Things I Didn't Know About Covered Wagons

Albert Bierstadt: Oregon Trail
from Wikimedia Commons

I was pleased to discover that my Rankins/Ellis family most likely made their move from Rome, Maine to Cherokee, Iowa in 1869 by traveling in covered wagons. As my sister commented on the last blog post (From Rome to Cherokee, Part 2), "No wonder we were always playing covered wagon with the rollaway bed - it's in our collective-memory-genes!" 

I've been reading women's diaries of covered wagon travel, and searching around for bits of information. Along the way, I've found some things I never knew. 

A covered wagon could be made from any farm wagon. Hoops were attached and canvas stretched over the top to keep the cargo protected. 

 Wagon beds were quite narrow and often packed to the canvas with household goods, tools, and supplies. Only the infirm and the very young actually rode in the wagons. With no springs, the ride ranged from uncomfortable to near-intolerable, so most walked alongside the wagon as it traveled.

There was little room for sleeping inside the wagon. Pioneers mostly slept outside.

Well-to-do families might bring along as many as five wagons. Two or three bachelors might share a single wagon.

Wagons could be pulled by teams of up to eight horses or mules, or as many as a dozen oxen. The oxen were slower but stronger. Because the pioneers traveled in long trains made up of many wagons (both for companionship and protection), drivers could temporarily hitch up double teams to pull wagons up steep trails or up the banks of a river.

Some wagons were boat-shaped, so they could be dismantled and poled across rivers. Wagon beds were well caulked against water leakage during such crossings.The travelers spent a lot of time fording rivers, either by driving through shallow ones, floating across deeper ones with the teams swimming ahead (with everyone praying a lot, I'm sure), being ferried across, or by crossing toll bridges built by enterprising farmers along the way.

Sometimes a family starting out from home might travel by rail or boat as far as they could. They would then buy a wagon and a team, load up their belongings and continue overland to their destination. St. Joseph, Missouri was one such famous "jumping off" spot for those people heading out on their first wagon-traveling days.

The journey west needed to be completed by the end of summer, lest the travelers get caught in snowy weather. They often traveled into the night to avoid the heat of the day.

I had always thought of wagon trains heading off into untamed wilderness and out of sight of all civilization. By the time my family was traveling in 1869, there were at least occasional small settlements along the way. They could send and receive letters from the friends and family they had left behind.With the advent of the telegraph, western folks could keep in touch with the events of the world. When President James A. Garfield was shot in July of 1881, much of the nation heard the news very quickly by way of Morse code and local newspapers.

I was so surprised to read of a wagon train (not ours) starting off its journey and having supper at a restaurant on one of the first days! (Holmes: Diary of Mary Bower, Kansas Caravan, 1881). Of course, they were soon out of sight of such amenities. But travelers often stopped in to see relatives who had moved west earlier, sometimes picking up stock from one farm to deliver to another relative further up the trail. (Holmes:Diary of Viola Springer: From Missouri to the Harney Valley, 1885).

By the time my family was traveling, there were few problems with Indian raids. The troubles they might have had were with cold summer rains and the ensuing dampness, taking a wrong road and having to retrace their steps, and finding enough grazing for their livestock and good water for people and animals. Firewood was often in short supply and had to be carried in the wagons in anticipation of shortages. 

People were still traveling by wagon as the railroads developed. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Covered wagons often traveled near the railroad tracks when they could, as that land had been cleared and there were towns along the railway where they could obtain goods and services. 

I read about one family in 1888 that didn't leave on their wagon journey until September--very late in the season, as traveling needed to be completed by fall. They struggled along into November until they ran into snow. Fearing the effects of cold weather on the small children in their party, they bought tickets on a passenger train, had the wagon dismantled and loaded with the contents and the team into a boxcar, and completed the rest of the trip in style, and in only two days! (Holmes: Mrs. Hampton's Diary: Kansas to Oregon by Road and Rail).

Nowadays, living here in New Mexico, I think about how I baby myself at the age of 72. I do what I please and never (hardly ever) overexert myself. Contrast that behavior with that of my great great great grandmother, Joanna Perkins Rankins, who made the trip by covered wagon across all those hundreds of miles at the age of 70. After that incredible journey, she then lived on to enjoy life in the promised land of Iowa--the hard, backbreaking life of a prairie pioneer--for another ten years.

*****

Sources

Holmes, Kenneth L., editor. Covered Wagon Women; Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails. Volume XI, 1879-1903. Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1993. 

