Some Family Members Move West - A Letter from Walla Walla, Washington, 1864

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #15

by Tonya Graham McQuade

The Kennedy Train's final stop in 1862

In my last post, I shared some excerpts from the historical fiction novel I am writing, Missouri Daughter, that included a letter written from the Oregon Trail by Jane Kennedy Hale and her son, William Simpson Hale, to the family back in Andrew County, Missouri. Now, I will share an excerpt from the nonfiction book I am working on, A State Divided; The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree, which provides some additional information from a more historical perspective:

Chapter 7: Nodaway Township, Andrew County, Missouri – January to March 1864

 

In January, James was finally able to go home on furlough. He had missed Christmas once again, but he was in time for his grandson’s first birthday. His family likely met him at the train depot in St. Joseph, and eagerly looking forward to the months ahead.

  

While there are no letters to confirm his daily activities at this time, one can easily assume James contented himself with chores around the farm – cutting firewood; making repairs to the house and barn; checking on stores of grain, corn, potatoes, onions, molasses, and feed for the stock; examining the hogs, cattle, and chickens; and looking over the financial records. He likely spent plenty of time with his family – going fishing with his son Mc; listening to his daughter Eliza read for the first time; admiring Manda’s sewing; playing with his new grandson Jimmy; and catching up with his brother Elijah who lived nearby. 

 

James was also tasked by his sister-in-law Jane with finding a tombstone for his brother Meshack (who had been killed by Confederate sympathizers in 1861 - see Post #10). Not having the money to buy one before she left for Walla Walla weighed heavily on her heart, and she had written him specifically to make that request. He may have sought his brother Elijah’s help in purchasing the tombstone and placing it on Meshack’s grave.

About a year earlier, Jane had written to the family to inform them that she and her son William had finally made it safely to Walla Walla, Washington, after about six months on the Oregon Trail and quite a few trials and adventures along the way (see Post #14). There had been numerous stampedes and losses of cattle, several dangerous river crossings, various Indian attacks, hazardously washed-out mountain passes, shortages of food and water, disagreements among the travelers, and lots of sickness and death. Along the way, they had observed numerous freshmade graves – two where faithful dogs were lying atop the graves, refusing to leave their masters behind.

 

They had even witnessed an execution when Jane’s brother, Captain Kennedy, was called upon by another wagon train to help punish a man who had killed his mining partner so he could keep all the profits and equipment for himself. Captain Kennedy had pulled together a group of men to serve as a jury, and when they found the man guilty, they had agreed that death was the proper punishment. They let the man choose whether he preferred to die by hanging or firing squad, and when he chose being shot, Kennedy had twenty-four men fire upon him, though not all had ammunition in their guns, while about a thousand people from various wagon trains looked on. 

This book tells the story of the Kennedy Train of 1862

The fate of his dead brother’s family must have weighed heavily on James’s mind, and he wrote to Jane when he returned home on furlough. Soon, he received a response:

 

Washington Territory, Walla Walla - March 21, 1864

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

 

I take my pen in hand to let you know we received your letter and was glad to hear from you all and that you was at home with your family, James, for they did not know what it was to do without you. Maybe for the better, for we are a dissatisfied people on the account of the war. So let us try to do the best we can in this life, and when we come to die, we will meet in heaven where parting will be no more.

 

I feel dissatisfied here, but it might be if I was there it would be no better under the circumstances. If Meshach was alive and here, I sometimes think I would be satisfied here, but I hope my loss is his gain, and I will do the best I can and try to be contented. This is the best place to make money I ever saw, but somehow I think I would rather live there.

 

If you would come out here, you could soon make money enough to buy you a farm and go back there or to some other country. This is the greatest place. The grass grows all winter. They don’t feed anything here. All you make is clear gain. We have five hundred dollars clear of all expenses. We have worked very hard, but if we had been there, we could not have anything – just something to eat and a little to wear.

 

James, I don’t want you to enlist any more. You might get killed. Come out here and make money, and then when the war is over, settle yourself somewhere you like. James, you did not write if you could get any tombstones there or not to put to Meshech’s grave. I wish you would see and let me know, and I will send the money, for I feel bad about it, and then I will be satisfied.

