It took two months and four relief parties to rescue the entire surviving Donner Party. More small cabins were constructed, many of which were shared by more than one family. Susannah succumbed to "milk sickness," and while we don't know how many babies died from it, we do know livestock were forced to forage some seriously overgrazed land. Corrections? Sell everything that doesn't fit into your wagon, and set out with no guidance from Google Maps? Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy. With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off . While becoming so desperate as to eat tree bark seems like the worst part of the trail, there was one instance where it became worse for one wagon train party in the 1840s. Reed would continue west on horseback while the rest of his family remained with the Donner party. On October 31 the weary migrants approached what is now Donner Pass across the Sierra Nevada and found their progress blocked by deepening snow. The National Park Service calls the Oregon Trail "this nation's longest graveyard." With John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson. With so many people dying, that meant a lot of orphans, and babies would typically be passed into the care of, ideally, another nursing mother. tragedy while the Wagon Train stops for supplies. In less than 15 minutes, 21 of the 46 actors in this strange combat were slain or disabled. With the addition of roughly a dozen teamsters and employees, this initial party numbered some 31 people, and within a month the Donners and Reeds had reached Independence, Missouri. S8, Ep2. Patrick Breen was a member of the Donner Party and kept a diary of their ordeal during the winter of 1846-47. But treachery worked their ruin. 320 North 4th Street Twenty-two people, consisting of the Donner family and their hired men, stayed behind while the wagon was repaired. A shot was fired from beside the trail, and the men inside the coach instantly discharged their guns toward the supposed ambush. Stantons partner, William McCutchen had fallen ill and remained at the fort. Mama was overcome with grief. Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations. If you're of a certain age, you remember spending hours naming your Oregon Trail family after your own family or friends, guiding their MS-DOS-based adventures, and laughing when brother Stinky Johnny died of dysentery. There was just as much dysentery and cholera as your MS-DOS family faced, but there was another huge problem, too a lack of gun safety classes. On December 16 a party of 10 men and 5 women set out to cross the mountains on improvised snowshoes. The surviving members had differing viewpoints, biases and recollections so what actually happened was never extremely clear. A note left by Hastings had assured the party that they would be able to cross the desert in just two days, but the journey took five. Hilarity! Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Accounts tell of the dumping grounds outside the fort, filled with treasured possessions like bookcases and furniture, iron safes, and books. Tensions continued to mount as more and more people headed West, though, and on August 19, 1854, one hotheaded idiot kick-started a 22-year war. Over the next four months, the remaining men, women, and children would huddle together in cabins, makeshift lean-tos, and tents. During 1863-65 the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne were all upon the warpath. Leaving his family, Reed was last seen riding off to the west with a man named Walter Herron. Cooper Smith: We're just giving you moral support. Two men saved their lives, one feigning death in the bottom of the coach, the other escaping into the brush. The next day five men, nine women, and one child departed on snowshoes for the summit, determined to travel the 100 miles to Sutters Fort. The Donner Party soon reached the junction with theCalifornia Trail, about seven miles west of present-day Elko, Nevada and spent the next two weeks traveling along the Humboldt River. There were a few reasons for it, and Brian Altonensays part of the problem was the saline-alkaline waters of the Platte were the perfect breeding ground for cholera left behind in settlers' waste products. The rescue parties stumbled across some stragglers, but the most horrific scene was discovered by a Lieutenant Anderson. The three bodies, including that of Isaac Donner, had been cannibalized. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In the end, five had died before reaching the mountains, thirty-five perished either at the mountain camps or trying to cross the mountains, and one died just after reaching the valley. Encountering few problems along the trail, the pioneers reachedFort Laramiejust one week behind schedule on June 27, 1846. Along the way, William Russell resigned as the captain of the wagon train and the position was assumed by a man named William M. Boggs. The heavy snow made trailing almost impossible, yet the scouts discovered signs and, amid much suffering, followed the Indian trail for nearly four hundred miles and finally located the village. The Donner Camp has been the site of recent archeological excavations. Montpelier, Idaho 83254, document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) National Oregon/California Trail Center. Julesburg must have contained at this period