May 1849
Tuesday, May 1.
We travel through a rich country. Arrive
at Mr. Price's, a member of the
anti-missionary Baptist where we found a beautiful grass
pasture. Camped. 17 miles.
Wednesday, May 2.
Came within one and a half miles of Liberty.
A Mr. Long visited our camp who has often been to Santa Fe.
He told us that the route by Santa Fe to California was quite practicable
and that he intended to start on the first of June and go that way.
Some of our company are for going the Santa Fe route and some the South
Pass. It is quite uncertain which
way we shall go as there are so many different accounts of the routes that we
cannot form an opinion which is the best.
Friday, May 4.
Repairing our wagons. The camp is
all bustle and hurry. It rained
almost all night as I lay in the wagon. I
heard it beating close to my head with nothing but the thin cotton covering to
shelter me from the peltings of the pitiless storm.
We have but a small tent and it blew down in the night and those who
slept in it had to elevate in the night and repitch the tent in the rain.
Six o'clock and it is still raining.
We had to turn out in the rain and cook bread and make coffee for
eighteen men. We stand in the heavy
falling rain with our bread and cold fat bacon in our hand and our coffee
considerably weakened by the falling rain in our cups.
We should greatly pity any one whom we might see in a like situation if
we were at home, but we do not think our lot is hard.
We have all first rate health and good appetites.
Our painted coats are very valuable.
We
all feel deeply interested in which route we take for perhaps our lives depend
upon our taking the right step now. We
cannot come back if we reach the Snowy Mountains and we cannot pass over.
We look forward with deep anxiety to the Sierra Nevadas where we suppose
to meet with the greatest difficulties. Two
o'clock P. M. It still continues to rain and as our tents are being repaired and
the wagons are occupied, I write this under one of the wagons.
"Home, thy scenes are passing lovely."
Night, its shadows have covered the Heavens. A misty rain continues to fall.
We had to cook our supper which consisted of coffee, corn bread and cold
bailed bacon, and just rolled down our bed in the wagon and feel happy that I
have such a delightful shelter. It seems as grateful to me as ever did the
softest bed. My thoughts have been
more than usual at home today. I
expected a letter from my family but Captain R. inquired at Independence for me
and found none. It is very dark,
not a star. I repair to my couch.
May
5, Saturday morning. Cloudy
with mists falling. We take an
early start for Liberty where we are detained a short time to get painted cloth
to cover the tops of our wagons. Liberty
is a beautiful town of some fifteen hundred inhabitants. A very rich country surrounds it here. Captain Roberts showed me a letter which he received from his
wife at Hannibal in which my daughter is named which renders me very unhappy.
Mrs. Roberts, after stating the families of all the company are well so
far as she had heard observes at the close of her letter, "I have not seen
any of the Misses Stevens." Here,
Mrs. had to close her letter as the mail was just ready to start and I suppose I
have thought much on the few words as my daughter, Ann Eliza, was just but
partially recovered from sickness when I left home.
What did it mean, Miss Stevens is better, is worse, is well, is dead?
I could not tell. I could
not help thinking of it all the fore part of the day.
This
evening, a further consideration of it with trusting in Divine Providence has
considerably relieved my mind.
We have passed through a thickly
settled country today, but the land has been very broken. Nothing of interest occurred.
The camp fire is blazing and my friend holds the candle while I finish
these last lines. Camp Williams.
8 miles.
May 6. Sunday. Rainy morning. Meeting
was appointed at Barry, a small town not far from camp, but in consequence of
the rain more attended. I went into
the wagon which seems to the traveler like his home and threw myself on the bed
and should have been quite happy but for thinking of my family.
Night.
The moon is at her full and I write this by her soft light while her
silver beams shed on my paper. Committing
myself to the care of Him who called it into existence and caused its light to
shine on the earth, I repair to the couch.
May
7. Captain R. and Mr. Tatershall started early this morning to St. Joe to
ascertain the best place to cross the Missouri River. It is reported that the cholera is raging there and that we
may have to wait a week before we can get ferried over the River.
