![]() Some trains insisted on stopping every Sunday, while others reserved only Sunday morning for religious activities and pushed on during the afternoon. The men secured the animals and made repairs while women cooked a hot meal of tea and boiled rice with dried beef or codfish.Įvening activities included schooling the children, singing and dancing, and telling stories around the campfire. Around five in the afternoon, after traveling an average of fifteen miles, they circled the wagons for the evening. At noon, they stopped for a cold meal of coffee, beans, and bacon or buffalo prepared that morning. The bedding was secured and wagon repacked in time to get underway by seven o’clock. There were penalties for infractions, social security for the sick or bereaved, and provisions established for the disposition of shares of deceased members of a party.Ī typical day started before dawn with breakfast of coffee, bacon, and dry bread. The regulations typically included rules for camping and marching and restrictions on gambling and drinking. ![]() Almost all wagon trains had regulations of some sort, and rare was the group that didn’t elect or otherwise appoint officers. ![]() The most successful groups had a written constitution, code, resolutions, or by-laws to which the emigrants could refer when disagreements threatened to get out of hand. Organization was required to ensure a successful journey. In some cases they formed joint stock companies, such as the Boston and Newton Joint Stock Association, Iron City Telegraph Company, Wild Rovers, and the Peoria Pioneers. Parties usually consisted of relatives or persons from the same hometown traveling together. With only one set of springs under the driver’s seat and none on the axles, nearly everyone walked along with their herds of cattle and sheep.Įmigrants banded together into parties or companies for mutual assistance and protection. The Independence-style wagon was typically about 11 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, with bows of hardwood supporting a bonnet that rose about 5 feet above the wagon bed. Henry Garrison described his uncle’s parting from Iowa: “When Grandmother learned the next morning that they were then on their way, she kneeled down and prayed that God would guard and protect them on their perilous journey.” She would never see them again.Ĭovered wagons dominated traffic on the Oregon Trail. The overlanders encountered their first hardship before they even left home, as leaving friends and family behind was difficult. Hastings’ summary of their feelings was eloquent: “I look back upon the long, dangerous and precarious emigrant road with a degree of romance and pleasure but to others it is the graveyard of their friends.” Hastings had made the trip on the Oregon Trail unscathed, while his friend had lost his wife. In December of 1847, Loren Hastings was walking the stump-filled, muddy streets of Portland, Oregon, when he chanced upon a friend he had known back in Illinois. The overlanders encountered their first hardship before they even left home. ![]()
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