Describes the journey over the old Oregon Trail, storms, severity of weather, shortage of food and water for their livestock, scarcity of firewood and wild game food for themselves, difficulties in fording rivers, fear of Indian attack, encounters with Indians wanting to trade, and other problems of wagon train life. 20 pp., positive photostats A personal history relating his trip west for the California gold rush and back to Missouri by boat, and his experiences with Quantrill's raiders. Written to his brother by a young miner in the California gold fields, concerning his returning home. The notes detail the availability of food, the conditions of the roads, and the mileage traveled daily by the group. Describes scenery and weather, and gives number of miles traveled each day.
Entries mention travel, but nothing about the gold fields themselves.
Personal diary kept by an unidentified girl as she and her family left Concord, Kentucky, in October 1857 and traveled by covered wagon to a place near Brunswick, Missouri. Describes traveling conditions, roads, bridges, and land, the people they met, and the fun they had. Describes coal mines in Illinois, the Hoosier country of Indiana, and crossing the Mississippi. Excerpt from St. Louis Missouri Republican describing the panorama. Letter tells of trouble in Kansas and migration from Missouri to LeRoy in 1857.