 

John Kennedy has gone to the mines. Robert is there, and Mary is there, too. She has married since we came out here and has gone there and is doing well and has a fine son. Her last name is Allison, and Rhoda Ellis is living about seven miles from her. They have two children, and they are all well. Emily Francis Neel married James Kennedy and lives down in Willamette Valley and has two children. James was at the mines and come by and wanted us to go home with him, but we could not go with him.

 

I think we will go down to Oregon as soon as we can get money. That is the best place to make money, they say, and there they have plenty of everything –  fruit of all kind – and I think I would like there or California. You have no idea of the people that is in the mines. There are thousands of families there, and that is a better place to get gold than here. There is no gold mines here - we can get by working for it.

 

The men all like here better than there. They do not have to feed anything here. They just kill beef here all winter without feeding them anything, so the men go to the mines and come back here and winter and make gold plenty here, and the farmers raise plenty of vegetables here, and they bring up fruit from Willamette Valley. They say that is the prettiest valley in the world.

 

William S. Hale is going to school to the Sisters from the seminary. I pay ten dollars for eleven weeks. I have sent him all I could. School is high here, and when we got here, we had nothing but our clothing and bedding, and I sold one of my beds and divided the other and made two. We have had our health pretty well. I have not paid any doctor bills yet. William S. had the mumps and some bad colds.

 

I have been able to work all the time since we came here, and we have a room to ourselves. I get six dollars a week, and William S. works for his board night and morning. The house has five rooms. The man is a merchant, and they have one child. It is a good place, and we will stay here all summer at six dollars per week.

 

James - write and let me know how times is there and all the death and wedding. We remember our love to all inquiring friends if any. Tell Elizabeth to write. So no more at present but still remains sister and nephew until death.

 

We remember you all,

Jane Hale & William S. Hale

Jane's Letter dates March 24, 1864

James  and the family kept up their correspondence with Jane and William for many years. In 1865, Jane married a man named William McMeeken in Linn County, Oregon. Her son William ended up marrying one of William McMeeken’s daughters, Minerva McMeeken (1849-1892). Jane passed away on December 30, 1892 in Albany, Linn County, Oregon.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this early peek into my book, A State Divided. If you have, be sure to click “Follow” above and sign up for email notifications for future posts.

Check back in future posts to hear some of the facts I’ve learned as a result of my research related to Jane’s letters, including information about Fort Laramie, Big Platte, the Kennedy Train, the Mormon Trail, the “Sisters” at Whitman Seminary, and Walla Walla, Washington. I’ll also be discussing and sharing photos from my April trip to Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, where I visited the Museum of Westward Expansion and learned a lot more about the road west.

Researching the Oregon Trail - Captain John Knox Kennedy, Big Platte, and Fort Laramie

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #16

by Tonya Graham McQuade

After reading Jane Kennedy Hale’s letters to the Hale family back in Andrew County Missouri (see Posts #14 and 15), I was curious to learn more about the Oregon Trail, especially some of the places she mentioned in her letters, including Big Platte, Fort Laramie, the Mormon Trail, Pike’s Peak, and "the mines." While I knew the story of the Donner Party and had visited Donner Memorial State Park and Museum in Truckee, California; had played “The Oregon Trail” computer game when I was younger (that taught us all some history, right?); and had seen movies depicting wagon trains (“Silverado” and "One More Mountain" come to mind), I realized my knowledge was in reality fairly limited.

So, imagine my excitement when I learned there was actually a book written about the particular wagon train with which Jane had traveled - and that her own brother was its leader! The book, Train of Innocents: The Story of the Kennedy Train, by Everell Cummins (published in 2005), is largely based on diaries kept by two members - James McClung and Hamilton Scott - of the Kennedy train, as well as later memoirs and news stories written by and about some of the other members of the train. I actually tried to contact the author - then sadly discovered he had died in 2019.