If so we shall cross at some other point lower down.
James Munson[2]
and Yankee John rode to Independence, 5 miles, today to get letters from the
post office. I am anxiously looking
for one from there and one from St. Joe. This
day, I have left the cooking department and Henry washes our clothes.
Our clothes are dried and I ironed them and they look very well.
A California emigrants' wagon with five yoke of oxen came by our camp
yesterday with a woman and two little boys and two men.
One was Mr. Nat Shannon.[3] The woman wanted to return but they went on. Poor woman, I
pitied her. Camp: Williams.
May 8, Tuesday.
Passed through a rich prairie with some fine improvements. At 4 o'clock arrived
at Platte City, a beautiful town on the Little Platte River. Met with a Mr.
Osborne who informed us that Major McDaniels[4]
was on his way and goes by way of Santa Fe. They wish us to join their train. Captain Roberts and Tatershall are to meet us here today on
their return from St. Joe. Mr.
Munson and Yankee John returned about nine o'clock P. M. from Independence.
They bring me no letters. The
post office was crowded and more letters than the postmaster could look over.
The town is crowded with emigrants.
The cholera is very bad there and many are backing out.
Men wishing to sell their trunks and effects at almost any price, women
and children in pitiable situations. Many
will be ruined by this speculation.
What the
results will be with us is entirely beyond our knowledge.
Camp Platte City 16 mi.
May 9, 10 and 11, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Captain Roberts returned to camp this morning. Brings no letters for me.
I feel much disappointed. Found
the post office crowded as at Independence.
Yet undecided about which route to take. There were thirty one persons died of cholera on the
Steamboat Mary on her way from St. Louis to Independence. The engineer was buried just before arriving at Independence.
Nineteen persons died at a small town called Kansas.
One man was taken in the street and died in an hour.
May 12.
We leave camp about nine o'clock. Traveled
12 miles and stopped to feed. Sent
Yankee John four miles to the Missouri River to inquire if our teams could be
ferried over. He returned in about
two hours and informed us that if we went on, we could be ferried over that
evening. We drove on. When we came to the River, there were a large train of
government cattle to be ferried over and they always have first right.
That evening we could get none of our wagons or cattle over.
We were now in the Missouri bottom two miles from any
farm where we couId get any corn or pasturage.
Our cattle were hungry; night approaching; cattle and men tired.
Cholera raging on the other side of the River at Fort Leavenworth, the
soldiers barracks are in view and it is reported that out of about one thousand
soldiers in the garrison from 14 to 20 die in a day.
The steamboat Mary Blane has just made her appearance.
She has landed and one coffin is taken out, some one belonging to the
Fort, an officer, perhaps. We turn
our cattle out with their yokes on to graze.
Have a great deal of trouble keeping them together. The poor cattle get
but little. We tie them up and take
our coffee and bread and meat and retire to rest.
16 miles.
May 13.
Sunday. About midnight some
poor fellow in the River hollowed, "Save me! Save me!" and floated
down the stream about a quarter of a mile.
Opposite to our wagons, the sentinels on guard heard him.
One gave the alarm but no one could reach him and he sank in the deep
water and was drowned. We had expected to have been ferried over the morning early
but a drove of government mules came and we could not get the horse boat, so we
had to take a crazy old flat and there being two flats we had the promise of
them. We expected to get them, but
some other California emigrants disputed our right to them.
Both our men had some hard words with them, which I was afraid would
terminate in the use of arms, but we soon made an amicable adjustment and we had
to labor hard all day to pull the oars and attend to our cattle and could get
nothing to eat. The Missouri water was all we had to drink which was very
muddy although it was sweet. The
sun shone very hot and we had to work very hard without much to eat and our
cattle had to starve all day.
At night just after sun down, we put
over the last wagon. Our provision was lying on the landing and it looked like
rain but we were all too much exhausted to pack the provisions in the wagon.
