wagon train tragedies

Let's talk about why, in the least gross way possible. The pioneer needed to go with little sleep, bear illness, suffering, and even, tragedy through the many weeks of travel. Heroically struggling through the deep snow, seven men reached the lake camp on February 18. Sutters Fort in Sacramento, California, 1847. The caravan camped for five days 50 miles from the summit, resting their oxen for the final push. There was actually someone riding ahead of the Donner Party acting as a scout, and Edwin Bryant sent a letter back warning them it was too dangerous to take the so-called shortcut. The Donners, whose progress was delayed by a wagon accident, made a similar camp a few miles farther east on the trail near Alder Creek. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy. The British Raj tried to cover up this heinous event but. The river crossing was massively dangerous, and according to WyoHistory, it was made safer but more expensive by the Mormon ferries that were set up in 1847. The party elected George Donner to serve as its leader, and at its peak the Donner party would number some 87 people29 men, 15 women, and 43 childrenin a column of 23 ox-drawn wagons. They ate all kinds of nasty plants and passed the problems on in their milk. 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. Fort Laramie Parade Grounds, photo by Kathy Alexander. Photo courtesy of Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop https://www.hansenwheel.com . Bell was not hit, but four or five of his men were killed or wounded. Hastings had claimed that his route would shave more than 300 miles (480 km) from the journey to California. The fertile farmlands of central California drew a steady stream of settlers in the 1840s, and in the spring of 1846 several families from Springfield, Illinois, joined the westward migration. 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. Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. By the time the Donner party reached the Humboldt River, where Hastings Cutoff rejoined the main California Trail, it was late September. tragedy while the Wagon Train stops for supplies. when it came to something like this. He was last seen sitting under a large sagebrush, completely exhausted, unable to walk, worn out, and was left there to die. Donner Lake and Donner Pass, California, are named for the party. Two days after the Snyder killing, on October 7th, Lewis Keseberg turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop, who had been traveling with him. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. However, many would linger in misery for weeks in the bouncy wagons. Julesburg was attacked on several occasions, and in February 1864, was burned to the ground. In 1921, a rebellion against British colonial rule by Mappila Muslims broke out in the Malabar District of British India. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. It was usually safer to keep rifles unloaded.and the third cause was stampeding livestock.Indians proved not to be any real danger to most pioneers. Here, the train split, with the majority of the large caravan taking the safer route. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). George Bent had for father the famous Colonel William Bentof Bents Fort, but his mother was a Cheyenne woman. 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. The others escaped after a hard run. On April 17th, the relief party reached the camps to find only Louis Keseberg alive among the mutilated remains of his former companions. Major threats to pioneer life and limb came from accidents, exhaustion, and disease. Cooper Smith: We're just giving you moral support. 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. 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. Invariably such a storm meant a stampede of the mules, nor would a man dare to desert his shelter to seek them. It was also the headquarters of the telegraph on the Plains, which had been inaugurated in 1861. The wagon train encountered riders urging emigrants on the road to travel down to Fort Bridger and take a shortcut called the "Hastings . After building ferries to cross the water, the party was on their way again, following the Platte River for the next month. This point was then the junction between the Overland mainline and the newly established branch leading to Denver. That's not a joke. A number of the savages thus escaped, the troopers having to pull up at the brink but sending a volley after the descending fugitives. 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.). It was here that the new trail met up with Hastings original path. The most important of these, situated in the very heart of this blood-stained territory, was Julesburg, Colorado. He found a camp of 15 people, including five dead who had been partially eaten by the starving living. As soon as Cody got a glimpse of the Indians, he handed the reins to Flowers and began applying the whip. At the bottom of JacobDonnerssaddlebag was a copy of Lansford Hastingss Emigrants Guide, with its tantalizing talk of a faster route to the garden of the earth. Animals could cause very serious injury to their owners. Keseberg was the last member of the Donner Party to arrive at Sutters Fort on April 29th. This horrific incident came to be called the Jalian Wallabagh of the South. I can not describe the unutterable repugnance with which I tasted that first mouthful of flesh. Mrs. White, her child, and nurse were borne away prisoners. Other causes of injury or death included attacks by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning, hailstorms, grass fires, gunpowder explosions, snakebite and suicide. They traveled on with the wagon train and ended up in the care of missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. From start to finish, it took between five and six months, and it's hard to imagine today. The letter successfully allayed any fears that the party might have had regarding the Hastings cutoff. A few days later their last few cattle were slaughtered for food and party began eating boiled hides, twigs, bones and bark. 