something over a hundred civilian inhabitants, most of them employees of the stage company. With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off . Once everyone had been accounted for, they found only 15 people survived. Parrish also wrote several other books, including When Wilderness Was King, My Lady of the North, Historic Illinois, and others. We join his story about three weeks after the Donner Party arrived at the blocked pass: On the far side of the desert, an inventory of food was taken and found to be less than adequate for the 600-mile trek still ahead. The Raton Range had been safely surmounted, and, just about dawn one morning, the heavy coach entered the canyon of the Canadian River, its occupants unsuspicious of any danger. Extra foodstuffs, and one account even talked about the 20,000-odd pounds of bacon left behind. There followed a hot running fight, the passengers firing from the coach windows, and the Indian arrows flying thickly, wounding the horses, badly injuring Flowers, and killing two of the passengers. The rest of the pioneers stayed at what would become known as Starved Camp.. The story of this outrage did not reach them for nearly two weeks, but upon its receipt, the Major at once started on a hard winter campaign in the hope of rescuing the captives. A history project by Sandy Wilbur. Indian peril on the northern Overland route, while never wholly absent, grew most serious during the Civil War, when the Plains tribes became largely hostile. Both children and adults could slip while getting out of a wagon and fall beneath the wheels. As the disillusionment of the party increased, tempers began to flare in the group. When it cleared, Isaac Donner had died and most of the refugees were too weak to travel. The letter stated that Hastings would meet the emigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them on his cutoff, which passed south of the Great Salt Lake instead of detouring northwest via Fort Hall (present-day Pocatello,Idaho.). title role in this Wagon Train story. I don't know if anyone recorded the number of dishonest wagon masters, but in the hundreds of wagon trains heading to Oregon or California there certainly were some incompetent ones. Led by Elijah Utter (sometimes written "Otter"), the group included four families, 21 children, and a few former soldiers. At the time, local Sioux were starting to demand more and more in the way of tolls, which makes sense considering the number of people tromping across their land. The party lost dozens of cattle in the desert, and several wagons had to be abandoned. That's horrible, but there's a fascinating footnote that comes out of all this. Tamsen Donner left her dead husband and joined him only a short time before she died, too. The Santa Fe Trail was the first used for staging purposes and was also the first to be reddened with blood and witness the hardships of prairie travel. While at Fort Laramie, Reed had been warned against attempting the route by an old friend from Illinois who had just completed the west-to-east journey through Hastings Cutoff, but the group chose to press ahead. She died near Twin Falls, Idaho, and the children ranging from 13 years old to a newborn were orphans for the first time. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail. Between early September and late October 1860, 34 of the 44 would die, including Elijah and his entire family. The total of deaths was thus 42, with 47 survivors. Sounds great, right? Two days after the Snyder killing, on October 7th, Lewis Keseberg turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop, who had been traveling with him. They killed and ate the cow, and the officer in charge was actually pretty diplomatic about the whole thing. On July 20, 1846, the company divided, with most of the wagon train then turning north toward Fort Hall (modern southeastern Idaho) and using the well-known Oregon Trail to continue the journey west. However, the Mexican War had drawn away the able-bodied men, forcing any further rescue attempts to wait. The troopers charged twice, killing and wounding more than a hundred Indians, but the chief escaped, and, when the soldiers finally captured the village, they found there the body of Mrs. White, yet warm, with three arrows in her breast. From September 10ththrough the 25th, the party followed the trail intoNevadaaround the Ruby Mountains, finally reaching the Humboldt River on September 26th. January 17, 2016 Late one afternoon in July 1864, a party of American Indians rode up to a small wagon train on the Oregon Trail and, using signs, asked in a friendly way for something to eat. Mrs. White, her child, and nurse were borne away prisoners. Reed soon found others seeking adventure and fortune in the vast West, including the Donner family, Graves, Breens, Murphys, Eddys, McCutcheons, Kesebergs, and the Wolfingers, as well as seven teamsters and a number of bachelors. The old man, who could not keep up with the rest of the party with his severely swollen feet, began to knock on other wagon doors, but no one would let him in. As they turned for a third charge, the surviving Indians were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although only one or two hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. While the party camped near modern-day Henefer,Utah,James Reed, along with two other men forged