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.

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."

Women's Independence on the Trail

One would think that men and women wrote of completely different subjects in their pioneer journals, wouldn't you? Men would write of hunting, dangers, fights, travel progress, the health of the livestock...while women would write of family matters and values, the beauty of the countryside, the sicknesses and things of a household nature.  In actuality, a great many journals of both men and women were interchangeable with no distinctions to which sex wrote which journal!

Riding in the same wagons, side by side, women did not always write about the call to free land or see the success of the journey.  They were full of reservations, oppositions and doubt.  For example one woman wrote of Indians as "helpful guides" and sellers of necessary services, far more so than of enemies.  Yes, they feared them, but they also noted often that their husbands were lousy buffalo hunters - settling for trading shirts for dried salmon or coming back entirely empty handed instead.  Women didn't need to prove their bravery or prowess, so they wrote of how Indians became a part of daily trail life.  An entirely different perspective from the male version.

Commonplace in the life of the 1800s pioneer wife were the long absences of their men for weeks and months at a time.  Back home, women were expected to serve as the heads of households, as well as the farm, mill or store owner.  So on the trail, a widowed woman was expected to continue alone and file her own claim alone.   No widow ever placed her wagon or her family under the protection of another family.

Can't wait to get started on the trip, can you?

Next time...illness and diseases on the trail.
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Today in Pioneer History:  On May 20, 1873,  Levi Strauss secures the necessary patents for canvas pants with copper rivets to reinforce the stress points, The Blue Jean was born!