As described in Train of Innocents, Jane’s brother, Captain John Knox Kennedy, was born in Greene County, Tennessee, in 1811 - that's the same place many of the Hales (including my great-great grandmother Mary Ann) were born, so I'm guessing the families knew each other from way back. Captain Kennedy and his first wife, Sarah Steele, had five children, some born in Indiana and some in Illinois. Sarah died in 1845, and in 1848 - after being honorably discharged from his service in the Mexican-American War and being rewarded with land in Wapello County, Iowa - Captain Kennedy remarried a widow named Sarah "Sally" McGuire Stoots/Stotts, who had three daughters and a son. Together, while living in Iowa, they had one son - John H.C. Kennedy. Several of the Kennedy and Stoots/Stotts children were part of the Kennedy Train. 

While serving in the Mexican War in 1847 under Lt. Col. Ludwell E. Powell, whose “battalion was given the job of establishing military posts along the overland trail to Oregon and California, Kennedy participated in establishing a post on the Platte River” (Cummins 20). During the California gold rush in 1849, he traveled with two neighbors on the overland trail to California before returning to Iowa and moving his family to Mahaska County, where he served as county sheriff for two years, as well as a captain in the Iowa state militia. In 1859, Kennedy once again traveled west, this time to visit a cousin in Washington Territory, and after seeing the “empty, fertile land await[ing] settlement,” he decided to move his family west (Cummins 22).

According to Cummins, Kennedy’s “background in the military and in law enforcement, as well as his experience handling livestock and his familiarity with the trail west all helped persuade his neighbors to go with him” (Cummins 22). And so, a group of about a dozen set off from Fremont, Iowa, on April 24, 1862, determined to establish new lives in Walla Walla and other areas of Oregon and Washington. The recently-widowed Jane Kennedy Hale and her son William Simpson, age 12, were among them, and other wagons joined their train as they traveled along the Missouri River. By the time they left Omaha, Nebraska, the Kennedy train totaled "52 wagons, manned by 222 men, women and children" (Cummins 17).

In her letter to the family back in Andrew County, Missouri, Jane wrote the following on June 2, 1862, from the Nebraska Territory (see full letter in Post #14):

I take my pen in hand to let you know that we are all well at this time, thanks be to god for his mercy. Hoping these few lines find you all in the same state of health. We are traveling on the north side of Big Platte. We are within twenty-five miles of Fort Laramie, and we will go not far from there. It is on the other side of the Platte River. There is fifty wagons in this train, and my brother John Kennedy is captain of the company. I never saw the like in my life of people going to Oregon and to Pike’s Peak. You cannot see from the one end of the train to the other, they say. There are nine hundred Mormons on the other side of the river.

So, my first question was, what (and where) is Big Platte? 

Here’s what I learned from two different historical markers in Nebraska (with thanks to the unknown photographers of these markers):

Marker in Kearney, Kearney County, Nebraska

Inscription: “The trail which followed the south side of the Platte River was the main route to Oregon and California. Fur traders going to the Rocky Mountains took the first wagons over the trail in 1830. Oregon-bound missionaries followed in the mid-1830s, and the first group of settlers embarked for Oregon in 1841. The number of emigrants reached 40,000 in 1849 after gold was discovered in California. Most emigrants traveled in ox-drawn wagons averaging about fifteen miles a day. In the 1850s and 1860s, freight wagons and stagecoaches carrying passengers and mail used the road. From April 1860 until October 1861, the Pony Express carried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. Fort Kearny (1848-1871), east of here, provided protection and supplies for travelers. Supplies could also be purchased at nearby Dobytown. One of many road ranches along the Oregon-California trail was located just southeast of this marker. Wagon travel on this overland route declined following the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.”

