When on the trail west, women had limited time to cook meals, so a quick-cooking bread was good to do. Here’s one from Better Homes and Gardens® Heritage Cook Book…a book my mom found recently at an estate sale.
Whole Wheat Quick Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1¾ cup buttermilk
¼ cup honey
¼ cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins
Directions:
In mixing bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl, combine beaten egg, buttermilk, honey6 and butter. Add to dry ingredients; stir just till moistened. Fold in walnuts and raisins. Turn into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350° oven till done, 55-60 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool on rack. Makes one loaf.
PIONEERING WOMEN OF THE WEST WORKSHOP:
Join me August 1-31 at the Hearts Through History Campus for a month-long workshop on Pioneering Women of the West.
You'll learn about the western movement, the treacherous journey hundreds of thousands people took and of the lives of specific women who helped shape the West, intentionally or not. Some women went looking for a better life; others followed their man into the wilderness. There will be three lectures a week, with time for questions and answers and additional research on the participants' part.
Learn more HERE.
Showing posts with label covered wagons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label covered wagons. Show all posts
July 20, 2011
November 19, 2009
The Friday Record - Tabitha Brown
I think we often imagine those who crossed the plains on foot and in covered wagons during the great migration in the 19th Century as young and adventurous. But the truth is, not all of them were young. One woman who 
braved the elements and the grueling crossing was Tabitha Brown. At the age of sixty-six, she joined her son, daughter and their families on the journey to Oregon. And, she was joined by her seventy-seven year old brother-in-law, retired ship’s captain, John Brown. Tabitha not only survived a journey fraught with danger, thirst and near starvation; she went on to become “The Mother of Oregon.”
In April 1846 Tabitha and two of her three children left Missouri for Oregon. It was a 2,000 mile trip that would take nine months through bleak deserts, across swollen streams and over snow-capped mountains.
Tabitha, Capt. Brown and her daughter and son-in-law, Pherne and Virgil Pringle, listened to a “rascally fellow who came out from the settlement of Oregon,” and assured the party that he knew a shortcut to the Willamette Valley (pg 52). It would get them to the valley sooner than those taking the more established and well-known Columbia River valley trail. Too late they realized their mistake.
The trail was not suited for covered wagon and oxen. It was nothing more than a walking path, with the road often needing to be cut while the party waited and used up its meager resources.
When the party reached the Umpqua Mountains, they had to travel through a twelve mile canyon. Very few of the parties’ wagons made it through intact. The canyon was “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing, and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute,” Tabitha wrote, (pg. 52).
To make matters worse, while in the canyon Capt. Brown became ill. “Their food was gone and their few remaining cattle were so weak they could not move on without rest,” (pg 49). Tabitha was encouraged to leave her daughter’s wagon train with Capt. Brown in the hopes that they would catch up to the train in front. After a harrowing night spent huddled in a tent, praying the wild animals wouldn’t eat them, the couple was found by “one of the emigrants that I was trying overtake,” (pg. 50). He was hunting deer and took the exhausted and starving couple to his wagon train, where they were fed venison.
Capt. Brown and Tabitha travelled with this train until they came to the foot of another mountain range, one in which a road had to be cut. It was while waiting for this to happen that her daughter’s train caught up with them. The family was near starved. Then winter set in.
They attempted to cross the mountain range, often only travelling one or two miles a day. In a week, their food was gone. Virgil Pringle left the stranded party to reach help. No one knew if he’d make it or not. It might well be the last time any of them were seen alive.
Tabitha’s son, Orus, who started the trip with his mother and sister, had traveled the Columbia River trail and had already arrived in Oregon. He heard tales of the Applgegate Trail (as it would later become known as) trials and concerned for his mother and sister, he set out with “four packhorses with provisions” to find them, (pg. 53).
Shortly, Orus and Virgil met up and Virgil led his brother-in-law back to the stranded travelers. Tabitha related the arrival in a letter,
“We had all retired to rest in our tents, hoping to forget our troubles until daylight should remind us of our sad fate. In the gloomy stillness of the night, hoofbeats of horses were heard rushing to our tents—directly a halloo—it was the well-known voice of Orus and Virgil; who can realize the joy?” (pg. 53)
Pushing forward, the travelers finally arrived in the Willamette Valley. “On Christmas Day 1846, Tabitha entered a house for the first time in nine months,” (pg 54). The owner of the house, a Methodist minister, traded housekeeping services for room and board for Tabitha and Capt. Brown.
Tabitha soon wanted to do more for the orphans whose parents had died on the overland trails. She realized that they, as well as the Native American children in the area, needed a home. With the help of missionaries and neighbors, she established Tualatin Academy in an old meeting house where she could “receive all poor children and be a mother to them,” (pg 54).
