USA > Wyoming > The history of Wyoming from the earliest known discoveries > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62
331
The Oregon Emigration.
A guide named Coats had brought the party to Fort Lara- mie, which ended his contract. They started on without a guide, but fortunately met Jim Bridger and Thomas Fitz- patrick, and the latter was induced by Indian Agent White to go with them to Fort Hall. It was very fortunate that this experienced mountain man consented to go, for when they arrived at Independence Rock they had trouble with the Sioux, which tribe disputed their passage. While a halt was made, many of the emigrants cut their names upon the great rock. Hastings and Colonel Lovejoy, who had fallen behind the caravan, were attacked by the Indians and bare- ly escaped. The savages followed them into camp and Fitz- patrick had his hands full for several hours, negotiating with the Sioux warriors for the peaceable passage for the emigrants through the country. This difficulty I have al- ready explained in my account of Whitman's journey through Wyoming. On the 13th of July the train reached the Sweetwater and here an accident occurred which cast gloom over the party. Adam Horn, one of the emigrants, accidentally shot and killed a young man named Bailey. On the morning of the 14th the funeral of the man killed occurred, after which the train moved on. In spite of the presents given to the Sioux, they kept up hostilities and greatly annoyed the hunting parties sent out, frequently robbing them of their horses, game and rifles. This com- pany was unfortunate in many particulars, there being dis- sensions, bickerings and much bad feeling shown among the emigrants. They broke up into factions, traveling sep- arately as soon as they got away from the Sioux. At the crossing of Snake River, Adam Horn was drowned. These emigrants reached Oregon after having experienced severe trials. I find many conflicting accounts of the number of the company under the charge of Dr. White. Captain Sub- lette met these emigrants at Independence and gave them advice as to their conduct on the road. He told Dr. White that he was liable to experience difficulties in conducting so large a train. I give the figures on what I consider reliable authority. The Colonel Lovejoy mentioned is the same
332
History of Wyoming.
man who made the journey from Oregon with Dr. Whitman during the winter of 1842-3.
I have already told the story of Marcus Whitman and his passage west to Oregon with his great train containing two hundred wagons and a thousand people in the summer of 1843. In that same year Fremont went to Oregon, and his report confirmed the story of Dr. Whitman regarding the value of the country.
The Oregon emigration in 1844 was quite large. They collected at different points on the Missouri River and amounted in all to 1,475 persons. Cornelius Gilliam led one company of 323 persons. Captain Nathaniel Ford led an- other company. These two organizations joined forces on the plains and employed Moses Harris, the veteran trapper, as guide. They were two months getting to Fort Laramie from the Missouri River, owing to the bad weather, which produced rheumatism and dysentery. By the time they reached Fort Laramie many families were entirely out of flour and sugar. They procured these articles from the trader, paying $1.50 a pint for sugar and $40 per barrel for flour. They reached Fort Hall on the 10th of September, suffering greatly after that point, being reduced to almost starvation, and fully a dozen died on the road. In the party was a Mr. Sager, his wife and seven children. Mr. Sager died at Green River and was buried on the east bank of that stream. Mrs. Sager died two weeks later. When the unfor- tunate children arrived in Oregon they were adopted by the large-hearted Dr. Whitman and his wife.
The year 1845 was a memorable one in Oregon emigra- tion. No less than 3,000 people passed Fort Laramie on their way to the rich valleys beyond the mountains. There were two points on the Missouri River from which these emigrants started westward across the plains. St. Joseph was one prominent point and Independence the other. Sen- ator Benton was to some extent responsible for this emigra- tion; there being a quiet determination on the part of lead- ing American statesmen to fill up Oregon with people from the United States and thus secure the territory to this gov-
333
The Oregon Emigration.
ernment. The country seemed all at once to have awakened to the importance of securing the territory. In a speech made in St. Louis in October, 1844, Senator Benton uttered what the Oregon Spectator of September 17, 1846, called a prophecy.