The Great Platte Valley Marker on Rural Interstate 80

in Gretna, Sarpy County, Nebraska

Inscription: “Here is the great Platte Valley, Highway to the West. On these nearby bluffs prehistoric Indians built their homes. The Pawnee and Oto established large earthlodge villages near here. As you travel west in the valley you will follow the route of the Indians, white explorers, and the early trails to the western United States. In 1820, an exploring party under Major Stephen Long followed the Platte Valley to the Rocky Mountains, as did an 1826 expedition under General William Ashley. By 1830, the valley had become the major supply route for fur traders in the Rocky Mountains. Beginning in 1847, the Mormons on their way to Utah followed a trail along the north side of the Platte. The Oregon Trail reached the Platte 150 miles west of here and followed the south side of the river. By the late 1850's, it was estimated that 90% of all traffic which crossed the Plains followed the Platte. The famous Pony Express followed the Platte Valley, as did the first transcontinental telegraph line. By 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed and it, too, followed the valley, opening the land along the river for permanent settlement.”

My second question was, what is the history of Fort Laramie?

Photo taken from nps.gov website

Well, it turns out, Fort Laramie has a big history - and it is now a National Historic Site in Wyoming. According to the nps.gov website:

“Located at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers in southeast Wyoming, this famed outpost - first as a fur trade post and then as a military garrison - played a strategic role in transforming the United States. Here, for 56 years successive waves of trappers, traders, Native Americans, missionaries, emigrants, soldiers, miners, ranchers and homesteaders interacted and left their mark on a place that would become famous in the history of the American west - Fort Laramie….

"Tens of thousands of emigrants bound for Oregon, California, and the Salt Lake Valley would eventually stop at the fort (which was originally called Fort John). The traders at Fort John did a brisk seasonal business catering to the needs of emigrants.

 

“In 1849, the U.S. Army offered to purchase Fort John as part of a plan to establish a military presence along the emigrant trails. The owners of the Fort agreed to the sale, and on June 26, the post was officially renamed Fort Laramie, and it began its tenure as a military post. The Army quickly constructed new buildings for stables, officers' and soldiers' quarters, a bakery, a guardhouse, and a powder magazine to house and support the fort garrison.

 

“As the years went by, the post continued to grow in size and importance. Fort Laramie soon became the principal military outpost on the Northern Plains. Fort Laramie also became the primary hub for transportation and communication through the central Rocky Mountain region as emigrant trails, stage lines, the Pony Express, and the transcontinental telegraph all passed through the post.”

 

The Kennedy train reached Fort Laramie, about 30 miles inside what is now Wyoming, on June 22, 1862. There, they camped on the other side of the Platte River from the fort, and "the company devoted the principal part of the day in writing letters to friends [they] left behind," according to James McClung's diary (Cummins 34).  Jane's letter, from which I quoted above, was written over a period of several weeks, with the last date listed being June 20, so it's likely she mailed this letter from Fort Laramie. 

According to Fort Laramie NHS: Park History, "Much of our knowledge of Fort Laramie in the 1850s is derived from journals and letters kept by a surprising number of emigrants themselves. Indeed, to a very large extent the history of the fort during this period is essentially its unique role in serving, in various ways, this transient population during its Exodus from 'the States,' across the vast wilderness known vaguely as Indian Territory, to 'the Promised Land.' Fort Laramie was between 600 and 700 miles from the various Missouri River 'jumping-off places,' the exact distance depending on whether your point of origin was the Council Bluffs area (including Omaha after 1854), Table Rock (later Nebraska City), St. Joseph. or Independence, Missouri. While Fort Kearny on the Platte, where all trails converged, was viewed as the gateway to the Great Plains, Fort Laramie, with Laramie Peak looming in the distance, was looked upon as the gateway to the Mountains. Here one left the relatively level North Platte Valley of Nebraska and embarked on more rugged terrain, climbing toward South Pass on the Continental Divide. For many the brave little post on the Laramie was the only civilized place encountered between Fort Kearny and the West Coast" (PDF 21).

 

Fort Laramie was also the first place the travelers could receive mail, and as McClung described, "At 3:00 PM the mail came and, as every one was anxious of course to get a letter, they was all on hand awaiting here. We heard from the old stomping ground for the first time, which placed anew the recollection of all that was near and dear which we left behind" (Cummins 34).