As her charges grew up, the trustees realized the children needed a place to a place of higher education. With land donated by The Reverend Harvey Clark, Pacific University was established, a university still in existence.
And remember, Tabitha was sixty-six when she started this journey. What do you still want to accomplish in your life?
I have written on Tabitha Brown before, and you can find more information about this harrowing journey here. Leave a comment to be elegible for my monthly drawing (For my monthly blog prize, one lucky winner will receive a DVD of GHOST starring Patrick Swazye and Demi Moore.)
Today’s information was gleaned from HEART OF THE TRAIL: The Stories of Eight Wagon Train Women, by Mary Barmeyer O’Brien.
Anna Kathryn Lanier
http://www.aklanier.com/
braved the elements and the grueling crossing was Tabitha Brown. At the age of sixty-six, she joined her son, daughter and their families on the journey to Oregon. And, she was joined by her seventy-seven year old brother-in-law, retired ship’s captain, John Brown. Tabitha not only survived a journey fraught with danger, thirst and near starvation; she went on to become “The Mother of Oregon.”In April 1846 Tabitha and two of her three children left Missouri for Oregon. It was a 2,000 mile trip that would take nine months through bleak deserts, across swollen streams and over snow-capped mountains.
Tabitha, Capt. Brown and her daughter and son-in-law, Pherne and Virgil Pringle, listened to a “rascally fellow who came out from the settlement of Oregon,” and assured the party that he knew a shortcut to the Willamette Valley (pg 52). It would get them to the valley sooner than those taking the more established and well-known Columbia River valley trail. Too late they realized their mistake.
The trail was not suited for covered wagon and oxen. It was nothing more than a walking path, with the road often needing to be cut while the party waited and used up its meager resources.
When the party reached the Umpqua Mountains, they had to travel through a twelve mile canyon. Very few of the parties’ wagons made it through intact. The canyon was “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing, and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute,” Tabitha wrote, (pg. 52).
To make matters worse, while in the canyon Capt. Brown became ill. “Their food was gone and their few remaining cattle were so weak they could not move on without rest,” (pg 49). Tabitha was encouraged to leave her daughter’s wagon train with Capt. Brown in the hopes that they would catch up to the train in front. After a harrowing night spent huddled in a tent, praying the wild animals wouldn’t eat them, the couple was found by “one of the emigrants that I was trying overtake,” (pg. 50). He was hunting deer and took the exhausted and starving couple to his wagon train, where they were fed venison.
Capt. Brown and Tabitha travelled with this train until they came to the foot of another mountain range, one in which a road had to be cut. It was while waiting for this to happen that her daughter’s train caught up with them. The family was near starved. Then winter set in.
They attempted to cross the mountain range, often only travelling one or two miles a day. In a week, their food was gone. Virgil Pringle left the stranded party to reach help. No one knew if he’d make it or not. It might well be the last time any of them were seen alive.
Tabitha’s son, Orus, who started the trip with his mother and sister, had traveled the Columbia River trail and had already arrived in Oregon. He heard tales of the Applgegate Trail (as it would later become known as) trials and concerned for his mother and sister, he set out with “four packhorses with provisions” to find them, (pg. 53).
Shortly, Orus and Virgil met up and Virgil led his brother-in-law back to the stranded travelers. Tabitha related the arrival in a letter,
“We had all retired to rest in our tents, hoping to forget our troubles until daylight should remind us of our sad fate. In the gloomy stillness of the night, hoofbeats of horses were heard rushing to our tents—directly a halloo—it was the well-known voice of Orus and Virgil; who can realize the joy?” (pg. 53)
Pushing forward, the travelers finally arrived in the Willamette Valley. “On Christmas Day 1846, Tabitha entered a house for the first time in nine months,” (pg 54). The owner of the house, a Methodist minister, traded housekeeping services for room and board for Tabitha and Capt. Brown.
Tabitha soon wanted to do more for the orphans whose parents had died on the overland trails. She realized that they, as well as the Native American children in the area, needed a home. With the help of missionaries and neighbors, she established Tualatin Academy in an old meeting house where she could “receive all poor children and be a mother to them,” (pg 54).
As her charges grew up, the trustees realized the children needed a place to a place of higher education. With land donated by The Reverend Harvey Clark, Pacific University was established, a university still in existence.
And remember, Tabitha was sixty-six when she started this journey. What do you still want to accomplish in your life?
I have written on Tabitha Brown before, and you can find more information about this harrowing journey here. Leave a comment to be elegible for my monthly drawing (For my monthly blog prize, one lucky winner will receive a DVD of GHOST starring Patrick Swazye and Demi Moore.)
Today’s information was gleaned from HEART OF THE TRAIL: The Stories of Eight Wagon Train Women, by Mary Barmeyer O’Brien.
Anna Kathryn Lanier
http://www.aklanier.com/
April 17, 2009
The Friday Record - Covered Wagon Women 1
I write fiction, but I get my inspiration from reading fact. However, I think if I were to write the truth, people wouldn't believe me. One of the stories I have on the back burner of my mind is a Covered Wagon story. I have it planned out, who the hero and heroine are, who the bad guy is, the plot. I haven't quit decided if I'm going to put in the 1840's or the 1860's....the decade will dictate some of the plot, mainly because the heroine will have a long lost brother. The question will be if he can disappear in the Civil War or not.
But to prepare myself to write this story, no matter when it's set, I needed to research
on covered wagon traveling. I've purchased several books that recount true stories of women who travel West in covered wagons. One book, Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849 by Kenneth L. Holmes is an excellent resource book. He reprints actual diaries written while on the trail and 
letters written either on the trail or after they reach their destination. Holmes also gives a bit of a biography on each woman. One of the women whose letters he reprints is Tabitha Brown (right), who made the trip starting in April 1846.
Mrs. Brown was a widow and sixty-six years old when she decided to travel from her home in St. Charles, Missouri to Oregon with her seventy-seven year old brother-in-law, retired sea captain John Brown, and two of her children and thirteen of her grandchildren.
While most journeys of this type were dangerous, The Brown family's was particularly hazardous. Mrs. Brown expresses in a letter to her sister and brother, penned after her arrival in Oregon, that the first part of their trip was “pleasing and prosperous.” But all that changed in August when they still had 800 miles to go to Oregon City. Instead of keeping to the tried and true route, “three of four trains of emigrants were decoyed off by a rascally fellow...[who] assured us that he had found a near cut-off; that if we would follow him we would be in the settlement long before those who had gone down the Columbia.” The decision to follow this man was tragic for many of the families.
Mrs. Brown relays that the man took their money and ran, leaving the train “to the depredations of Indians, wild beasts and starvation...we had sixty miles desert without grass or water, mountains to climb, cattle giving out, wagons breaking, emigrants sick and dying,, hostile Indians to guard against.”
The men had to hack and clear a trail for them, as there was none. The way behind them was “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute.” People were caught in the Canyon for two or three weeks, their food running out, they themselves dying of fatigue or starvation. She does not give detail of how she came to lose everything, but writes that her daughter and son-in-law insisted that she and Captain Brown go on ahead by horseback to meet up with wagons who would have food (they stayed behind to give their cattle rest). Her brother-in-law was so weak that he fell off his horse and she had to struggle to get him back up on it. They failed to meet up with the next wagon train before dark and had to spend the night alone in Indian territory, only to discover the next morning that 1) they were only half a mile from the train and 2) the Indians had killed a man just a short distance from where they'd camped.
They were found the next morning and taken to the next train, where fresh venison was available. However, they were far from safe. They still had two mountains to climb and winter was setting in. They were able to travel only two or three miles a day. They finally decided that it would impossible to reach a settlement before spring and decided to settle in for the winter. Mrs. Brown's son-in-law set off on his own to find a settlement, in the hopes of bringing back provisions.
Now as it turned out, her other son had left for Oregon six days ahead of her party and had already reached their destination. He heard rumors of the “wayward” train and he set out with six pack-horses to find the “suffering emigrants at the south.” Shortly after her son-in-law left, the two met up and they returned to the train with the provisions.
Five miles down the road from they'd camped, they meet up with mixed-blood French-Indians and hired several of them to guide the train to a settlement. On December 24th, four months after they made their dreadful decision to take the 'short-cut,' those who survived the journey arrived at the first settlers' house, a Methodist minister, who offered Mrs. Brown and Captain Brown a place to stay until spring. In exchange for room and board, Mrs. Brown ran the house, because the minister's wife “was as ignorant and useless as a Heathan Goddess.” She also discovered that in her glove was not a button, as she'd assumed, but a “six and one-fourth cent piece” or as the footnote says “one-eighth of a Spanish dollar coin” and not worth a lot of money. But she used it to purchase three needles and traded some of her old clothe for buckskin. She then made gloves out of the buckskin, sold them and made herself $30.00.
As far as I can tell, all of Mrs. Brown's family made it to Oregon as well and Mrs. Brown, even at her advanced age, went on to establish herself as a pillar of the community in the new territory. She established a school for the local children, including orphans, with the help of friends and neighbors. The school was “the forerunner” for Pacific University.
So, this is just one of the fascinating stories to be found out there, one of the 'facts' that we can base our stories one...the question is, will anyone believe us?
Join me at http://seducedbyhistory.blogspot.com/ on Sunday, April 19 when I dicuss yet another interesting "Cover Wagon Woman."
What is a strange fact or story that you've come across in your research?
Anna Kathryn Lanier
More Than Tumbleweeds
Heartwarming, Sensual Westerns
http://www.aklanier.com/
But to prepare myself to write this story, no matter when it's set, I needed to research
on covered wagon traveling. I've purchased several books that recount true stories of women who travel West in covered wagons. One book, Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849 by Kenneth L. Holmes is an excellent resource book. He reprints actual diaries written while on the trail and 
letters written either on the trail or after they reach their destination. Holmes also gives a bit of a biography on each woman. One of the women whose letters he reprints is Tabitha Brown (right), who made the trip starting in April 1846.Mrs. Brown was a widow and sixty-six years old when she decided to travel from her home in St. Charles, Missouri to Oregon with her seventy-seven year old brother-in-law, retired sea captain John Brown, and two of her children and thirteen of her grandchildren.
While most journeys of this type were dangerous, The Brown family's was particularly hazardous. Mrs. Brown expresses in a letter to her sister and brother, penned after her arrival in Oregon, that the first part of their trip was “pleasing and prosperous.” But all that changed in August when they still had 800 miles to go to Oregon City. Instead of keeping to the tried and true route, “three of four trains of emigrants were decoyed off by a rascally fellow...[who] assured us that he had found a near cut-off; that if we would follow him we would be in the settlement long before those who had gone down the Columbia.” The decision to follow this man was tragic for many of the families.
Mrs. Brown relays that the man took their money and ran, leaving the train “to the depredations of Indians, wild beasts and starvation...we had sixty miles desert without grass or water, mountains to climb, cattle giving out, wagons breaking, emigrants sick and dying,, hostile Indians to guard against.”
The men had to hack and clear a trail for them, as there was none. The way behind them was “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute.” People were caught in the Canyon for two or three weeks, their food running out, they themselves dying of fatigue or starvation. She does not give detail of how she came to lose everything, but writes that her daughter and son-in-law insisted that she and Captain Brown go on ahead by horseback to meet up with wagons who would have food (they stayed behind to give their cattle rest). Her brother-in-law was so weak that he fell off his horse and she had to struggle to get him back up on it. They failed to meet up with the next wagon train before dark and had to spend the night alone in Indian territory, only to discover the next morning that 1) they were only half a mile from the train and 2) the Indians had killed a man just a short distance from where they'd camped.They were found the next morning and taken to the next train, where fresh venison was available. However, they were far from safe. They still had two mountains to climb and winter was setting in. They were able to travel only two or three miles a day. They finally decided that it would impossible to reach a settlement before spring and decided to settle in for the winter. Mrs. Brown's son-in-law set off on his own to find a settlement, in the hopes of bringing back provisions.
Now as it turned out, her other son had left for Oregon six days ahead of her party and had already reached their destination. He heard rumors of the “wayward” train and he set out with six pack-horses to find the “suffering emigrants at the south.” Shortly after her son-in-law left, the two met up and they returned to the train with the provisions.
Five miles down the road from they'd camped, they meet up with mixed-blood French-Indians and hired several of them to guide the train to a settlement. On December 24th, four months after they made their dreadful decision to take the 'short-cut,' those who survived the journey arrived at the first settlers' house, a Methodist minister, who offered Mrs. Brown and Captain Brown a place to stay until spring. In exchange for room and board, Mrs. Brown ran the house, because the minister's wife “was as ignorant and useless as a Heathan Goddess.” She also discovered that in her glove was not a button, as she'd assumed, but a “six and one-fourth cent piece” or as the footnote says “one-eighth of a Spanish dollar coin” and not worth a lot of money. But she used it to purchase three needles and traded some of her old clothe for buckskin. She then made gloves out of the buckskin, sold them and made herself $30.00.
As far as I can tell, all of Mrs. Brown's family made it to Oregon as well and Mrs. Brown, even at her advanced age, went on to establish herself as a pillar of the community in the new territory. She established a school for the local children, including orphans, with the help of friends and neighbors. The school was “the forerunner” for Pacific University.
So, this is just one of the fascinating stories to be found out there, one of the 'facts' that we can base our stories one...the question is, will anyone believe us?
Join me at http://seducedbyhistory.blogspot.com/ on Sunday, April 19 when I dicuss yet another interesting "Cover Wagon Woman."
What is a strange fact or story that you've come across in your research?
Anna Kathryn Lanier
More Than Tumbleweeds
Heartwarming, Sensual Westerns
http://www.aklanier.com/
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