All our cattle were grazing in the commons and we had to gather them
together and tie them, our suppers to get, and worse, one yoke of cattle had
strayed off and we had to hunt in the night for them, but found them not until
the next morning. This was less
like Sunday than any day I ever saw before or desire to see again.
After hunting up our stray cattle till late at night we all laid down to
sleep. Camp Leavenworth.
Monday, May 16. Before day we all arose and went in search of the cattle.
Found them. Commenced
repacking our flour, bacon and baggage. Just
before we finished, torrents of rain poured down upon us but we soon finished
and hitched up our cattle and drove about four miles from the Fort and camped on
the prairie at a place selected by another company (which they recommend to us)
which was a very bad selection. About
half a mile from us there were a great many soldiers from the Fort encamped,
being sent there on account of small pox and cholera.
Several of our company are
complaining of sickness and diarrhea. Mr. Atkinson so sick that he had to lie
down on the road being unable to sit on his horse but a short distance at a
time. Mr. Wines taken with the same
cholera is in our camp[5]
and the result we know not, every countenance looks sad.
We have much to do here packing and making sacks and adjusting everything
before we start on our long trip across the plains.
Henry Stevens this evening taken sick.
Mr. Atkinson[6]
and Wines worse. More complaining. At night we appoint a guard of sixteen as there is danger of
our oxen or mules being driven off and stole.
This is the first time in my life I ever had to stand guard.
The night was very cloudy and dark constant lightning and about midnight
heavy rain; as I walked the lonely rounds the groans of the sick, the vomiting
of persons in some tents and now lights springing in others, with the hurried
step of one and another inquiring
for the doctor added fresh depression to my spirits already cast down.
When I was relieved from guard, I went to the wagon to my bed and found
my son, Henry, much worse. I laid
down but could not sleep. Up to
this time, I had not been the least sick myself and did not fear the hardships
and fatigue of the journey, but sickness and death seemed to lie between me and
California.
May 15, Tuesday. This mornings Mr. Atkinson worse. Mr. Wines expected to die.
Early yesterday morning, he was well.
We move on from this place of cholera.
Mr. Hubbard[7]
put Mr. Wines on his mule carriage, drove a mile or two and Mr. Wines breathed
his last. We drove on to a little
stream called Caw River and deposited his remains on its bank, scratched his
name on a stone and put it at the head of his grave.
There he lies in the wilderness of the plains in the wild uncultivated
territory beyond Missouri. Mr.
Atkinson still lower. His wagon
stops while the grave is dug and poor Wines is buried, but we do not inform him
of the death. I inquired of
Mr. Atkinson how he was. He told me
no better. I expected soon to see
him laid in the ground. I had
little hopes that he would ever recover. We
traveled twenty miles through a beautiful country.
Camped where we found plenty of wood and water.
May 16.
Wednesday. This morning a Major
Gouff died of cholera. A part of
the train stay to deposit his remains. Henry
is worse. We arrive at the Kansas
River. I feel the symptoms of the
prevailing disease. I am very much
depressed in spirits. If I get sick
there is but little possibility of getting better as it is not possible to nurse
and provide nourishment for a sick person in a wagon traveling with a train and
now it seems if to be only at home with my family, I would give freely
everything I own. After crossing
the Kansas River, Mr.. Funk[8]
arrived in company with Messrs. Davidson
and Harris.[9] Mr. Harris had been sick for some days and not likely to
recover. Mr. Funk has the most of
the work to do as Mr. Harris is sick and he is very much discouraged and worn
down with fatigue. Mr. Harris
wishes to sell out and Mr. Funk also. Mr.
Davidson is unwilling. This day I
am about 16 miles from Independence and make up my mind to sacrifice everything
I have and go home, Henry being very sick and myself scarcely able to do
anything. Captain Roberts is very
much opposed to my leaving the company. Major
McDaniel has acted toward me as a true friend.
Sundown.
I feel something better and Henry is no worse. Resolved to wait until tomorrow morning before I decide
whether I will return home or go to California.
This evening I went to Mr. Funk's tent and persuaded him to go on but he
would not consent. Said he must go
home to his family.