 

I wonder if Jane and William received any letters. I hope so. I cannot imagine what they must have felt, leaving behind all they knew and heading to an unknown land to begin a new life, without a husband or father to help them in that undertaking. The one year anniversary of Jane's husband Meshack's murder by Confederate sympathizers passed during that month of June when Jane wrote the letter - and she had also lost her daughter Harriet (b. 1837) sometime before 1862 (I have not been able to find a death date). Jane expressed concern in her letter about not having had the money to purchase headstones for them before she left Missouri - I hope that is something that the family back in Missouri finally took care of. 

Aerial view of Fort Laramie from nps.gov website

My third and fourth questions were, why were the Mormons on the other side of the river, and why were so many people going to Pike's Peak? Those turned out to be questions needing longer responses, and I'll tackle them in my next couple posts.

 

Check back soon, and be sure to click "Follow" above if you like what you've read!

Some Family Members Move West - A Letter from the Oregon Trail in 1862

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #14

by Tonya Graham McQuade

Letter from Jane Kennedy Hale

As mentioned in an earlier post, I am now working on TWO books - one nonfiction and one historical fiction - based on the various family letters I recently acquired (see Post #1). That was a decision I made after learning that many Civil War sites only carry nonfiction titles. So, in addition to the historical fiction novel I originally started, I am now drafting A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree, which will just include the actual letters, along with historical context and explanations.

I’m really most excited, though, about the historical fiction novel I’m working on, Missouri Daughter, which will include the letters, along with additional “made up” elements. Every other chapter will focus on the family members back at home, with special focus given to James’s daughter, MaryAnn “Mollie” Hale Petree. Those “at home” chapters will include some imagined activities, conversations, worries, and emotions - but will be based on extensive research and many facts mentioned in the various letters. Most of the letters I have were directed to Mary Ann and her husband, Bailis Petree - my great great grandparents. However, when James volunteered for the army, he also left behind his wife, Elizabeth, and three children: Amanda (14), McDonald (12), and Eliza (6). Many of his letters were also addressed to them.

My next few posts will include excerpts from both books - so you’ll be able to see my different approaches - as I share some of the letters written by Jane “Jinny” Kennedy Hale and her son, William Simpson Hale, to the Hale family back in Missouri as they traveled along the Oregon trail in 1862 and eventually settled in Walla Walla, Washington. 

Jane married James’s brother, Meshack Hale, in 1831. Their son, William, was born in 1850 and was very close in age to his cousin, James’s son McDonald “Mc” Hale. Meshack, as explained in Post #10, was killed by Confederate sympathizers in 1861. The following year, Jane and William headed west with her brother, Captain John Knox Kennedy, with what became known as the “Kennedy Train.” I discovered that a book was actually written about this particular wagon train, and some of the details I learned find their way into both books.

Originally published in 2005

Here is an excerpt from Missouri Daughter, chapter 1, in which I first introduce these characters, taking what is known about Meshack’s death and embellishing the details based on historical research and sometimes “guesswork”:

Just last year, a group of Confederate guerrillas had killed Mollie’s poor Uncle Meshack, shooting him dead after burning down his barn. What a devastating day that had been for the family! A neighbor had smelled the smoke and reported that he saw a group of men riding off, whooping and hollering as they rode, but he hadn’t been able to stop them. Mollie was glad that at least they hadn’t scalped Uncle Meshack – that would have been too awful to bear. They did that sometimes, she knew – and sometimes even cut off their victims’ fingers and ears. A shiver went down her spine at the thought.

 

Fortunately, Aunt Jinny and cousin William had been off visiting Aunt Jinny’s sister and were unharmed by the attack, but now Aunt Jinny had decided she and William needed a fresh start, and they had joined her brother, Captain John Knox Kennedy, a few months ago in a wagon train headed out toward Walla Walla, Washington, traveling along the Oregon Trail. Mollie hoped they were safe. She missed hearing Aunt Jinny’s happy laughter, and she knew her brother Mc really missed cousin William, who was just a few months younger than he. The two of them were like two peas in a pod – always joking, swapping stories, going hunting, looking for arrowheads, and coming up with new ways to avoid work and get into trouble around the farm. Mc had been moping around for months now.

Later in Missouri Daughter, I have the family sit down to read the letter they finally received from Aunt Jane - but I don’t have them receive it until Christmas, where it serves as a sort of Christmas gift for them all. It cheers them all up a bit since they are all disappointed that their father, James Calaway Hale, could not come home for Christmas on furlough. I don’t know when the family actually received the letter, but if Jane waited to mail the letter until she reached Walla Walla, it’s possible that many months would have passed since she first set pen to paper.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 3, describing that scene:

After they had all enjoyed some warm cookies and milk, Mama held up an envelope. “I have a surprise,” she said. “Uncle Elijah stopped by the post office in Savannah today, and he picked up this letter for us. It’s from Aunt Jinny!”

 

It had been months since Aunt Jinny and cousin William had left for Iowa to join the wagon train heading west, and they had all been wondering if they had made it safely to Washington. Eagerly, they encouraged Mama to open the envelope, and when they saw that the letter was many pages, they excitedly urged her to begin reading:

 

Nebraska Territory – June 2, 1862

 

Dear friends and brothers and sisters,

 

I take my pen in hand to let you know that we are all well at this time, thanks be to god for his mercy. Hoping these few lines find you all in the same state of health. We are traveling on the north side of Big Platte. We are within twenty-five miles of Fort Laramie, and we will go not far from there. It is on the other side of the Platte River.

 

There is fifty wagons in this train, and my brother John Kennedy is captain of the company. I never saw the like in my life of people going to Oregon and to Pike’s Peak. You cannot see from the one end of the train to the other they say. There are nine hundred Mormons on the other side of the river.

 

I’m very well satisfied so far. William S. Hale is well satisfied too. He wishes Mc was along and all of you. He wants to see you all, and we were sad you weren’t able to come see us before we left. I intended to give you my clock and a great many other things, but we took the things along with us and sold them on the road and done well with them. We swapped the wagon and horses for a yoke of oxen for eighty dollars. They are fine cattle.

 

They all treat me well, and I feel better satisfied than I did there all alone. There is no sickness as yet and no bad luck. They have preaching on Sabbath when convenient. They have singing. John’s daughter Rhoda is along and has two children. His daughter Mary is not married yet. She is a good-looking girl. There are five women in our tent. That makes it light on me. John has four wagons for his family, one for us, and five more wagons for other families. I have all my bed clothes and both beds, and that is all I wanted. We have camped now.

 

Big Platte - June 9, 1862

 

Now we are about starting. We are up among the Indians. We have had no trouble with them yet. We have come through two tribes of them. This morning of June marks one year since Meshach died, and I was sorrow that I could not get Harriet’s and his graves fixed, but so it is. I think just as much of them as if I had them fixed. I tried hard to get them fixed, but I could not get the money.

 

Sixth day of June, we started on Big Platte again. We are all well this morning – only William S. got his arm sprained, but it is getting well. Seventh morning of June we have been traveling three days without seeing a house. We don’t see no Indians here. They are away back in the bluff a herding the buffalo to keep the whites from killing them. We don’t see none of this tribe. They keep hid away.

 

We are both well satisfied if it don’t rain. There have been some hard rains for the last week. Today it is a fine morning. I hope we will get through this safe. I had my fortune told, and he said I would get through safe and have good luck after I did get through.

Most trains took four months to travel the Oregon Trail;

the Kennedy Train took almost six months.

June 20, 1862

 

I take up pen in hand to let you know how we are getting along. We are all well at this time. We was all at a wedding last evening and there was about two hundred people there. We have been traveling for two weeks without seeing a house, not much wood, Indians plenty. It is like a camp meeting. I don’t mind if we have had good luck so far.

 

John has not lost any of his stock and has had no sickness. Only one of his step daughters has been put to bed and is a doing well - Miss Neely. She has two little girls and a third just born. There was one man’s teams run off and killed one of their sons and then broke their wagon. They had to unload his wagon into another wagon, and they will fix his wagon when we get to the fort tomorrow.

 

William S. Hale is very well pleased, and he has been well ever since we started. I hope he will stand it and live to get through and then we can get along there better. John Kennedy was at Lewis Hale’s and saw Emily Francis Neel. She was married to James Kennedy and they was doing well. Jane Hale was well and more hearty than he ever saw her.