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. Several Indians were killed, and at night they withdrew, leaving the defenders to harness themselves to the running gear and thus draw their wounded comrades to safety. On December 16 a party of 10 men and 5 women set out to cross the mountains on improvised snowshoes. The weather and their hopes were not to improve. In 1862 the Indian raids on the coaches and stations between Fort Laramie and South Pass, Wyoming were almost continuous. 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. Obviously adventurous, the brothers decided to make one last trip toCalifornia, which unfortunately would be their last. At Fort Laramie, James Reed ran into an old friend fromIllinoisby the name of James Clyman, who had just traveled the new route eastwardly with Lansford Hastings. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. It was this falsified information that would lead to the doom of the Donner Party. The Government offered $5000 for his capture, dead or alive, but death finally came to him in the form of malarial fever. A shot was fired from beside the trail, and the men inside the coach instantly discharged their guns toward the supposed ambush. On the Trail - Asa McCully's 1853 Wagon Train. Naomi Sager descended into a sort of grief-stricken illness, and her daughter Catherine wrote she was, "at times perfectly insane." Granny medicine, essentially home remedies passed down from mother to daughter, was common, according to Historic Oregon City. According to The Plains Across, Fort Laramie became a major trading post. Colonel George Wright, who was in charge of the military presence and rescue mission, said they likely would have survived if it wasn't for the cowards. Patrick Breen was a member of the Donner Party and kept a diary of their ordeal during the winter of 1846-47. Many of those who survived lost toes to frostbite. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated December 2021. The majority of the Donner Party emigrants were children. 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. White Wolf was killed later by Lieutenant David Bell, Second Dragoons, in a most dramatic manner, and almost on the exact spot where the murders had been perpetrated. The next day, on May 12, 1846, they headed west again in the middle of a thunderstorm. On March 12ththe third relief led by William Eddy and William Foster reached Starved Camp where Mrs. Graves and her son Franklin had also died. It could attack a perfectly healthy person after breakfast and he would be in his grave by noon. In the Spring of 1865, the Plains tribes again became very troublesome and raided the stage line almost from end to end. Generally, the first fire from the Indians killed one or two horses and tumbled a soldier or two off the top of the coach. Mama was overcome with grief. Nine days later, the boy "called to his mother that he could feel worms crawling in his leg," and yes, those were maggots. There were two coaches loaded with mail and nine men, the leaders being Lem Flowers, a division agent, and the conductor named Brown. My squad had to ride up to Cottonwood, and down to the station below, where they waited for the next coach going the other way, and returned by it to their post at Oilmans. He was interviewed a few times, and when he was 62 he issued his first formal statement. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846-1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. 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. However, the nightmare was by no means over. 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. It was a west-bound Concord, containing a full complement of passengers, including a Mr. White, his wife, child, and colored nurse. The hardships of weather, limited diet, and exhaustion made travelers very vulnerable to infectious diseases such as cholera, flu, dysentery, measles, mumps, tuberculosis, and typhoid fever which could spread quickly through an entire wagon camp. The village head, Conquering Bear, also died, and it only escalated from there. The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. 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. Two days after they started out it began to rain. Having traveled an extra 125 miles through strenuous mountain terrain and dry desert, the disillusioned partys resentment of Hastings, and ultimately, Reed, was increased tremendously. On August 6, the party reached the Weber River after having passed through Echo Canyon. The breaking out of the Civil War required the withdrawal of many of the regulars from the Plains, and the Indians, quick to perceive their opportunity, began wholesale depredations. The Wagon Box Grave headstone marks the burial site of the emigrant family.

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