everything but a few clothes and a little provision to try to reacch some place before the rains set in."

The little party of women and guides climbed Mount Hood: "The coming down was worse than the going up.  The zigzag trail a foot or more deep with sand.  It rained hard all night.  We had no tent or shelter.  The 4th night we met 3 men from Oregon City who came with provisions to rescue."

The final entry in Miriam's diary is quite different from the optimistic way she began her journal.  "In
the fall of 1848 when gold was discovered my husband went, but never returned.  He was murdered by Indians.  There were 4 in the camp and none were left to tell the tale.  July 1850, was   married to Jeremiah G. Tuller."
(pic at right is the actual campsite of Thompson...minus the car.)

And that was the end of Miriam's journal keeping.  With a husband, children and a labor intensive life in the new west, she probably had little time for recording her "mundane" life of a pioneer. 

Next time...Reflections of a Pioneer Woman in Later Life

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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 18, 1853,  Cyrus Skinner, who would later be hanged by the Montana vigilantes, ends his first stay in the  at San Quentin.Skinner was typical of the thieves and killers who terrorized the gold fields of Montana in the early 1860s.

Don't Believe Everything You Hear

 Some of the myths that the early travelers believed were included the length of the trip.  Instead of the four months promised, the trip took eight months, putting settlers at their destination in November - usually deep in snow and cold. Many pioneers were always looking for a shortcut and taking advice from fellow travelers passed on the trail, were caught on an uncharted trail, among hostile Indians, no where near the course they should have been on. 


Lucy Hall Bennett was 13 when her family joined the migration to the West. 

"We came across Steve Meek at Fort Hall, told us of a better road to Willamette Valley.  Part of our team refused to take this cut off and went by the old immigrant road, but a good many of us followed Meek on what has since been called Meek's cut off.  The road we took had been traveled by the Hudson Bay Fur Traders and while it might have been alright for pack horses, it was certainly not adopted to immigrants traveling on ox train.

The water was bad, so full of alkali you could harly drink it.  There was little grass and before long our cattle all had sore feet from traveling over the hard steep rocks.  After several of our party died, the men discovered that Meek really knew nothing about the road."

 Mrs. W.W. Buck told of her family meeting a man coming from Oregon:

"Of course we were anxious to hear about the country we were bound for and our captain askws Dr. White to tell us about Oregon.  He jumped upon the wagon tongue and all of our ears were open to catch  every word.  He said, 'Friends, you are traveling to the Garden of Eden, a land flowing with milk and honey.  And just let me tell you the clever grows wild all over Oregon, and when you wade through it, it reaches your chin.'  We believed every word and for days I thought that not only our men, but our poor oxen stepped lighter for having heard Dr. White."



Next time ...The Sager Family Saga

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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 4, 1873, while protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.