ahead on horses to catch up with Hastings. Most of the party thereupon built crude cabins near what is now known as Donner Lake. The tale told by the Washington State Historical Society suggests they may have been the fortunate ones, because when the four soldiers took the first opportunity they had to pick the best horses and high-tail their way out of Dodge, they left the party with a broken defense. The others escaped after a hard run. There were two coaches loaded with mail and nine men, the leaders being Lem Flowers, a division agent, and the conductor named Brown. By the time the Donner party reached the Humboldt River, where Hastings Cutoff rejoined the main California Trail, it was late September. Heroically struggling through the deep snow, seven men reached the lake camp on February 18. He was last seen sitting under a large sagebrush, completely exhausted, unable to walk, worn out, and was left there to die. This decision to delay their departure was yet one more of many that would lead to their tragedy. The Donner Party wasted no time in administering their own justice. Passengers and employees had to crowd into the coach and use every effort to keep from freezing, and at the end, often found themselves minus mules with which to complete the journey. It was a west-bound Concord, containing a full complement of passengers, including a Mr. White, his wife, child, and colored nurse. National Oregon/California Trail Center Instead, they never gave them the warning, sending them to some of the darkest days imaginable, all in the name of making a buck. Messed Up Things That Actually Happened On The Oregon Trail, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Brian Altonen, a medical science and public health expert. You'd totally sign up for that until you hear the list of problems. It was also the headquarters of the telegraph on the Plains, which had been inaugurated in 1861. The wagon tragedy also known as wagon massacre was an incident which occurred during the Malabar rebellion against British colonial rule in India that led to the deaths of 70 Indian prisoners. In the twenty-one days since reaching the Weber River they had moved just 36 miles. "Tragedy at Mountain Meadows takes . However, with only meager rations and already weak from hunger the group faced a challenging ordeal. Clyman advised Reed not to take the Hastings Route, stating that the road was barely passable on foot and would be impossible with wagons; also warning him of the great desert and the Sierra Nevadas. . In later years Kicking Bird, also a Kiowa, became the terror of the Plains. This point was then the junction between the Overland mainline and the newly established branch leading to Denver. Grattan took several howitzers, which is not how you start a peaceful negotiation when tensions are already high. Invariably such a storm meant a stampede of the mules, nor would a man dare to desert his shelter to seek them. Indian Attack on a Wagon Train by Charles Marion Russell. The party was trapped by exceptionally heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada, and, when food ran out, some members of the group reportedly resorted to cannibalism of those already dead. The history of his bloody deeds will never be told, for dead men tell no tales, and seldom did Bent leave any alive after a raid. The latter was finally poisoned by a Mexican woman in 1876. Ever feel like you have the worst luck on the planet? There was one major problem, thoug. In truth, there wasn't much conflict between the Native American tribes and early travelers, who were mostly fur traders and missionaries. Burials often were done right in the middle of the trail, where wagons could roll over and animals trample it down in order to erase the scent so wolves could not pick up the scent. 1866 photo of Alder Creek stumps cut by Donner party. According to Brian Altonen, the settlers carried were standard medicines like castor oil, rum, peppermint essence, opium, and whiskey, because if you're dying, at least you wouldn't know it. They were a brave bunch, and slightly insane, so it's not surprising a whole lot of messed up stuff happened along the way. They were killed by Indians, or escaped and then succumbed to exposure and starvation. Also in the group were the families of George and Jacob Donner. He was interviewed a few times, and when he was 62 he issued his first formal statement. The next day, on May 12, 1846, they headed west again in the middle of a thunderstorm. The oxen moved slowly forwardand the long journey had begun.. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Soldiers were used to guarding the stagecoaches, yet attacks were frequent, and the loss in property and lives was large. Such diseases as cholera, small pox, flu, measles, mumps, tuberculosis could spread quickly through an entire wagon camp. On February 19th, the first party reached the lake finding what appeared to be a deserted camp until the ghostly figure of a woman appeared. Reed also hoped that his wife, Margaret, who suffered from terrible headaches, might improve in the coastal climate. Nice work, doc. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. In four weeks, they had killed and captured 45 whites between Sage Creek and Virginia Dale in Colorado. Some things like using peppermint essence to calm an upset stomach actually worked (via Fort Morgan Times), but the problem was that it was only the women who knew these remedies. From the earliest attempts, accidents were frequent, and suffering from exposure to the elements was common. Being caught there by a raging snowstorm was undoubtedly a terrible experience. Bell was not hit, but four or five of his men were killed or wounded. ", He spent two months in the cabin, surrounded by the bodies of his dead friends, with wolves scratching to get to the meat inside. Beside the driver, named Frank Williams, sat one of the robbers, thoroughly disguised. Hastings had claimed that his route would shave more than 300 miles (480 km) from the journey to California. The next day, they arrived at the lake camp to find that both of their sons had died. Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated April 2023. The notorious tragedy occurred on 10 November 1921, the Wagon Tragedy.The Muslims who were captured by the British in connection with the Malabar riots were seized by a train wagon from Tirur and sent to Coimbatore, most of whom were wounded and suffocated.This is a kind of brutal massacre. With George were his third wife, Tamzene, their three children, Frances, Georgia, and Eliza, and Georges two daughters from a previous marriage, Elitha and Leanna. The two-day encounter resulted in the deaths of eleven emigrants by an estimated twenty-five to thirty Indians. The relief party soon departed with four more members of the party, leaving those who are too weak to travel. Reed had recently read the bookTheEmigrants Guide to Oregon and California, by Landsford W. Hastings, who advertised a new shortcut across the Great Basin. My father, with tears in his eyes, triedto smile as one friend after another grasped his hand in a last farewell. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Obviously adventurous, the brothers decided to make one last trip toCalifornia, which unfortunately would be their last. The accusations got so bad he even sued for slander and won $1, but when Keseberg died in 1895, even his obituary reminded everyone he was a cannibal. The ill-fated Utter-Van Ornum wagon train would go down in history with the dubious honor of being the deadliest wagon train (via the Idaho Chapter Oregon-California Trails Association). By this point, the members of the company had cached, or buried, virtually all their personal possessionsexcept for food, clothing, and the barest essentials necessary for survivalin an effort to minimize the load on their exhausted animals. Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. The ordeal of the Donner party highlighted the incredible risks that were inherent in the great overland trek, but it did little to slow the pace of migration. Thegeneral uprising among the tribes that followed extended to the Rocky Mountains and even to the banks of the Columbia River. Indian Attack on a Wagon Train by Charles Marion Russell The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. 1. In the beginning, the wagon train was lucky to make even two miles per day, taking them six days just to travel eight miles. While the journey west was traditionally considered dangerous and deadly, this was especially the case for the Donner Party. Ironically, on the very day that theIllinoisparty headed west from Springfield, Lansford Hastings prepared to head east from California, to see what the shortcut he had written about was really like. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy. A family of seven, killed by Indians, was buried here together in the wagon box from their covered wagon. Elijah P. Utter led a wagon train of 44 emigrants along the Oregon Trail. Brian Altonen, a medical science and public health expert, took a look at the diseases running rampant through wagon trains and found the heartbreaking case of Susannah, a little girl who died just a month after her mother. Finding the party at the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, Hastings accompanied Reed partway back to point out the new route, which he said would take them about one week to travel. Immediately messages were dispatched to neighboring settlements as area residents rallied to save the rest of theDonner Party. The wagon train comprised 18 to 30 wagons pulled by ox and mule teams, plus several hundred cattle and a number of blooded horses the men were driving to California's Central Valley. All the other stations were guarded in like manner, so it happened that every coach carried some soldiers.. In the meantime, the Graves family caught up with theDonner Party, which now numbered 87 people in 23 wagons. Hastings, who had promised to lead migrants along the trail, left Fort Bridger with a different company of wagons, and it fell to Reed to act as the companys guide. Living off the bodies of those that died along the path to Sutters Fort, the snowshoeing survivors were reduced to seven by the time they reached safety on the western side of the mountains on January 19, 1847. A few days later, the party was caught in a blizzard and had great difficulty getting and keeping a fire lit. They were heading for California, not Oregon (via Online Nevada), when they set off in 1846, and about half met their grisly end in the Sierra Nevada mountains. No trace of either the child or the colored nurse was ever found. However, upon their arrival at Fort Bridger, of Lansford Hastings, there was