"I say the man is alive, and is listening to what I say (without believing it, perhaps) who will yet see the Asiatic commerce traversing the North Pacific Ocean-entering the Oregon River-climbing the western slope of the Rocky Mountains-issuing from its gorges-and spreading its fer- tilizing streams over our wide-extended Union! The steam- boat and the steam-car have not exhausted all their won- ders. They have not yet even found their amplest and most appropriate theaters-the tranquil surface of the North Pacific Ocean and the vast inclined plains which spread east and west from the base of the Rocky Mountains. The magic boat and the flying car are not yet seen upon this ocean and this plain, but they will be seen there; and St. Louis is yet to find herself as near to Canton as she now is to London, with a better and safer route, by land and sea, to China and Japan, than she now has to France and Great Britain."
The North Platte and Sweetwater witnessed almost continuous trains from the middle of June to the middle of September. Among the many trains to pass Fort Laramie was one of twenty-five wagons, under the leadership of Pres- ley Welch; another of forty wagons, directed by Samuel Hancock; another of fifty-two wagons, of which a Mr. Hack- leman was leader; there was another company made up of sixty wagons and three hundred persons under the leader- ship of W. G. T'Vault; Samuel Tetherow commanded an- other outfit consisting of sixty wagons and over three hun- dred people. Many of these emigrants suffered greatly, and not a few deaths occurred on the way. I cannot pretend to give an account of all the expeditions that passed through that year; the object is simply to show that the Overland trail had become a popular highway, over which human hopes and human ambitions passed to make new homes and build a new state on the Pacific slope. One company which passed Fort Laramie that year had lost over a hundred
334
History of Wyoming.
oxen (stolen by Indians) and they had been obliged to yoke their cows to the wagons. Added to the Oregon travel were many trains going to California. The Indians, who had objected to the passage of emigrants in 1842, had continu- ously protested, but found themselves powerless to stem the rising tide of civilization sweeping westward year after year. The Sioux, the worst barbarians of the mountains, had secured the North Platte country by conquest, driving out the Crows, who had for many generations occupied the hunting grounds to the north and west. They had attempt- ed to make the law of might, right, but the emigrants had little respect for these freebooters, who possessed only bru- tal instincts, savage cunning, and pursued the methods of the highwayman. They killed, robbed or tortured, as best suited their mood; gathering in bands along the route, mak- ing insolent and extortionate demands on all travelers. Ev- ery band had to be provided with presents, the demand be- ing for whisky, tobacco, lead, powder, guns, beads, blankets or any other articles which they could see. They lorded it over the country they had stolen from the Crows, denying the right of emigrants to kill game, and demanding fees of the white men amounting to confiscation of their goods. It is not in the nature of the average emigrant to submit tamely to unjust demands, and it was little wonder that the savages finally encountered a class of men who refused to be robbed by these highwaymen. The impending conflict resulted in the location of fortified posts along the Platte, North Platte and points farther west. The Indian is about to enter into a contest, which, though it be long, will result in his destruction. Things are to be no longer as they were. Men going with their families to Utah, Oregon and Cali- fornia demanded free passage through the mountains, and when this could not be peaceably secured, they met force by force. From time to time emigrants were attacked by the savages, but the superior arms of the white man, and above all his unconquerable determination, swept the red man from his path. The government hastened to afford
335
The Oregon Emigration.
protection to a class of men who were going out to found new commonwealths on the Pacific slope.
In the year 1846 many trains passed over the trail. The trappers and traders were astonished at the exodus from the east and the Indians became convinced that the white men were as numerous as the leaves of the forest.
The people going out felt little interest in the discus- sion that had been going on in Congress for nearly twenty years as to who owned Oregon. They knew that it was held by joint occupation on the part of the United States and England, and they understood Dr. Whitman's theory of settling the question by having Americans occupy it, and fully subscribing to this view, they were going out to make homes and establish civil institutions in far-off Oregon. The aristocratic Francis Parkman amuses himself in his "Oregon Trail" at the expense of these emigrants whom he met on the road in 1846, but it can be said that some remark- ably able men went over the trail that year-embryo states- men who were heard of afterwards in the organization of a government for the new territory. All were brave, or they would not have undertaken the long journey across the plains and mountains and encountered the dangers which were well known to them before starting on their pilgrim- age. On the 17th of July, 1846, while the emigration of that year was at its height, the treaty in regard to Oregon having previously been ratified by both governments, was ex- changed in London between the representatives of Great Britain and the United States, and thus ended the discus- sion of the Oregon question, which had been before the peo- ple fifty-four years, two months and six days. That treaty comes in to the history of Wyoming, as a small part of Ore- gon has since become a part of this state. The eastern line of Oregon extended to the crest of the Rocky Mountains; hence all that portion of our state lying west of the moun- tains bordering on Idaho was included in the treaty of 1846.
