Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1908-05-15
PIONEER HISTORY.
BRIEF ACCOUNT OF A TRIP
ACROSS THE PLAINS.
From Pathfinder OF 1854, the Late An
drew J. Chambers.

drew ]. Chambers.
As anything relating to early pio-
nccr history has an absorbing inter
est tor Old-timcrS as well as new
comorS, " and through dissemination
serves to place in available form the
early history of our commonwealth.
which becomes more valuable as the
years roll by, we reprint from the
(oiicgc XoitpeH3,m of l904-J. a series
of articles of which the first two
describe the journey across the
plains, to be followed by two others
which detail some incidents connect
ed with the Indian war of lS556:
PART l.
My fathers reading Lewis and
Clarkc's Journal was the cause of our
crossing the plains. We started the
1st of April, 1915. Our company CON
sisted of my father, Thomas NJ.
Chambers, mother. Letitia Chambers,
five brothers. James W. David j.,
and MCClain. and two sisters. Mary
Jane and l-etitia. My brothers, James
ard David were married and their
wives, Mary and Elizabeth, accom-
panied them
We started from Morgan county.
Missouri, and crossed the Missouri
river on a ferry at st. joe This
| place marked the last of the settle
nents From this point we Travelled
! the old emigrant road upon the Platte
river. Our journey led us through
! portions of what are now the States
of Missouri Kansas. Nebraska. Wyom-
| ing. Idaho. Oregon and Washington
| Then this was a wilderness with only
the old tracks of emigrants that had
passed that way in 1S34-5 We eros sed
the Kaw river. about forty miles from
St Joe, on a ferry; after that we
forded all the streams to which we
came. The first day that we saw
buffalo. on the South Platte river, it
was buffalo as far as the eye could
see. We camped and killed fifteen
that evening. 1t took two days to
jerk all the meat We wanted Buffalo
and antelope were plentiful for twelve
or fifteen hundred miles. Hunters
sometimes put handkerchief up on
a stick and the antelope came around
to see what it was. and often we
killed them by shooting from the
wagons. We had to go out to the
edge of the hills to hunt buffalo. ex-
| cept the first day We saw them. of
which | have just spoken.
Opposite Ash Hollow we crossed the
Platte river, which though wide and
shallow, was difficult to ford on ac
count of quicksand. We passed near
to Chimney Rock, which rose like
great chimney from the level country.
We could see this landmark for a num-
ber of days and passed it within five
or six miles.
At Fort Laramie on the North rlatte
river, measles broke out in our ia mily
and We had to lay by fifteen days. We
had Overtaken other westward bound
wagons on our journey and our party
was now thirty wagons. While being
! detained here. about one thousand
wagons passed us and most of our
company joined party and left us at
Laramie.
From Fort Laramie we Travelled to
Fort Hall in Idaho We had tried
travelling with large and with small
! companies. We found that we got on
much faster in small companies but
it was very hard to stand guard with
only few in the party We fell in
with company Of fifty wagons. Their
teams had been scared by the Indians
and had gotten into the habit of
| stampeding. The stampeded one dav
while we We're with them. 1t was ter
rible to see fifty teams running. each
team of three or four yoke of cattle
about three yoke Of cattle was an
average team. There was no way of
holding them except to hang on to
the yokes and call to the cattle. 1t
was an anxious time for the women
and children in the wagons One OK
fell and broke his neck. This was
the last day We travelled with them.
After leaving Fort Laramie we had
fallen in behind these wagons with
what remained of our old company.
This is all that saved us from the
stampede on that day.
This event recalls the first Indians
we saw. Father was captain of the
company. He ordered the wagons
into two lines, the women and chill
dren to stay in the wagons. except
those who could carry guns. can
recollect seeing mother marching
along carrying rifle. All the horses
ard cattle were driven into the en-
closure made by the wagons to pro-
tect them from stampeding. We never
stopped but marched along with the
wagons in two lines and the horses
and cattle between them.
Father stepped out to meet the chief
who was coming toward us. The In
dians seemed friendly but wanted to-
bacco. AS soon as father gave one
tobacco, another would step up and
say, Me big chief, too" Father gave
them all that he had in his pouch.
There was a large camp of the In
dians and it appeared that this was
war party and that they had been
out to fight other Indians. They were
now on their way home.
On much of our way wood was very
scarce. We always sent party
ahead OF us to find wood, grass and
water. We found buffalo chips plenti-