O'Brien, Mary Barmeyer. Heart of the Trail; The Stories of Eight Wagon Train Women. Helena, Montana: Falcon Publishing Co., 1997. 

Wikipedia: Covered Wagon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covered_wagon, accessed 30 Jun 2017.

Of Interest

Newcastle Man and Brother Travel Oregon Trail in Wagon. In 2011, two brothers, age 54 and 60, travel with their Jack Russell terrier, Olive Oyl, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Baker City, Oregon in a covered wagon pulled by three mules.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/16/living/newcastle-man-and-brother-travel-oregon-trail-in-covered-wagon/

From Rome to Cherokee, Part 2

Children of Joseph and Joanna Rankins, circa 1886 [17 years after the trip to Cherokee]
Back: Lydia 41 years, Adah [49] years
Front: Eleanor 64 years and Mary 59

Continuing the story of my great great grandparents' trip from Maine to Iowa in 1869.

In the last post, I tried to list the members of the traveling party going from Rome, Maine to Cherokee, Iowa in 1869. I kept having to go back and add to the post as I found more and more relatives making the move at the same time. Bear with me, I think I might have it now. Ages are approximate and in parentheses.


Joseph (68) and Joanna Rankins (70)

Their grown children who also traveled to Cherokee:
 Harriet (46), her husband William Bickford (52) and their two children: Melinda (25) and Edwin (15)

Mary Carroll (42), her husband Isaac Whitehouse (54) and their four sons: Julius (22), Samuel (20), Eldorous (17), and Joseph (10)

Eleanor Ruth, my great great grandmother (48), her husband, Robert Winslow Ellis (50); and their five youngest children Helen (15), Henry (12), Cora Bell (8), Ellsworth (6), and Robert (2)

Adah (32), her husband John Louis Burgess (41), and one child, Anna (9).  Adah was pregnant during the trip, giving birth to her son, Johnny, in December 1869.

Lydia Frances (25), who would marry Obed Wells (also from Maine) in Iowa in 1869.

At this point in my research, I would say that at least 23 members of the extended Rankins family made the trip in 1869.

Now, how do 23 people travel from Rome to Cherokee in 1869? Here is what I have found out about westbound travel in those days.

The routes of travel by which the pioneers gained access to the haunts of our beavers and to our fertile acres were mainly three:  First, via the Great Lakes to Green Bay, thence up the Fox river to Lake Winnebago, thence across to the Portage, and down the Wisconsin river; second, via the Ohio river, thence up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers; third, overland by wagon.  The degree of use of these routes before the advent of the railroad can only be surmised.  Prior to 1845 certainly the river routes were the highways chiefly used by the westward bound emigrants.  From 1845 overland travel by wagon became increasingly common until the railroad became a practicable mode of travel, round about 1860.  ~from The Nativity of the Pioneers of Iowa, by F.I Herriott, Iowa Official Registers, 1911-1912. http://iagenweb.org/history/oir/11-12/pioneer.htm

I searched and searched for an answer as to how my relatives traveled--by steamboat, canal boat, train, or covered wagon? Then I was lucky enough to have some correspondence with another family history researcher (known only to me as "Norma from Albuquerque"), who is descended from the Burgess family. She offered a clue: There was a family story that the granddaughters of Adah Rankins and John Burgess had written an account of their grandparents' journey to Iowa in a covered wagon.  We don't know if such an account was ever published, but it gives us something to go on. Thank you, Norma!

My next subject for research: What was it like to travel in a covered wagon in those days? Next time...

***

Note about the Rankins family: There were two more children of Joseph and Joanna Rankins who didn't make the trip and never did join the family in Iowa. Sarah (1835-1908) was married to Frederick Morton and settled down in Augusta, Maine raising her own large family.  

And then there was Thomas (1830-1892). At one point, I had imagined that he just stayed behind and farmed in Maine. Nothing could have been further from the truth! I'll tell his story another time.

From Rome to Cherokee

This is the continuation of the story of how my great great Grandfather, Robert Winslow Ellis, traveled with his family from Rome, Maine to Cherokee, Iowa in the late 1860s. They were introduced in the last post. 

***

After finding that the Ellis family had moved from Maine to Iowa, I had a question: Who did they travel with? After all, this was a journey of at least 1400 miles, and that estimate is the direct mileage now via I-90 West. The journey was no doubt much, much longer in the 1860s, before the advent of paved roads and bridges, etc. 

So, we have the Robert W. Ellis family consisting of: 

Robert, the father, age 50; and Eleanor, the mother, age 48
Helen, age 15
Henry, age 12
Cora Bell, age 8
Ellsworth, age 6
Robert, age 2


Looking at the 1870 U.S. Federal Census again, we find that in Cherokee County they are living right next door to three families that were related to them, and who had all lived in Rome, Maine previously.