The promulgation of this treaty between Great Britain and the United States served to bring Oregon again to the front, and the newspapers of the day were filled with letters
336
History of Wyoming.
written by men and women who had made their homes in the new land of promise beyond the mountains, and this re- sulted in increased emigration, which in 1847 became a grand rush. As an illustration of the number of emigrants that season, I will mention that Hon. H. B. Kelly, one of the oldest settlers in Wyoming, went to California that year and reaching Independence Rock on July 3, his party re- mained over to celebrate the 4th of July. They were joined by Oregon emigrants to the number of a thousand, and the day was celebrated in a manner worthy of American citi- zens. A vast amount of powder was exploded and the wil- derness echoed the shouts of these loyal citizens of the re- public.
Fremont, in his explorations of Oregon in 1843, foresaw that there would be a large emigration into the country and recommended that the government establish a line of military posts across the country occupied by the wild tribes, but the people bound for Oregon could not and would not wait for government protection. They went west by the Platte and Arkansas Rivers, the two columns con- verging at the already famous trading post known as Fort Laramie, at which they concentrated and passed west on what had then become known as the Oregon Trail. It was the same trail which Whitman had marked out with his two hundred wagons.
The decline of the fur trade in Wyoming had left many trappers and traders in the mountains ready to take up a new occupation. The majority of these located along the emigrant trail. Some became guides to trains going across the country, others furnished supplies of various kinds to the pilgrims, including horses and cattle, which they traded to the emigrants for their broken-down stock. This latter traffic was carried on to a considerable extent. Horses and oxen became foot-sore and consequently useless to the trav- elers. The traders took these animals and for a considera- tion furnished fresh ones, and thus those enroute to Oregon were enabled to continue their journey. The broken-down cattle and horses were turned out to feed and rest and were
EMIGRANTS CROSSING THE PLATTE, IN OVERLAND DAYS.
337
The Oregon Emigration.
soon in prime condition to exchange for other broken-down stock. This business was a source of great profit to many traders located in Wyoming.
That year the last cavalcade passed over the trail in September and was hurrying forward to find a location in Oregon before the winter set in, when an event occurred which horrified the civilized world. It was known as the Whitman massacre. This occurred at Waiilatpui, Oregon, where Dr. Whitman had built a school for the Indian chil- dren. The conditions which led up to this wholesale butch- ery have never been satisfactorily settled. The announce- ment of the treaty of 1846 was a death-blow to the Hudson Bay Company. That monopoly, which was chartered in 1670, had occupied the Columbia and its tributaries since its consolidation with the Northwest Company in 1821, and the last-named company succeeded the Astorians in 1813. It had protected the fur interest by keeping white people out, and had raised half-breeds to catch the fur-bearing animals. The insolence of this monopoly was manifested when John Jacob Astor founded Astoria. He was driven out of the country by the connivance of British fur traders, and all other American traders following him met the same fate, including Nathaniel J. Wyeth. When American set- tlers went to Oregon, the servants of the Hudson Bay Com- pany pointed out to the Indians that these people had come to take away their lands, destroy the beaver, and eventually to drive them from their homes. The consequences were that the natives looked with suspicion on Americans and were ready and ripe at all times to do them injury. Added to the prejudice for which the English were directly respon- sible, was the superstitious belief of the savages that the new people who came into the country were the cause of diseases in epidemic form which afflicted the tribes. On the 29th of November, 1847, the massacre occurred. Fifteen were killed, including Dr. Whitman and wife. Fifty white persons were captured, many of them women who suffered worse than death. Let the English residents of Oregon at that time explain the massacre as they will, the facts are
-(22)
338
History of Wyoming.
