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May 1, 1841 - The first wagon train to , with sixty-nine adults and several children, leave from Independence, Missouri. The journey would take until November 4. Within two years, it would be considered a small excursion, when wagon trains would reach one thousand people in settlement of the west, but this wagon train, heading out over the Trail west before deking toward California, would be the first attempt to take a major group trip. There had been previous wagon trains, both on the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe trails since the early 1820's. John Bartleson and John Bidwell would lead the train over a haphazard wagon road created by three previous smaller parties. The trip would take five months at fifteen miles per day; it would cover over two thousand miles, traversing the Oregon Trail and crossing the Great Salt Lake and Sierra Mountains. The group consisted of Bartleson, chosen captain despite his temperament, and Bidwell, a twenty-one year old native of New York who had been slowly traveling west through his young life, reaching the Kansas City area after stops in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa. He had left Ohio in 1838 with $75, eventually settling in Missouri, and beginning to teach. Josiah Belden, a Connecticutt orphan, age twenty-six in 1841, and later mayor of San Jose, California, would join the party. They would be directed, for parts of the journey, by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary who had been traveling Iowa, Montana, and Wyoming since 1838, and Thomas Fitzpatrick, a mountain man, trapper, and head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, defunct since 1834. The party would be known as the Western Emigration Society. The trip would head toward the Mexican Province of Alta California and the Mexican land grant of called Rancho Los Meganos. Marsh was the second owner. It began in Sapling Grove in Westport, Missouri, west of Independence, and travel over the Oregon Trail. There is some disagreement over the date the party started, with May 1 and May 9 suggested. Once reaching Fort Hall in Idaho, the party started to disperse, with half deciding to continue on the road to Oregon, and the other half to their original destination along the north shore of the Great Salt Lake. They would abandon their wagons west of the lake before ascending the Sierra Nevadas to reach Alta California. However, there were problems with an arrival of United States immigrants in Alta California. Mexican generals had orders to evict any Americans who tried to colonize Mexican territory. When a portion of the Bartleson-Bidwell company arrived at Mission San Jose, they were detained, but eventually allowed to stay if they became Mexican citizens. Bidwell Account of the Journey - The Start. When we reached Sapling Grove, the place of rendezvous, in May, 1841, there was but one wagon ahead of us. For the next few days one or two wagons would come each day, and among the recruits were three families from Arkansas. We organized by electing as captain of the company a man named Bartleson from Jackson County, Missouri. He was not the best man for the position, but we were given to understand that if he was not elected captain he would not go; and as he had seven or eight men with him, and we did not want the party diminished, he was chosen. Every one furnished his own supplies. The party consisted of sixty-nine, including men, women, and children. Our teams were of oxen, mules, and horses. We had no cows, as the later emigrants usually had, and the lack of milk was a great depriva- tion to the children. 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 of flour more 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. 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. I doubt whether there was one hundred dollars in money in the whole party, but all were en- thusiastic and anxious to go. In five days after my arrival we were ready to start, but no one knew where to go, not even the captain. Finally a man came up, one of the last to arrive, and announced that a company of Catholic missionaries were on their way from St. Louis to the Flathead nation of Indians with an old Rocky Mountaineer for a guide, and that if we would wait another day they would be up with us. At first we were independent, and thought we could not afford to wait for a slow missionary party. But when we found that no one knew which way to go, we sobered down and waited for them to come up; and it was well we did, for otherwise probably not one of us would ever have reached California, because of our inexperience. Af- terwards when we came in contact with Indians our people were so easily excited that if we had not had with us an old mountaineer the result would certainly have been disastrous. The name of the guide was Captain Fitzpatrick; he had been at the head of trapping parties in the Rocky Mountains for many years. He and the missionary party went with us as far as Soda Springs, now in Idaho Territory, whence they turned north to the Flathead nation. Bidwell Account - The Separation. As I have said, at Soda Springs at the northernmost bend of Bear River our party separated. It was a bright and lovely place. The abundance of soda water, including the intermittent gushing so-called Steamboat Spring; the beautiful fir and cedar covered hills; the huge piles of red or brown sinter, the result of fountains once active but then dry all these, together with the river, lent a charm to its wild beauty and made the spot a notable one. Here the missionary party were to turn north and go into the Flathead nation. Fort Hall, about forty miles distant on Snake River, lay on their route. There was no road; but something like a trail, doubtless used by the trappers, led in that direction. From Fort Hall there was also a trail down Snake River, by which trapping parties reached the Columbia River and Fort Vancouver, the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company. Our party, originally sixty-nine, including women and children, had become lessened to sixty-four in number. One had accidentally shot and killed himself at the forks of the Platte. Another of our party, named Simp- son, had left us at Fort Laramie. Three had turned back from Green River, intending to make their way to Fort Bridger and await an opportunity to return home. Their names were Peyton, Rodgers, and Amos E. Frye. Thirty-two of our party, becoming discouraged, decided not to venture without path or guide into the unknown and trackless region towards California, but concluded to go with the mis- sionary party to Fort Hall and thence find their way down Snake and Columbia rivers into Oregon. The rest of us also thirty-two in number, including Benjamin Kelsey, his wife and little daughter remained firm, refusing to be diverted from our original purpose of going direct to California. After getting all the information we could from Captain Fitzpatrick, we regretfully bade good-by to our fellow emi- grants and to Father De Smet and his party. We were now thrown entirely upon our own resources. Bidwell Account - The Arrival. We were now on the edge of the San Joaquin Valley, but we did not even know that we were in California. We could see a range of mountains lying to the west, the Coast Range, but we could see no valley. The evening of the day we started down into the valley we were very tired, and when night came our party was strung along for three or four miles, and every man slept right where dark- ness overtook him. He would take off his saddle for a pillow and turn his horse or mule loose, if he had one. His animal would be too poor to walk away, and in the morning he would find him, usually within fifty feet. The jaded horses nearly perished with hunger and fatigue. When we overtook the foremost of the party the next morning we found they had come to a pond of water, and one of them had killed a fat coyote; when I came up it was all eaten except the lights and the windpipe, on which I made my breakfast. From that camp we saw timber to the north of us, evidently bordering a stream running west. It turned out to be the stream that w. had followed down in the moun- tains the . As soon as we Wild grapes also abounded. The next day we killed thirteen deer and antelopes, jerked the meat and got ready to go on, all except the captains mess of seven or eight, who decided to stay there and lay in meat enough to last them into California! We were really almost down to tidewater, but did not know it. Some thought it was five hundred miles yet to California. But all thought we had to cross at least that range of mountains in sight to the west before entering the promised land, and how many more beyond no one could tell. Nearly all thought it best to press on lest the snows might overtake us in the mountains before us, as they had already nearly done on the mountains be- hind us (the ). It was now about the first of November. Our party set forth bearing northwest, aiming for a seeming gap north of a high mountain in the chain to the west of us. That mountain we found to be . At night the Indians attacked the captains camp and stole all their animals, which were the best in the company, and the next day the men had to overtake us with just what they could carry in their hands. The next day, judging by the timber we saw, we concluded there was a river to the west. So two men went ahead to see if they could find a trail or a crossing. The timber seen proved to be along what is now known as the San Joa- quin River. We sent two men on ahead to spy out the country. At night one of them returned, saying they had come across an Indian on horseback without a saddle who wore a cloth jacket but no other clothing. From what they could understand the Indian knew Dr. Marsh and had offered to guide them to his place. He plainly said Marsh, and of course we supposed it was the Dr. Marsh before referred to who had written the letter to a friend in Jackson County, Missouri, and so it proved. One man went with the Indian to Marshs ranch and the other came back to tell us what he had done, with the suggestion that we should go on and cross the river (San Joaquin) at the place to which the trail was leading. In that way we found ourselves two days later at Dr. Marshs ranch, and there we learned that we were really in California and our journey at an end. After six months we had now arrived at the first settlement in California, November 4, 1841. First Three Wagon Trains by John Bidwell. During the 1800s, many people were tired of the crowded Eastern states and wished to explore the vast uncharted lands of the West. Oregon was a popular destination, but soon California would become another popular destination. On May 1, 1841, one such pioneer, William Bidwell, set out with a wagon train. The wagon train had approximately 70 individuals in it, with most of the individuals being male. Bidwell was accompanied by Captain Bartleson, who was bound for Oregon. The group started out from Independence, Missouri and headed towards the vast unknown. The pioneers traveled the over a thousand miles, quickly leaving behind civilization for the wild plains of the West. While often the journey of these pioneers is skipped over in favor of telling about the struggles they faced upon establishing themselves in their new land, the reality was that they were lucky to make it to their final destination. It was hard work to travel all of those miles. Since their wagons were often laden with as much as they could carry and were quite uncomfortable, most of the pioneers walked along side the wagon train. For these pioneers, the trip must have been emotionally challenging as well as physically tolling. They had plenty of time to consider the many miles that they were putting between themselves and everything they knew. Especially in the early years, it was uncommon for someone to cross the vast plains more than once in a lifetime. Thus, these pioneers were leaving everything behind them most likely forever. The physical toll was also incredibly large. Even though progress was usually made on foot, pioneers walked between 10 and 15 miles each day. Considering that it took them months to get to their destination, they endured the extremes of the elements each day as they continued to walk. At night, they did not fare much better. Most pioneers would sleep out in the open or under their wagons, neither of which provided much shelter from the elements. Elements were not the only thing that the pioneers had to battle as they made their way west. Disease ran rampant through the wagon trains. Smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, mountain fever, and scurvy were common in wagon trains. Due to the lack of medical attention or supplies on the trail, most of these ailments resulted in death. Those who made it far in the journey, then had to deal with the mountains. When the Bidwell-Bartleson wagon train reached Idaho, the group split in two. Only 33 people followed Bidwell towards California. The rest of the group kept on the Oregon trail. The 33 people who followed Bidwell had even more hardships to face. Soon the group was forced to abandon their wagons and proceed with very few supplies. The group braved lack of clear water, near starvation, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to eventually reach Tuolumne County in California. They reached this area on November 4, 1841, just over 6 months after they left Independence. New challenges would face them in the new land of California, but their journey led the way for many others to make the same journey. Due to the careful journal records of John Bidwell, other pioneers were able to make the same dangerous journey to California. Bartleson-Bidwell Party. John Bidwell (1819-1900) was a pioneer, agriculturist, and politician from California. The first emigrants to cross with wagons came in 1841, six years before the Mormon pioneers, this party numbered thirty-two men and one woman, who carried a baby daughter in one arm and led a horse with the other. Nancy Kelsey, barely eighteen years old and the first white woman ever to see Great Salt Lake, was later remembered for her “heroism, patience and kindness.” Named in part after its captain, John Bartleson, the party had numbered more than sixty when it assembled in May 1841 at Sapling Grove, near Westport, Missouri, for the journey to John Marsh’s California ranch at the foot of Mount Diablo in present-day Contra Costa County. Its most active organizer was twenty-one-year-old John Bidwell, who kept a daily diary of the journey. Moving west, the emigrants traveled over the emerging Oregon Trail with Father De Smet and a Jesuit party guided by the renowned mountain man, Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick. At Soda Springs, in present Caribou County, Idaho, about half of the original party decided to play it safe and continue on to Oregon. The more resolute members, holding to their original destination, headed nine wagons south down Bear River “with no guide, no compass, nothing but the sun to direct them” toward the present border of Utah. Their track never became a trail and has long since disappeared, but as traced by historian Roy Tea using the Bidwell and Johns journals, the emigrants crossed the 42nd parallel into Utah on 16 August and camped near present- day Clarkston. Intending to rest in Cache Valley while several men sought directions at Fort Hall, the party mistakenly crossed the low range just north of the Gates of the Bear to arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley near present Fielding. After fording the Malad River opposite Plymouth, they continued south through the future towns of Garland and Tremonton until, desperate for water, they headed east to strike the Bear River, just south of Corinne. The party then headed northwest, intersecting its own trail, to skirt the north end of the Great Salt Lake, find the Mary’s River (now the Humboldt), which, it was then believed, flowed from the lake to the Sacramento River, and follow it to California. They crossed Promontory Mountain on the route of the later transcontinental railroad and passed just north of Kelton to rest at Ten Mile Spring near the base of the Raft River Mountains. Crossing Park Valley to the south of the present town, they came on 11 September to Owl Spring, just north of Lucin, where Kentuckian Benjamin Kelsey abandoned his wagons and put his wife and baby on horseback. Two days later, the emigrants were the first of many to arrive at Pilot Peak on the Utah-Nevada border and find relief at the freshwater springs at its base. On the line of modern Interstate 80, the party crossed Silver Zone Pass and abandoned its remaining wagons at Relief Springs in Gosiute Valley, east of Wells, where the wagons were found in 1846 by Hastings Cutoff emigrants. The rest of the journey was a race with starvation which all barely won on November 4 when they arrived, destitute and almost naked, at Marsh’s Los Medanos Rancho. Some members of the Bartleson- Bidwell company later gained renown, including Bidwell and noted trails captain Joseph B. Chiles. Known for her courage and optimism, Nancy Kelsey, the first white woman ever to see Utah, died in California at age seventy-three. See: Charles Hopper, “Narrative of Charles Hopper, A California Pioneer of 1841,” Utah Historical Quarterly 3 (1930); Charles Kelly, Salt Desert Trails (1930); Roderick J. Korns, “West from Fort Bridger,” Utah Historical Quarterly 19 (1951); David E. Miller, First Wagon Train to Cross Utah, 1841,” Utah Historical Quarterly 30 (1962); Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (1947). The First Wagon Train Arrives. A group of 70 men, women and children in 15 wagons sets out on May 15, 1841 from near Independence, Missouri for points west. In Idaho, the group divides and 32 persons and nine wagons follow John Bartleson and John Bidwell southwest from the Oregon Trail into uncharted territory that the group hopes leads to California. Bidwell, 22, keeps a detailed journal, which becomes a guide to future emigrants. The group logs 10 to 15 miles each day. The farther west they go, the more their hardships mount. Water becomes scarce. Bidwell recounts shooting rabbits and killing oxen teams for food. Eventually, the wagons are abandoned and the group goes forward on foot and horseback. They labor up into the Sierra Nevada and come down through the Sonora Pass, arriving November 4 at their destination, the ranch of Dr. John Marsh, near Mt. Diablo in present day Contra Costa County. Marsh had written letters east urging settlers to journey to California. The 32 new Californians have traveled more than 1,730 miles over five and a half months. Prior to their arrival, the white population of California is estimated at 100. Buoyed by the Bidwell-Bartleson party’s success, wagon trains grow in size and number each subsequent year. Bidwell is a major figure in early California statehood. He’s employed for a time by and brings news of the discovery of gold to San Francisco. An amateur botanist who introduces casaba melons to the state, Bidwell also serves a term as California’s representative to Congress in 1865. A candidate for governor in 1875 for the Anti-Monopoly Party and the presidential candidate of the Prohibition Party in 1892, he dies in 1900 at age 81 in the city of Chico, which he founds in 1860. Bidwell donated eight acres of his cherry orchard in the 1880s to a teacher’s college called Chico State Normal School — now California State University, Chico .