Mexico Missouri message., 1901-01-03
OVERLAND TO ~
r. CALIFORNIA.
Written for the MESSAGE.

"A hlSloll Va "i o'Nii"hN '''B
to California in the early days of
the gold excitement will no doubt
interest your readers who have
made the trip and will be a pleas
ant reminder to the pioneers who,
like myself, shsuldercd his long
hickory OK whip and yoked up his
oxen and started for the gold
mines. People who visit Califor-
MIA now have but faint idea of
what it was to go to California in
that early day.
We started from Paris, Monroe
county, on the Sth dry of April,
1852, and after a most tedious
journey thru mud and swim
ming rivers and creeks, we arrived
at st. Joe, Mo-, and crossed the
Missouri River into the Indian
country. On the fifth day of May
here we organized our company,
composed of about 40 men, and
took it by regular turns standing
guard, as the Indians were plcnti-
full and would steal our stock, and
if good chance was offered they
would not hesitate to take our
scalps. SO the first night out ]
was sent ont on guard. The night
was dark and rainy and | could
only see by the continued flash of
lightning. | had always heard
blood curdling stories of Indians
and wolves, and now that ! was
out this dreadful night and could
hear the howl of n hundred wolves
at n time, you may imagine that
if had been back at home | would
have staid there. But the night,
tho it seemed Il lifetime, finally
wore away and | was none the
worse, except that | was wet and
hungry. There were fifteen teams
in our train, and as we moved out
on the seemingly endless plain it
was Il sight never to be forgotten.
AS there were 40 of us it was
some time before had to go on
guard again, and by this time |
had gotten over my scare. Every
thing went all right until one of
the boys got his leg broken and we
were compelled to stop with him.
Tho we did everything for the
poor fellow that we could, he soon
died and we buried him on the
banks of the Big Blue River. AZ
ter this we travelled on for several
days with nothing to break the
mOnOtony of travel until early one
morning soon after leaving camp
we saw about one hundred Pawnee
Indians approaching us on horse
kack, and they came at full speed
until they were about one hundred
yards from us when they halted
and the old chief and few others
dismountcd and came up to us.
They were in full war dress, their
faces were all painted and they had
feathers sticking all about their
heads, and to me they were n hid
cous looking lot of devils. The
old chief came up and said, Me
big Injin, me want tobac," and
inst then We had the cleverest set
of tobacco chcwcrS that were ever
seen in our crowd. Any one had
"tobac" and plenty Of it. After
relieving the boys of about all the
weed they had, they mounted their
ponies and left us as fast as they
came.
After this we travelled along
slowly, having a good time, as the
country had plenty of game and
fish and we had become accustom-
ed to the mode of living, and we
began to enjoy it. We found
many objects of interest, such AS
Pixies Peak, Chimney Rock,
Court House Rock, it being II lone
rock covering several acres OF
ground aud probably hundred
feet high. Devils Gate was the
most wonderful freak of nature on
the whole journey. AS the stream
suddenly plunges into the narrow
gorge and the water changes into
foam, by dashing against the rocks.
BY this time we began to realize
that we were out on trip. Ev'
erything went all right until the
fourth day of July when we had a
genuine snowstorm. On the night
of the 9TH of July one of our party
was taken sick with cholera and
died before morning.