that the treaty of 1846, which conceded Oregon to the United States, had much to do with the butchery of Dr. Whitman and his associates. The news of the treaty had a depressing effect on all Englishmen in that country, and while it is barely possible that they did not directly plan the murders, they stood aloof and allowed the devilish work to go on. The news of the murder of Dr. Whitman and his associates aroused deep feeling throughout the states, and during the spring of 1848, Oregon was the cry. That year large num- bers of emigrants passed through Wyoming with the avowed purpose of taking possession of the country in spite of Indians, Englishmen or any other opposing force, and from early in the spring until late in the summer the road to Oregon was lined with trains which were so numerous as scarcely to be out of sight of each other. Those were great days for the traders along the Overland trail. They made their own prices on everything they had to sell, and the emigrants were glad to buy regardless of extortion.
At the time of which I write, the Oregon and California roads were one and the same across Wyoming. Occasion- ally a party would cross the Laramie Plains and go west through Bridger Pass and join the regular road on Green River, but this route was not yet a popular one. The main emigrant trail for both California and Oregon was up the Platte, through the South Pass, and thence on to Fort Hall. The Oregon road turned to the right, and the California route bore off to the left. Fremont made a map of the coun- try which was published by the government in 1845, and this was much sought after by both those going to Oregon and to California. This route through the South Pass over to Fort Hall was first located by Captain Bonneville in 1832. It is true that other trappers and traders made the trip before Captain Bonneville, but over a trail of great length, winding in and out. Bonneville laid out a direct road, which was followed by other trappers and traders, and finally by Rev. Samuel Parker in 1835 and by Dr. Whit- man, Rev. H. H. Spalding and their wives in 1836, and it be- came the road to Oregon.
339
The Oregon Emigration.
In 1848 emigration to California was greatly increased over the preceding year, and Oregon drew its full share from the great trail. The trading post at Fort Laramie that season was a picturesque western settlement, emi- grants coming and going almost every hour in the day and every day in the week. Wagons from each of the arriving trains had to be mended, horses and ox teams which had given out were being traded off for better animals, and stores replenished. The emigrants were not backward in denouncing the traders for overcharging them for almost every article they were compelled to purchase. The picture presented was rather a wild one, for on every side were blan- keted Indians who watched the going and coming of the palefaces with as much interest as the noble red man is capable of showing. The brisk days of 1848, which excited so much attention in Wyoming, were nothing as compared with the year that is to follow. The slow-going ox teams of the past are largely to give way to powerful horse and mule teams, and the slow, easy-going emigrant on his way west in search of land must stand aside and give the gold prospector a chance.
Now we come to the most important year in the history of the Overland trail, which was 1849. The discovery of gold in California created throughout the east intense ex- citement, and as a result every road leading to the golden state was filled with hurrying crowds. Many took ships and went around Cape Horn. Others went by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, and still others came by the way of the Overland trail and consequently passed through Wyoming. This class of emigrants were better outfitted than any who had previously crossed the mountains. Large wagons drawn by fine horse and mule teams were the rule. There was no plodding by the way. Each outfit was hurried for- ward, and there seemed to be a grand struggle as to who should get to the gold fields first. Between May and Octo- ber, some say 30,000, others 100,000, of these gold seekers passed through Wyoming. These were the "forty-niners," and they composed the grand army that rushed to Califor-
340
History of Wyoming.
nia in that eventful year. Nearly fifty years have passed, and still we are listening to song and story of the "Days of Forty-nine." Some of these gold seekers, after the excite- ment was over, returned and prospected in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. In the history of Fort Laramie, I have already told of the transfer of the trading post to the United States government and of its occupation by troops.
CHAPTER XXVII.
MORMON EMIGRATION.
BRIGHAM YOUNG'S PIONEER TRAIN-AN INCIDENT ON THE EASTERN BOR- DER OF WYOMING-ARRIVAL AT FORT LARAMIE-CROSSING THE PLATTE ABOVE CASPAR WITH BOATS AND RAFTS-THE TRAIN CROSS- ES SOUTH PASS-REACHES THE BIG SANDY AND GREEN RIVER-JIM BRIDGER MEETS BRIGHAM YOUNG-THE STOP AT FORT BRIDGER- TRAIN PASSES OUT OF WYOMING-ARRIVAL IN SALT LAKE VALLEY- INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE MORMON SETTLEMENT-CHARACTER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG.
