Living Voices from the Past - Covered Wagon Women

FROM COVERED WAGON WOMEN LEARN

· What kind of mattress was used in covered wagons
· What they ate to prevent scurvy
· How many miles they averaged each day
· Why their wagon party was discriminated against in Missouri
· How they knew the mileage and elevations
· What they feared for their livestock and how they took care of that problem
· How they crossed rivers
· What was traded with the Indians for food and clothing
· How the Black Hills got their name
· How the wagons were prepared to cross rivers
· How Independence Rock got its name
· What disease devastated so many along the trail
· How a covered wagon was made into a boat to cross the deep rivers
· Why so much livestock was found dead along the trail
· How they managed to get the wagons up mountain roads
· And much more

The word "diary" connotes secrecy, intrigue, gossip, and also the mundane daily happenings. These ordinary women tell of extraordinary experiences and when they are heard on audio tapes, even the mundane sounds exciting when read by actresses.

Traveling by covered wagon was not for sissies, nor for the poor or ignorant. Enough provisions had to be on hand for at least six months. Planning was like a puzzle of how to store the hams free from dust; also the preserved fruit, rice, coffee, tea, beans, flour, etc. The designed ingenuity was awesome. Waterbeds were not something from the 60's. The pioneer's mattresses could be filled with either air or water which could be let out during the day to make more traveling room. Feather beds and pillows also allowed more sleeping comfort.

In the book, Covered Wagon Women Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1850, Margaret Frink told of their modular home. When it was learned in the newspapers that lumber was worth $400 per thousand in California, while it was worth only $3.00 in Indiana, they had several carpenters put to work and in six days a cottage was ready to put together. It was placed on a flatboat which waited for the spring rise and then routed down the White River to the Wabash, to the Ohio, to the Mississippi, to New Orleans, thence by sail around Cape Horn to Sacramento where it arrived one year later.

If you are eager to learn what provisions cost, how they were stored, how the mules were fed, what was traded with the Indians, how the Indians helped them cross the rivers, what happened when they hit quicksand, how the wagons were moved down a cliff, how many graves were found along the trails, how quickly Cholera took a life, what was their elevation, latitude and mileage of their journey and many other intriguing observations,listen to this first in the series.

A government report estimated that each mile of the 2,000 mile journey cost 17 lives, a total of 34,000 lives. Women's observations were thought insignificant until recent years.

One has to read between the lines to hear the anxiety of the women when they were alone in the company of men with no privacy for personal hygiene. That may explain why women wore long full skirts and petticoats that were heavy with mud and stiff with dust. Two women could hold out their skirts to raise a curtain for a third.

Infrequent relations between husband and wives was evident in that there weren't so many pregnancies which would make a woman less useful. Childbirth made every woman a midwife and illness made her a nurse.More travelers crossed the plains in 1850 than in the decade of the 1840's. Cholera was rampant and Indian tribes were at risk along with small pox, whooping cough and measles.

Imagine that severe looking unsmiling woman you see in the old family photos, with her hair slicked back, trading with the Indians, beads and perhaps ribbons, for food to feed her family. She trudges alongside a covered wagon on a dusty and sometimes muddy trail in a long full skirt with petticoats, rather than ride the bumps. She experiences monthly cramps, pms, just like you. She has ferocious mosquito bites due to having to camp near water nightly in order to water the stock if lucky to find a river or stream. You think, no wonder she doesn't smile in that photo. But in her diary, she didn't complain - just told the facts.

Diaries connote secrets, intrigue, gossip and also mundane daily happenings. But Margaret Frink's diary, which was a great find, told of her 1850's journey , traveling only with her husband and a young boy and frequently other wagons, from Indiana to California. Those interested in genealogy should find Margaret Frink's story on audio books fascinating and revealing of just what our great grandmothers lived through. You would realize that any stamina, fortitude, courage, and integrity you have must have come from such good genes. You can get acquainted with your heritage by listening to these women tell their stories in the Living Voices of the Past series of pioneer diaries.

The Frinks had the first "modular home." She said, "when it was learned in the newspapers that lumber was worth $400 per thousand in California, while it was worth only $3 in Indiana, we had several carpenters put to work and in six days a cottage was ready to put together. It was placed on a flatboat which waited for the spring rise and then routed down the White River to the Wabash, to the Ohio, to the Mississippi, to New Orleans, thence by sail around Cape Horn to Sacramento where it arrived one year later."

They traveled by covered wagon in comfort. Waterbeds were not something from the 1960's. They were from the 1850's. As Mrs. Frink wrote, "The wagon was designed expressly for the trip, it being built light, with everything planned for convenience. It was so arranged that when closed up, it could be used as our bedroom. The bottom was divided off into little compartments or cupboards. After putting in our provisions and other baggage, a floor was constructed over all, on which our mattress was laid. We had an India rubber mattress that could be filled with either air or water, making a very comfortable bed. During the day we could empty the air out, so that it took up but little room. We also had a feather bed and feather pillows."

Even though they had guide books, they never knew where to cross a river because the continual shifting of the sandy bed, made a safe ford today a dangerous one tomorrow. She wrote," The stream we had now reached was fearful to look at, - and rushing and boiling and yellow with mud, a mile wide, and in many places of unknown depth. The bed was of quicksand - this was the worst difficulty. But there was no way to do but to ford it. So we started down the bank and into the raging water. From a guide book we had with us, we learned that the proper way to cross the stream was to take a diagonal course, first down stream, then up again. Of all the excitements that I ever experienced or thought of, the crossing of that river was the greatest. A great many other wagons and people were crossing at the same time - mule teams, horse teams, ox teams, men on horseback, men wading and struggling against the quick sands and current, many of them with long poles in their hands feeling their way. Sometimes they would be in shallow water only up to their knees; then, all at once, some unlucky one would plunge in where it was three or four feet deep. The deafening noise and halloing that this army of people kept up, made the alarm in the river more intense. The quicksand and the uncertainty of depth of water kept all in a state of anxiety.

As they traveled closer to California, they witnessed many dying animals. The emigrants, too anxious to get to the gold, had forced the animals to go at a fast pace which they couldn't take in the heat and without enough water. So horses were left, along with mules and oxen, the yokes, chains, harness, guns, tools, bedding, and many other articles in utter confusion. Margaret wrote, "As we advanced, the scenes became more dreadful. The heat of the day increased and the road became heavy with deep sand. The dead animals seemed to become at every step of the way more numerous. They lay so thick on the ground that the carcasses, if placed together, would have reached across many miles of that desert. The stench arising was continuous and terrible."

Margaret Frink wrote of humorous incidences also. And the cold they endured while crossing the Sierras. Cholera was rampant. Many graves were sited along the trail. A government report estimated that each mile of the 2,000 mile journey cost 17 lives, a total of 34,000 lives. More travelers crossed the plains in 1850 than in the decade of the 1840's.

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Covered Wagon Women -

The personal diaries of women crossing America in covered wagons, told of the ingenuity, courage, bravery, loneliness, fear, boredom, excitement and danger they encountered. They were called "overlanders."

Margaret Frink's diary was a great discovery describing her observations of the cholera epidemic, the social encounters with the Indians who followed the wagons, and the cost of provisions along the way.

Susan Baxter, narrator, was an actress at Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, Colorado.

Audio Copyright 1999 and Audio Rights Reserved by Beverly's, Ltd.
11723 N. LaTonya Dr., Tucson, AZ. 85737

Recorded at Allusion Studios, Tucson, Arizona