May 17, Thursday. This morning feeling better and Henry's health improving, we
conclude to try and proceed with the train.
Mr. Harris of Marion County, the
sick man with Funk and Davidson, has sold out to Mr. Hubbard for $30.00 his
share is 1/3 of four yoke of oxen and wagon and provisions cost him (illegible).
Mr. Funk has determined to go on to California.
Mr. Harris and a Mr. Turner and the clothes and effects of Major Gouff of
Rocheport, Boone County, who died yesterday are sent to a little town called
Kansas at the mouth of the Kansas River where they will take a steamboat if they
are well enough and return
to their families. Camped at a
little branch where there is plenty of water and wood, about 22 miles from
Independence.
May 18.
This morning another man is very sick.
Almost all of the men are complaining.
I am not well, have diarrhea. Henry
still continues the same. Mr.
Atkinson is improving and he is able to ride on horseback.
We traveled this day without water fit for us to drink over a beautiful
plain. While I am writing this,
Yankee John is crying off at auction the clothes and effects of Mr. Wines.
Sale amounts to about sixty dollars. 12 miles.
May 19. This morning is very cold. The north
wind has blown cold all night. A
blanket feels very comfortable. Henry is not
so well as he was yesterday. I have diarrhea this morning worse
than I had it yesterday. One sick man, a Mr. Reed[10],
is better. We traveled this
day through a much poorer part of the plains than yesterday.
Mr. Atkinson's health is improving and we have no new cases.
This evening about three or four o'clock, Mr. J. McKee[11],
Dr. Meredith[12],
Mr. Cross[13]
and Mr. Ferguson[14]
from Hannibal came up with us. We
had a very pleasant meeting. They
travel with mules and horses. We
camp near wood and water. 14 miles.
May 20, Sunday. There is considerable sickness in the camp yet.
Mr. Vail taken with a chill and is quite sick.
I am still unwell myself. Slept
more last night. About two o'clock
this morning a yoke of oxen with a bell had, I suppose, strayed from some train
of wagons and running past our cattle which were left out in the open plain,
they followed them and the whole of our cattle were gone off in the dark night.
It was very dark. We all got up as soon as it was discovered that they were
gone and went in search of them. Directed
by the bell, we soon overtook them and brought them back.
I laid down again and got to sleep and slept about an hour.
This being the Lord's Day we had intended to rest but there being so much
diarrhea among the men which predisposes the system to take the cholera and we
had passed a camp yesterday which had buried two and another likely to die, we
thought we had better roll on and get as far out in the plains as possible.
Beside, we discovered staying in one place longer than one night made the
sick worse. We had not traveled
more than a mile from our camping place this morning when a man rode up to us.
He had saddle bags and blankets and was pretty well fixed for traveling.
He said he was very sick and he was evidently very much scared.
Poor fellow he had the cholera. Our
physician, Dr. Bull[15]
gave him some medicine and he continued to ride a little way, as far as he was
able, then got down until the last wagon of the train passed him, all being
afraid to take him in. Everyone
pitied him but none dare to take it upon himself to take him in for our wagons
were all full and if a man would give him up his own bed he could not put him in
with those of his bedfellows who slept in the wagon.
When the last wagon passed, he laid down on his blanket and that is the
last we saw of him.
This evening, about three o'clock the
wind blowing very hard, it commenced pouring down rain. We were unprepared and it drifted into the wagons.
The oxen would not stand and most of us got a complete wetting.
We could not travel any farther so we stopped our teams and turned out
our oxen while it was pouring down rain. I
was completely soaked with water and out in the pitiless storm having no place
to go in to dry, for to go into the wagon would wet everything else that was in
the wagon, so I waited in hopes the storm would abate.
It was very cold and I felt very disagreeable but a little before sun
down the storm abated its fury and the rain ceased but it still blowed very
cold. I changed my clothes and I
felt as much invigorated as if I had come out of a cold bath.
We had but very little brush wood that we had hauled from another camping
place to make a fire to boil our coffee. We
soon discussed our supper and laid down.
May 21.
Monday. This morning, the wind
is blowing very hard across the plains. It
is from the northeast. It is quite
cold. We start early.
After traveling about two miles we came to a grave close by the roadside.
A man in a company from New York died last night of cholera and here they
have laid him. Poor fellow, the
wolves will soon disinter him. Every
grave we pass in these lonely plains casts a gloom over the mind. No one knows but it may be his turn next.
We passed today, I suppose, one hundred dead oxen.
They are scattered all along the road.
Most of them died in the spring or winter coming from Santa Fe.
This evening, the company was called by the sound of the horn to consider
the propriety of having an organization. Capt.
Roberts was called to the chair. A
committee of five were nominated to draft a constitution and by-laws.
Camp at a creek called One Hundred to Ten.
May 22, Tuesday. This morning is calm. Wind
southeast. Cold until about nine
o'clock then a very warm day. We
came about seven miles to Switzlers Creek, a very good stream of water where
there was a company of men with pack mules.
A colored man in their company went out early this morning well, to drive
up some mules--was taken with cholera and at ten o'clock when we passed their
camp they did not expect him to live many minutes.
If a man is taken with cholera here there are little hopes of him getting
well. We heard today of a poor
fellow who was taken with cholera on Sunday on the road.
Three men passed him with pack mules, stayed with him some time and
promised to return back after they had found a camping place and secured their
mules but before they had got through with their camp arrangements it was very
late as came on a rain and blow exceedingly; they could not go back that night.
He was out in the pouring rain in the wild, wild plains sick and no one
was near him, his horse grazing by him and through the dark and dreary night the
howling winds are mingled with his groans.
Passed Independence Creek, a bold stream.
Here I learned that the man who died with the cholera was a Mr. McCrosky
who formerly owned the farm Mr. Darr[16]
near Hannibal now owns. His wife
and children were on ahead in a wagon and a Negro man belonging to him was with
them and he had died with cholera and we passed his grave the same morning he
was buried.
May 23, Wednesday.
A cold rainy morning and it has been a cold rainy night.
The cattle strayed away about two miles in the night scared by the
thunder and lightning. The
lightning continued from one flash to the other and kept up a constant blaze of
light. Those on guard had to run
and if it hadn't been for the lightning they could have not got them.
Nothing of interest occurred today.
We have passed over a very poor country with the exception of one stretch
of about twenty miles. We came to a
creek with good timber and water and
a narrow strip of good land in every six or from that to ten miles.
Much of the prairie we passed today has been gravelly.
May 24, Thursday. This morning again cold and the night has been rainy.
We have rain every day and it makes it very unpleasant traveling.
We arrive at a creek called Big John, one mile and a half from Council
Grove. Many Indians have come into
our camp today with their blankets round their shoulders and no other clothes
on. They brought dried buffalo meat
to sell. Some of our men bought it
and ate it. The smell was plenty for me. It
is still raining. We have to drive
up the cattle through the rain, tie them to our wagons, now the rain falls in
torrents. At a quarter before nine,
we set the guard out. I was in the
first watch, such a continued storm of thunder and lightning and rain I think I
never before witnessed. We had but
a poor guard tent and we expected it would blow down.
At eleven o'clock, wet through, I was relieved and crept into my wagon
where I found Henry shaking with the ague.
I felt thankful for the shelter that the wagon afforded.[17]
May 25, Friday. This morning is clear and cool but pleasant after so much
rain. Indians are in our camp
today. We stay here until tomorrow
on account of a stream we cannot cross. We
are washing up our clothes and airing them.
May 26, Saturday. It is a very cold morning and the wind blows so cold all day
that two coats will scarcely keep me warm.
Today we passed a new made
grave of an Indian chief with his horse lying at the head of the grave where he
had been shot down as their custom is to shoot the horse of the Chief when he
dies so that he may have a horse to ride when he gets to the other world and
then they have to go to some other tribe and get a scalp from some poor Indian
whoever they may find to shoot down so that their chief may have a servant as
well as a horse in the other country. We
traveled about 17 miles today and camp near Diamond Spring.