Living in Dwelling #26, we find Eleanor's brother, Joseph Rankins, Jr., together with his wife Abby and daughters Adella and Lula. Next door in Dwelling #27, are Eleanor's father and mother, Joseph and Joanna Rankins, who are living with Eleanor's sister, Lydia, her husband, Obed Wells, and their child, Zula.*

Note (added 6 May 2017): I just discovered that Eleanor had another older sister, Mary Carroll Rankins, who married Isaac Whitehouse and apparently also made the journey to Iowa with the rest of the family members. Mary and Isaac were accompanied by their sons, who were listed in their household in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census as Eldward (Eldorous), age 17; Joseph, age 11; and Samuel, age 22. Their oldest son, Julius, must have made the trip also. By the time of the census, he was married and in a household of his own. His marriage took place in Iowa on 12 Aug 1869, which may indicate that the family had traveled to Iowa sometime earlier than that date. 

Yet another Rankins sister, Adah, her husband, John Burgess, and their two children also made the trip. Neighbors Bickford and Whitehouse families, also intermarried with the Rankins, went to Cherokee at the same time. The group is growing!


We can assume that they all made the journey together. It gives me a real feeling of kinship to discover that Robert's family of seven wanted to travel with more family members. When heading off to a strange and possibly wild place, it seems like a very good idea to travel in larger numbers, and that's what they did.

Next: From Rome to Cherokee, Part 2

*Off-topic note: Lydia and Obed's child, Zula, is shown as being three months old, the same age as Lula in the Joseph Rankins, Jr. household. Were they twins? I suppose it's possible, though Lula was later referred to as Emma L. Rankins, always giving her parents as Joseph and Abby, and Zula always gave her parents as Obed and Lydia.

My Father's Ancestors: The Midwest Connection

When I asked my mother in the late 1950s about my father's family, she wrote out a sheet that explained what little she knew about them. There was an "Ellice" in Maine, and there was my father's grandmother, "Ellen" whose maiden name was unknown.

And there was a note about a midwest connection, which I always thought referred to my paternal grandfather, Albert Harris. As it turns out, it may well have referred to the family of my paternal grandmother, Eva Ellis Harris.

There wasn't a lot to go on, but my mother's information was the springboard for my research on my father's family. I eventually found my great grandfather Oscar J. Ellis (see Finding Oscar, which appears elsewhere on this blog).

Oscar's father, my great great grandfather, Robert Winslow Ellis (1821-1876), was born in Maine and married a Maine girl, Eleanor Ruth Rankins (1822-1914). Their ten children were all born in Maine, but some time after the birth of the youngest, Robert C., in Dec. 1867, they moved to Cherokee County, Iowa, where they appeared in the 1870 U.S. Census on June 8: Robert, Eleanor, and their five youngest children, Helen, Henry, Cora Bell, Ellsworth, and Robert. (See Robert and Eleanor's family chart in the Notes at the end of this post for clarification of who is who).

1870 U.S. Federal Census, Willow Township, Cherokee County, Iowa

Of their five oldest children, two--Isaac and Anna--had died young in Maine. Thomas R. (1848-1910) apparently stayed in Maine [later edit: Thomas actually went to Australia! His story starts here: Where Thomas Went]. My great grandfather, Oscar J. Ellis (1852-1907) and his brother Edward (1841-1916) went from Maine to Rhode Island to Massachusetts. Oscar's daughter was Eva Ellis Harris, the mother of my own father, Daniel Harris, who was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1907.

With Robert Winslow Ellis, I now had a midwest connection for my father's family! Of course, in family history research the answer to one question just generates even more questions. How did exactly the Ellis family get to Cherokee from Rome, Maine? Which route did they take? What means of transportation were available? Did they travel alone, or did others make the journey from Maine with them? And what did they find when they arrived at their new home?

Next time: From Rome to Cherokee

***

Notes

1. How Robert is connected to me:

Robert Winslow Ellis (1821 - 1876)
2nd great-grandfather

Oscar J. Ellis (1852 - 1907)
son of Robert Winslow Ellis

Eva Josephine Ellis (1888 - 1943)
daughter of Oscar J. Ellis

Daniel Lawrence Harris (1907 - 1972)
son of Eva Josephine Ellis

Clair Marie Harris
That's me, the daughter of Daniel Lawrence Harris

2. Robert and Eleanor's family: