goldfields

Camped by the Kansas River, John Bidwell and his companions waited to see who else would show up.

“Every day for a week or more wagons arrived with the same object in view (going to California.) At last we took steps to see how many had arrived and found our numbers to be sixty-nine. Among these were about fifteen women and children. All were anxious for a start.” (California 1841-8, p. 5)

There were five women in the group, and at least seven children, maybe more. No one seems to have recorded the names of all the children.

“No one of the party knew anything abut mountaineering and scarcely any one had ever been into the Indian Territory, yet a large majority felt that we were fully competent to go anywhere no matter what the difficulties might be or how numerous and warlike the Indians.” (California 1841-8, p. 6)

Such was the confidence of the American pioneers! especially young men eager to be on their way. Luckily they fell in with a missionary party who had hired an experienced guide. If they had taken off on their own, Bidwell surmised,  “probably not one of us would ever have reached California, because of our inexperience.” (Echoes of the Past, p. 113)

“When May came I was the only man that was ready to go out of all who signed the pledge. In Weston however there was a man who had never signed the pledge, but who had said from the beginning that he would go to California when May came. This was Robert H. Thomes, a wagon maker at that time. As the time approached I became very anxious about the expedition but supposed a few would go with me. Finally I could not find a single member of the company who was sure to go. . . . At almost the last moment every one abandoned the idea of crossing the plains.” (California 1841-48, p. 4-5)

(Thomes Creek in Tehama County is named after Robert Thomes, who settled there in 1844.)

May 9th was the day decided on for gathering at the jumping off point: Sapling Grove, in Kansas Territory. Early in May, in the Platte Purchase area of Missouri, Bidwell was the only member of the Western Emigration Society ready to go. He recruited George Henshaw and persuaded him to trade his “fine black horse” for a pair of oxen and a “sorry one-eyed mule” for Henshaw to ride.  They were joined by Thomes and a young man by the name of Mike Nye.

When California fever had swept the region in the winder of 1840-41, quite a few people in the Platte Purchase had signed the pledge. Now they had all backed out. But they saw the four men off on their way with the best of wishes. Bidwell and his companions soon arrived at the rendevous point of Sapling Grove.

“On reaching Sapling Grove no one was there but we saw fresh wagon tracks and followed them to the Kansas River. They belonged to parties who had come, some from Arkansas, and some from different parts of Missouri to cross the plains. We camped here and waited to see if others would come.” (California 1841-48, p. 5)

“It was understood that every one should have not less than a barrel of flour with sugar and so forth to suit; but I laid in one hundred pounds more flour than the usual quantity, besides other things. This I did because we were told that when we got into the mountains we probably would get out of bread and have to live on meat alone, which I thought would kill me even if it did not others.” (Echoes of the Past, p. 113)

The time would come, in the Sierra Nevada, when Bidwell would indeed be living on meat alone, and little of that. By the time they got across the Great Basin they had used up all their supplies, and were eating their draft animals. Even game was hard to come by. (Coyote windpipe for breakfast, anyone? Come on, try it–it’s great!)

The “other things” in the way of foodstuffs that Bidwell packed in his wagon were things like dried beans, cornmeal, salt, and coffee. Those, plus buffalo meat and other game that they shot, made up the travelers’ diet as they crossed the plains. But before they reached the end of the trail it was all gone. As much as he disliked the notion of “no bread,” John Bidwell lived for a time on an all-meat diet, and it didn’t kill him.

John Bidwell talked to anyone who had knowledge of travel in Indian Territory. One of the things he needed to know was what kind of gun to take. There was no more important piece of equipment than a gun.

“My gun was an old flint-lock rifle, but a good one. Old hunters told me to have nothing to do with cap or percussion locks, that they were unreliable, and that if I got my caps or percussion wet I could not shoot, while if I lost my flint I could pick up another on the plains.” (Echoes of the Past, p. 113)

Rifles with percussion caps were the modern gun of the day, but there were still plenty of flintlocks in use. A flintlock rifle fires by by scraping a bit of flint rock down a steel plate  which makes sparks that fall into a shallow depression filled with gunpowder. When the powder in the pan is ignited, it ignites the powder in the barrel, which propels the bullet. A flintlock may have been more primitive than a percussion cap rifle, but it was going to be more reliable where John Bidwell was going.

How Stuff Works has a good description of how a flintlock fires, with this diagram.

What were the essentials for a journey to a new country, a journey that might take up to six months far away from towns, stores, or farms?

First of all, a man needed information, and there was no public library to provide it. So John Bidwell did the next best thing. He asked questions and took advice from anyone who had experience on the trail. In the months before departure he made several trips around Kansas and Missouri “to see men who were talking of going to California, and to get information.” (Echoes of the Past, p. 112)

Getting ready to go was going to take all the means Bidwell could muster. He needed a wagon and animals to pull it. The usual draft animals were mules, horses, or oxen. He had money to buy a wagon, a gun, and provisions, but not enough for the animals. His partner, who was going to supply horses, had backed out. Luckily another man came along who was interested in going to California to improve his health.

“At the last moment before the time to start for the rendezvous at Sapling Grove—it seemed almost providential—along came a man named George Henshaw, an invalid, from Illinois, I think. He was pretty well dressed, was riding a fine black horse, and had ten or fifteen dollars. [A man of means, indeed!] I persuaded him to let me take his horse and trade him for a yoke of steers to pull the wagon and a sorry one-eyed mule for him to ride.” (Echoes, p. 113)

An ox-drawn wagon similar to the one which John Bidwell would have had.

There was no horse or mule for John. He would walk all the way. A wagon drawn by oxen was different than one drawn by horses or mules. With the latter the driver would ride on the wagon seat, holding the reins that guided the animals. Oxen couldn’t be driven with reins, instead the driver would walk along beside them with a stick to tap or poke them this way or that.

Next time: What kind of gun was best?

“As the time approached I became very anxious about the expedition but supposed a few would go with me. Finally I could not find a single member of the company that was sure to go.  I went forward with my preparations however and to the extent I could I purchased an outfit which consisted of a wagon and some provisions, a rifle and ammunition.  At almost the last moment every one abandoned the idea of crossing the plains.  I cast about however and found in Platte County a man by the name of Henshaw who was willing to go.  He was old, quite an invalid, and nearly helpless. He had a fine black horse that he allowed me to dispose of. I sold him for a yoke of young cattle and a one-eyed mule for Henshaw to ride.” (California 1841-8, p. 4)

In April 1841 John Bidwell was preparing to hit the trail for California, in spite of the fact that everyone else had dropped out of the Western Emigration Society. Of all those who  signed the pledge to journey together to California, only John Bidwell actually followed through. Other members of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party had not been a part of the Western Emigration Society.

Why George Henshaw, “old, quite an invalid, and nearly helpless,” wanted to undertake the rigors of the trail remains a mystery. Probably he hoped to regain his health in California’s salubrious climate. At any rate, he survived the trek, although he did not stay in California. He traveled back east in 1842 and nothing more is known of him.

Upper Bidwell Park

Is it any wonder that John Bidwell wanted to stay when he saw country like this on his first journey through Northern California in 1843?

I went to the Bancroft Library on Monday. on the way home from Livermore (where I have a brand-new grand-daughter) to Chico. I love to visit the Bancroft—the reading room is so quiet, so academic, so civilized. It feels like a real library.

I wanted to see two things—Bidwell’s journal of his trip to California in 1841, and the manuscript of his 1877 dictation for Hubert Howe Bancroft.

The journal is not the original one that he kept on the trail to California—that one is long gone. This is the only extant copy of the first printed version. Bidwell rewrote his journal while supervising the work at Fort Ross, and sent it back to friends in Missouri to tell them about the trip, and about conditions in California. Since this little book is missing its title page, we don’t know just who printed it, or where or when, but it probably came out sometime between 1843 and 1845. The thin paper it is printed on is fragile, but has held up well over the years.

The copy in the Bancroft was used as a guidebook by George McKinstry, who came to California in 1846. He made a couple notes in the margins. Next to Bidwell’s entry for July 3rd he notes, “We camped at this spring Monday July 6th 1846.” Under the entry for September 16th, in which Bidwell tells about how they abandoned their wagons and packed all their gear on their animals, he writes, “We cooked our supper & breakfast with fires made from the remains of these wagons.”

If you want to read this journal for yourself, you can find it in the library. It was reprinted in 1937 with the title A journey to California, with observations about the country, the climate, and the route to the country by John Bidwell. It can also be found in The Bidwell-Bartleson Party, by Doyce B. Nunis. Nunis collected all the documents and memoirs from the first overland trek to California, and John Bidwell’s accounts form the most extensive part of his book.