 

John remembers his love to all of you and he says he would like to see you all and wants you all to come to Oregon and bring your children where they can get land. You and Liza might fix and come while your children is little. There is a great many old men along and they stand it well.

 

When we get there we will write to you and let you know where to write to us and let us know how all people is doing and who has married. Read this to all inquiring friends. I must come to a close as they are about starting. William S. Hale says he would like to see all of the children.

 

Always remains our love,

Jane Hale & William S. Hale to all inquiring friends

 

Mama carefully folded the letter, then opened it up again to look at the final date: June 20. She wondered when and where Jane had finally been able to mail this letter – and just where she and William might be right now. She hoped they would be celebrating Christmas in a new home in Washington, with family and friends close by. She didn’t like to think of them being alone.

 

“I sure miss William,” Mc said. “But what an adventure he’s having! I think I’d like to go see him in Washington someday. Maybe go see Lewis and Jane Hale in California, too, and take a look at those big trees he mentioned in his last letter” (see Post #13).

  

… Aunt Jinny’s letter had cheered them all up enough to sing a few Christmas carols, then say an extra special prayer for Papa. They hoped he was warm, healthy, and safe, and that he would get something special to eat for Christmas. They would be eating a Christmas ham, cut from the hog they had recently butchered, along with some sweet potatoes, cooked greens, cranberries, plum pudding, and apple pie. Bailis’s brother Benjamin and his family would be joining them after the church service that morning, as would Papa’s brother, Uncle Elijah, and his family. Maybe this could still be a happy Christmas after all.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these early peeks at my book, Missouri Daughter! If you have, be sure to click “Follow” above and sign up for email notifications for future posts.

Check back Saturday to see an excerpt from my nonfiction book, to learn some additional facts about the Kennedy Wagon Train, and to see another letter from Jane and William to the family.

Some Family Members Move West on the Oregon Trail - A Letter from California in 1858

Chasing History: Exploring My Ancestral Roots - Post #13

by Tonya McQuade

Map of the Oregon Trail

In addition to the many Civil Letters I acquired in the box Jeremy sent me (see Blog Post #1) were ten letters from various family members and friends who traveled to California, Oregon, and Washington in the 1850’s and 1860’s. These letters provide some interesting insights into the journey along the Oregon Trail, as well as into what it took to make a life for yourself in these frontier territories and states in the mid-19th century.

My husband Mike and I have made many trips to Sonoma County in northern California over the past twenty years, mostly for wine tasting excursions but also to see Jack London State Historical Park in Glen Ellen and the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. So, when I saw the following letter written from Sonoma County in 1858 by James Calaway Hale’s nephew, Lewis Hale, the son of his brother Charles, I was excited to read what life was like for him and his family in that distant time.

What amazed me most, however, was his description of the journey it took to get there - and the rather “ho hum,” unembellished way he presented it! Here’s the letter he wrote to his family back in Andrew County, Missouri:

State of California, Sonoma County, Petaluma Valley – 29 Jan 1858

 

Dear uncles and aunts and cousins,

I take my pen in to inform you all that we are all well and hearty at the present time hoping that these few lines will find you all enjoying the same blessings. We would like to see you all but we are a long distance apart. We don’t expect to ever see you all again in this life but hope to meet you all in heaven where parting will be no more.

 

We all got through to California safe and sound. They was no sickness on the plains. They were two boys killed by the cattle getting scared and taking a stampede. They was a good many killed by the Indians and the robbers. On Goose Creek and Humboldt River they was a small [wagon] train two days ahead of our train. Sixteen in the train – men, women, and children - was all murdered but one woman. She was shot and scalped. She got with a train the same day and got well. She said she stood by and saw her husband and children killed. She travel on down to the sinks of Humboldt. There she had a white man taken up and tried for being with the Indians when her children was killed. He denied it and tried to get away, but in his effort to get away he was shot down dead. They was no danger of big [wagon] trains being interrupted.