May 27, Sunday. Morning cool but pleasant.
An appointment for the company to meet at ten o'clock to organize was
made this morning. The chair was
filled by Major Bowlin. Colonel
Jackson[18]
was prepared who addressed the meeting stating object is for organizing a group
which was to travel together if a company sufficiently strong could be raised to
go by way of Bents Fort to the neighborhood of Taos and there, let some stay in
some good pasturage and graze the cattle and guard them while a company of men
go into the mountains among the Comanche Indians who are very hostile and
warlike, and explore for gold. Captain
Kirker, an old mountaineer who will be up with us in a few days with a large
company and who knows there is gold there, having been there and picked it up
himself, is to lead the way. The
Majority seeming to be in favor of going direct to California by the Seminole
Route, the meeting adjourned to meet again at two o'clock.
At two o'clock, we met, and adjourned
indefinitely. Captain Gully
tendered an invitation to any who would join a company to go the Seminole Route
to meet at their tent at four o'clock.
At four o'clock we met.
About one hundred form a train and appoint Captain Gully as their
commander and appoint a committee of five to draft a constitution and by-laws to
report tomorrow at noon. Our own company, upon reflection decided not to go with them
but to go with Colonel Jackson. My
watch tonight is from twelve to two o'clock.
May 28.
A very pleasant morning. We
send up to the company who start the Seminole route this morning at seven
o'clock intelliging them that we decline going with them.
We wait today for Kirker's company.
About four o'clock they arrive and camp about one mile west of us.
We leave the camp today and pass them and travel four miles carrying our
wood and water, there being no wood or good water the next thirty miles.
May 29, Tuesday. This morning we see antelopes on the plains which experienced
travelers say indicates that Indians are not far off. The Comanche Indians come out to the plains in the spring to
chase the buffalo and this spring it is thought they are farther east than usual
as antelope are very seldom seen on the east side of cottonwood groves.
They are generally west of Diamond Spring.
The antelope are very fleet. We
have seen many of them today and one has been shot by another company.
Our men did not succeed in shooting any. Camp at Cottonwood Grove, 26
miles.
May 30, Wednesday. It rained all day and we stayed in camp.
May 31.
Thursday. This morning one man
of the camp traveling with Col. Jackson
sold his baggage and left the camp for home after we had traveled about four
miles. Another stopped the wagon
and cried his baggage off by auction and rode on a good horse home.
His effects brought $44.00. He
intended to ride fifty five miles to Council Grove by night.
He took a notion that he must see his wife and family and when a man
begins to think about his family and home it is hard to shake it off. We travel today eighteen miles without wood or water.
We camp at Turkey Creek, a clear stream of water which never goes dry.
We have no wood here and shall not have any until we reach the Little
Arkansas. We came near a new made
grave of some emigrant.
A wagon loaded with goods from
Independence to Council Grove was overtaken by a traveler a few days ago. The
oxen were grazing a little from the road. The driver was in the wagon dead. It
was supposed he died from cholera.
[1]Mr.
Tatershal was probably the Mr. Tatershall listed in the 1844 census in
Hannibal, having 2 boys and a girl, for in the 1850 census, a Mary
TAtershall is listed, age 38, from Ohio, with a son John, 17, born in Ohio;
Mary J.,10, born in MO.; and William T., 5, born in Mo.
[2]James
Munson, born in Kentucky in 1827. His
father died when he was very young and he came to Hannibal to live in 1834
with his mother and his brother William.
He became a brickmaker and made the bricks for a large portion of the
early buildings in Hannibal. He
and his brother William went to California in 1849.
They returned in 1851. Not long after that, his brother William died
of cholera. James served as a
Union Soldier in the Civil War. He
was well known in Hannibal and served several years in city office.
In 1848, he married Fidelia Hunt of Monroe County, Missouri and they
had 7 children.