The passage of the Mormon emigrants through Wyo- ming in 1847 was nearer related to the settlement of the country than was the emigration to Oregon or to California, from the fact that quite a number of these people settled within what are now the confines of our state. The Mor- mons were a religious sect, but held some peculiar ideas in regard to morals as well as religion. That is, they believed that the church and the state should be one; that the laws of God should be the laws of the land. They claimed that their prophet, Joseph Smith, had received a revelation from God, telling him where he would find the golden plates of a book, which he afterwards found buried in a hillside of the state of New York. From these plates, it was claimed, a book was printed which was called the Mormon Bible. The church as organized by the prophet Smith was governed by
341
Mormon Emigration.
twelve elders. They claimed spiritual gifts such as were enjoyed by the apostles of Christ, and advocated and prac- ticed polygamy. This latter resulted in a storm of objec- tions when it was put in practice. The teachings of these people made them unpopular in the eastern states and they finally located at Nauvoo, Illinois, from which place they fled before their enemies into Missouri, where the people made them even less welcome. During the winter of 1846-7 they made what they called winter quarters in Nebraska. This place was a few miles northwest of Council Bluffs. To this spot all the Mormons wended their way, preparatory to locating in the far west. At the winter camp were about 700 houses, rudely constructed, and in these about 4,000 had gathered in readiness to make the journey across the plains and mountains in the spring. It has been claimed by some writers that these people started west without previ- ously exploring the country, but this is not correct, as Oli- ver P. Gleason of New York, George Chatelaine of St. Louis, Miles Bragg of Jackson County, Missouri, J. P. Johnson of Nauvoo, Illinois, Solomon Silver of the same place, and William Hall of Platt County, Missouri, appeared at Fort Laramie in the spring of 1846 on their way to find a location for the Mormon colony. Gleason had a brother named John, who was a Mormon elder and a preacher. These men all went to Salt Lake and spent a month there examining the country. Gleason made a map of Salt Lake and the valley. In the fall of that year the party returned to Fort Laramie. O. P. Wiggins, now of Denver, and the famous Jim Beck- wourth, acted as guides for the party. The first division of the Mormon train left the Missouri on Monday, April 5, 1847, in charge of Heber C. Kimball. On the day follow- ing, Brigham Young, who was then at the head of the church, called a conference of the elders and people and explained that the objective point was Salt Lake. At the conference, most of the prominent leaders of the church were present.
On the 7th, the second division moved to the west, and then the other divisions quickly followed, making a train of
342
History of Wyoming.
seventy-two wagons, with 149 men, women and children. It was certainly the best organized outfit that had ever at- tempted the western journey. In the party were wagon- makers, carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, and in short mechanics of all kinds, including farmers, engineers, mer- chants and schoolmasters. At the head of the expedition was Brigham Young. He led the way on to the mountains and reached the eastern border of Wyoming on May 28, when an event occurred which clearly stamped Young as a born leader. They had been a long time on the road, consid- ering the distance they had traveled, and the men had grown careless and many indifferent. The novelty had worn off and a spirit of fault-finding and criticism had grown up which promised to result in the demoralization of the company. The morning of May 29th was cold and it was decided that the train should not move until the weath- er grew better. At 10:30 the leader caused a bugle to be sounded for the teams to be harnessed. After all was in readiness for starting, the company was called together in a circle around Mr. Young and the clerk was ordered to call the roll. Two of the brethren were out hunting and two more were sick in their wagons; all the others were in the circle and answered to their names. By this time everyone realized that something was going to happen. Seriousness and expectancy was on every countenance. They had not long to wait. Standing on a wagon, Mr. Young told his people that he had noticed the spirit which prevailed in the company and that he had been watching its influence and effect and that unless there was a change for the better he was ready to revolt. He was not willing to bow down to insubordination and the ill-feelings which existed among them toward each other. He then described the evil ten- dency of quarrels in camp, playing cards, using profane language and dancing for recreation. There were some in the camp, he said, who did not belong to the church, and these he would protect in all their rights, but they should not trample on his rights. He told them that they should reverence God and the priesthood and not seek to introduce
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.