no sign, only a note left with other emigrants resting at the fort. Two rescuers, Jean-Baptiste Trudeau and Nicholas Clark were left behind to care for the Donners, but soon abandon them to catch up with the relief party. The Government offered $5000 for his capture, dead or alive, but death finally came to him in the form of malarial fever. On October 5that Iron Point, two wagons became entangled and John Snyder, a teamster of one of the wagons began to whip his oxen. The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used two-wheeled handcarts to transport their belongings. At last, we were all in the wagons. With scarcely any opportunity for defense, the unfortunate whites were shot down, scalped, and their mutilated bodies left upon the ground. In 1921, a rebellion against British colonial rule by Mappila Muslims broke out in the Malabar District of British India. On August 11th, the wagon train began the arduous journey through the Wasatch Mountains, clearing trees and other obstructions along the new path of their journey. The settlers of California organized a relief party which left Fort Sutter (Sacramento) on January 31, 1847. You had no idea the decision to ferry or ford the river was so gross, did you? On August 30, after gathering as much water and grass as they could carry, they entered the Great Salt Lake Desert. Well educated in St. Louis, Missouri, he no sooner returned to the Plains than he developed into a blood-thirsty desperado, organizing a body of young warriors, later known as dog soldiers, and beginning a series of depredations against the whites. On the third day in the desert, their water supply was nearly exhausted and some of Reeds oxen ran away. The very next day, five more feet of snow fell, and they knew that any plans for a departure were dashed. The robbers secured over $70,000, and it was later discovered that the driver, Williams, was an accomplice and received his share. With the help of more rescue parties sent east, the Willie Company finally reached Salt Lake City on November 9 and the Martin Company on November 30. . In 1862 the Sioux made a savage onslaught far east into Minnesota. The story of the Donner tragedy quickly spread across the country. Rumors started circulating that he was the first to dig into the not-so-scrumptious meal consisting of his fellow settlers, that he killed others for their meat, and that he preferred human meat to beef. The soldiers had with them as guides several famous frontiersmen, Kit Carson, Uncle Dick Wootton, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin. Wagon Train cast list, including photos of the actors when available. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. In nine brand new wagons, the group estimated the trip would take four months to cross the plains, deserts, mountain ranges and rivers in their quest for California. In April of that year occurred a terrible fight between the mail-stage and Indians on the Sweetwater River. Some of the men tried to hunt with little success. Firearms were the second leading cause of emigrant injury and death and a surprisingly large number of pioneers were injured by accidental firearm discharges. On August 25th, the caravan lost another member, one Luke Halloran, who died of consumption, near present-day Grantsville,Utah. Surviving the Oregon Trail was just the beginning for some people just ask Lewis Keseberg. He was tracked to Denver, Colorado, and hanged with very little ceremony. In wet weather, for mile after mile, the passengers might be compelled to plod beside the wheels, laboriously prying them out of the clinging mud and burdening the air with profanity. Major threats to pioneer life and limb came from accidents, exhaustion, and disease. In those early days of stage-coaching along the Santa Fe Trail, the two most noted leaders of Indian raids were Satanta(White Bear), a chief of the Kiowa Nation, and George Bent, a half-breed desperado. As the conversation ensued, the controversy grew so heated that suddenly the two leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee to aim and Bell throwing his body forward and causing his horse to rear. This occurrence took all desire for further peace talk from him, and the fight was on. From start to finish, it took between five and six months, and it's hard to imagine today. On their eighty mile journey through the Salt Lake Desert, they had lost a total of thirty-two oxen; Reed was forced to abandon two of his wagons, and the Donners, as well as man named Louis Keseberg, lost one wagon each. Immediately a regular volley was poured in from the opposite side; four of the passengers fell dead, another was severely wounded. Two men who had joined the party at the lake also died. It's an undeniable fact: the cycle of life doesn't stop for anyone or anything, and there were a surprising number of newborn babies traveling the trail. The real Oregon Trail was filled with about as many accidents and illnesses, and the National Oregon/California Trail Center says more than 300,000 Americans actually did travel along it at the end of the 19th century. I remember the days traveling in a Connastoga Wagon and nites sleeping under the . The route lying along the North Platte River became so dangerous that it was almost impossible to secure drivers even at the highest wages.
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