On the Road Again

 

We are on the road again - well, the trail again.  The trip west, and the communities settled there were unique in the things they left behind.  Unlike their ancestors back east, the first thing they left behind was the ritual of burial in a churchyard cemetery.  Burial "according to the custom of the Prairies" was quick.  No funeral clothes, no casket and no tombstone.  The grave was filled with stones as a safeguard against wild animals.  The livestock were allowed to roam over the grave to trample it, then the wagons were driven across it to hide clues that the Indians might use to dig up the body.  Along the trail, there was left no evidence that anyone had died or had been buried there.

Secondly, any ancestoral bonds that remained were replaced by their latest companions and their surnames were lost.  They received names or nicknames that identified their personal characteristics, a way of speaking or even the food they ate.  You might have been known simply as "Honest Whiskey Joe", "Truthful James" or "The American-Pie Eater."  Women were known as the "wife of" or by their first names.  Surnames were rarely used once settled in the West.

Thirdly, the westward traveler learned to give up possessions.  James Abbey, who left New Albany, Indiana for California in 1849, recorded the property toll of a trip west by covered wagon...

    "August 2nd - started out at four in the morning, at six stopped to cook breakfast and lighten our wagons by throwing away heavier portions of our clothing and such articles we can spare.  We pushed forward today determined to reach the desert, but our cattle showed signs of exhaustion, We had to stop.  Being completely out of water, we bought two gallons from a trader for $1 a gallon.

    The desert is strewn with dead cattle, horses, mules and oxen.  In the distance of 15 miles I counted 350 dead horses, 280 oxen, and 120 mules.  We saw vast amounts of valuable property abandoned - leather trunks, clothing, wagons...at least a value of over $100,000 in just 20 miles.  In the last 10 miles I have counted 362 wagons left behind at a value of $120 a piece back home.  In order to save animals and reach the end of the journey, the loss of personal goods is a matter of small importance."

 The settlers gave up costly things to come west - traditions, people, names, and possessions.  All left behind to reach the dream of land in the West.

Next time... Not left behind - the women

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Today in Pioneer History: "On August 10, 1846, the Smithsonian Institute was created.  After a decade debate on how to best spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James Polk signs the Smithsonian Act into law.  James Smithsonian left in his will that the whole of his estate would go to the United States of America to found at Washington an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.  Thank you Mr. Smithsonian!"

Wagon Train Law

This "association club" law we have been discussing arose not to circumvent the court, but to provide them, not because the machinery of government was too complicated, but because there was none, and not to neutralize institutions already there but to fill the vacuum from lack of them.  

Not only did this "citizen law" exist in communities and mining towns, but also along the wagon trails going West.  One such story is of a member of a traveling party who made known his intentions to steal an Indian horse.  He had got the rope and had gone to do the deed.  This kind of act had serious consequences for the whole wagon train company.  

The whole company headed by Captain Hastings became the "legislative body" and set about deciding whether this man had violated criminal law in their eyes.  Prosecution and defense speeches were heard.  It was found that since he had as of yet not done any crime except state his intentions to do something, he was acquitted.

After the trial, however, it was clear they needed to establish a legal code of sorts.  What they adopted was stated as "in its opinion, no code of laws were required other than the moral code enacted by the Creator of the universe and what was recorded in the heart of every man."  Not all the company agreed.

Their first try at legislation on fundamentals was a decree against all dogs.  This law required "the immediate and indiscriminate extermination of the whole canine race, young and old, male and female wherever they were found within their jurisdiction."  A few dogs were killed before dog owners threatened to kill anyone who killed their dogs.  The decree was hastily repealed by an unanimous vote.  Captain Hastings said it was the first and last attempt at legislation. Probably a good thing...

Next time...Order in the West

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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 9, 1877 the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon.  Twenty-one amateurs showed up to compete in the singles tournament (for men only).  The winner took home a 25 pound trophy.   The winner was William Marshall, a Cambridge tennis player.

Inexperienced and Packin' Heat

Most members of wagon trains were so inexperienced they often got lost, set themselves and their wagons on fire, were kicked by mules, died from bad food or water, crushed under their wagons, or drowned in streams.  Actually drowning was the most common cause of accidental death on a wagon train.  In 20 years, 300 settlers lost their lives in streams and rivers by drowning.  As one traveler wrote, "to make an overland crossing, a man must be able to endure heat like a Salamander, mud and water like a muskrat, dust like a toad, and labor like a jackass."   Good quote!

The settler's fears about Indians were about as bad as the Indians themselves.  To protect themselves, 

they left Missouri armed with 135 rifles, 104 pistols, 1672 pounds of lead, 1100 pounds of powder - when all they really needed was a couple of knives per person.  The rifles, say historians did little to win the West, in fact a dozen or so lost their lives every year because of rifle shots.  Compare that with 34 total settlers died from Indian attacks in 7 years between 1840-47...

More deaths were due to the traveling settlers not being able to get along - they didn't listen to reason so they took out their rifles and talked later. It was even said that the Donner party's tragedy had more to do with their constant bickering and tempers than it had to do with the weather!

Next time...Missed Connections

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On this Day in History:  On October 22,  1903,  the infamous hired killer, Tom Horn, is hanged for having allegedly murdered Willie Nickell, the 14-year-old son of a southern Wyoming sheep rancher.
Some historians suggest that Horn may have murdered Willie Nickell by accident, having mistaken the boy for his father. Others, though, argue that it is more likely that Horn was deliberately convicted for a crime he did not commit by Wyoming citizens seeing an opportunity to take revenge.