They was great losses of stock on the plains - died and stolen. Galant Wrange lost 75 head of cattle – his all died. I lost three steers and one cow. They got poisoned on wild parsnip, we supposed. Pap Heil lost one half of his. I bought three head of cattle on the plains. I paid one hundred and 65 dollars for the three head -  one big steer and two heifers 3 years old this next spring. They are fat and soon will give milk - good milk. Cows is worth $75 dollars.

Times is very hard here now - money is scarce. I can’t tell how I will like the country yet. I cannot advise anybody to come to this country although it is a pretty good country - warm and nice, the climate good and agreeable, grass green and growing, farmers plowing and sowing grain. It has rained some this winter, but the most of the time has been pretty weather days - warm nights, little cold, some little frost. Some nights I have rented a place. I am plowing and sowing grain. I am going to put in a lot of potatoes. They pay big sometimes.

 

I am in Petaluma Valley six miles from the [San Francisco] bay, ten miles from the sea shore. We can hear the waves rolling. We want you all to write. Direct your letter to Sonoma Co., Petaluma, California….

Petaluma, California (Wikipedia Image)

Doctor Birnet has stopped in Petaluma town. They are all well and pleased with the country and climate. Mrs. Birnet had a fine girl on the road. She had it at the sinks of Humboldt. We lay by 2 days and then rolled on, struck the desert the day after, and cross over in half day and one night forty miles without water or grass, ten miles of heavy sand. So the doctor increased in family and decreased in stock. He lost about all of his cattle. It is a long road to travel with an ox team. If I ever was to cross the plains again, I would get a mule team for they stand it better than anything else and go faster.

 

Galant Wrange is as good a man as ever crossed the plains. He was a friend to the needy - let them have anything they stood in need of, let them have cattle to work and said work them through. If they die, they is nobody’s but old Gallant’s…. Also Judge Croley is well pleased with the country. He has gained his health – he is fat as a hog…. Samuel Heil is not well. I am afeard (afraid) he never will be stout any more. I seen a letter from John Ray. He is well. He is in the mines.

 

I haven’t made as much as I have spent. I made 3 hundred rails. I got 5 dollars per hundred. It was two days and a half making them – made them out of redwood. This redwood is the best splitting timber that I ever have seen in my life. I saw a redwood tree that was 28 feet across the stump. It is on this side of the Sierra Mountains on the big tree route that is the best way across the mountain.

 

William Maul, that big tree I saw is timber enough in it to keep you coopering till you are gray as a rat. So come and see the tree. The coopers trade is no one here. The redwood timber can be cut into shingles – they are worth 3 dollars per thousand. So come on Uncle Meshach with your machine. Timber don’t cost anything.

 

I will bring my letter to a close, so no more but remains our love to you all. We send our respects to all inquiring friends if any.

 

Lewis Hale, Louisa J. Hale, Nancy E. Hale, and Charles S. Hale to all

 

I deleted some of the name references in the letter above - I’m not sure who many of the people mentioned are. Others, however, I was able to track down and add to my family tree - including Lewis Hale himself, who I had not previously added to my tree since I have often chosen NOT to include all the siblings, nieces, and nephews since it can make the tree overly cumbersome to navigate. 

These letters inspired me to add MANY names to that side of the family tree so I could try to figure out as many of the people being discussed as possible. I also learned that the “Humboldt Sink” mentioned in the letter is an intermittent dry lake bed, approximately eleven miles long and four miles across, in northwestern Nevada in the United States. The body of water in the sink is known as Humboldt Lake.

Humboldt Sink (Wikipedia Image)

I wish “Uncle Meshack,” my great-great-great grandfather James Calaway Hale’s brother, would have taken Lewis up on that invitation to join him in California, where the plentiful redwood would have helped him out in his coopering business. If he had, he would not have been in Missouri in 1861 to get killed by Confederate sympathizers (see Blog Post #10). His wife Jane and son William, who fortunately escaped injury, later decided to make the move to the West Coast as part of the Kennedy Wagon Train … but more on that next time.

Check back Thursday to see excerpts from Jane and William's letters to the family back in Missouri.