[3]Nathaniel
Shannon was one of the first settlers of Marion County, coming here before
1827.
[4]
Major McDaniel was a Marion Countian who was active in state politics.
He was nicknamed Billy Mac the Buster.
He served in the state legislature as a representative in 1846.
[5]Mr.
Wines. John S. Wines, listed in the 1840 census of Marion County as
a Hannibal resident, and also in the 1844 census as Hannibal.
[6]Mr.
Atkinson. Jacob D. Atkinson,
listed in the 1844 Marion County directory as a resident of Hannibal, with a
wife, 2 sons and 2 daughters. Later
in the diary, it is indicated that he took his family on the trip.
[7]William
Hubbard, born North Carolina, 1806. Moved
with his family to Ohio 1808. Came
to Hannibal 1842, settling on a piece of land about 1 1/2 miles west of the
Mississippi River where he farmed and kept a cooper shop.
In 1849 went to Calif. returning in 1850 by the Isthmus and New
Orleans. Married Margaret
Powler 1827 in Ohio, they had 10 children.
She died 1864. 1866, he married Mrs. Emily McDonald, daughter of
William Darr. She died 1881. In 1883 married Elizabeth Hubner.
[8]Mr.
Funk. Solomon Funk of
Hannibal.
[9]Mr.
Harris -- G. W. Harris of Hannibal. Mr.
Davidson -- William H. Davidson.
[10]Mr.
Reed. Possibly Mr. John
T. Read of Fabius TWP. in 1844 census, but cannot find a record of a Reed
who went to Calif. in 1849.
[11]John
McKee came to Mo. from Pittsburgh, Pa., helped establish Marion College,
later investing in and promoting the ill-fated Marion City.
He lived near West Ely.
[12]Dr.
Hugh H. Meredith, born circa 1806, Pennsylvania.
Practiced in Hannibal, his office on Wildcat corner, Main an Bird.
One of men who started first Library in Hannibal.
Married Ann Rose, 5 children.
[13]Samuel
C. Cross, teacher and owner private school in Hannibal.
[14]Mr.
Ferguson was William M. Ferguson of Hannibal.
[15]Dr.
J. F. Bull of Hannibal.
[16]Mr.
William Darr, one of the very earliest settlers of Marion County.
Owned a large strip of land in what was later Stringtown, and is now
called Oakwood.
[17]On
May 24, near Council Grove, Rev. Stevens
wrote a letter to his wife, Sarah, and the letter has been preserved. He stated that he was sad because he had not heard from her
except through a visit with Mr. McKee.
He confided to her his conflicts with Mr. Roberts, the captain of
his particular group which had become part of a larger wagon train.
Mr. Roberts had agreed to let him earn his expenses on the trip by
working. He was to be steward
of the provisions, and also to hold the church services on the trip.
A few days out on the road, he wrote, Mr. Roberts had imposed upon
him the job of cooking for the eighteen men.
Even on Sundays, he expected him to arise early, cook the bread, meat
and coffee, then go back to this crowded wagon which he shared with four
other men, and dress suitably for giving the sermon.
He resented Mr. Roberts reprimanding him in front of the others,
bossing him, and calling him such names as Granddaddy and Old Man Stevens.
Rev. Stevens told Sarah
he had been able to take his own part, and that he considered himself a
match for Roberts and had resolved not to let him impose upon him farther. His letter told news of the cholera, of the illness of Mr..
Atkinson and Henry, and of the death of Mr. Wines. He told Sarah how he appreciated the friendly gestures of
Major McDaniels to him. He
praised three men of the group, namely, William Fenner, Mr. Peyton and Townsend
Settles. He said he was sitting
in his wagon while he wrote, with his writing paper on a sack of clothes.
He closed the letter by writing special messages to the children, Ann
Eliza, Benjamin, Edward, Laura, Louise and the baby.
[18]Col.
Jackson. Colonel Congreve
Jackson of Howard County, Missouri.
Cover
Preface
April
May June July
August
September October
November
Final Note
Appendix