WILLDEN FAMILY---Covered Wagon Days 1852

Leaving Council Bluffs, Iowa

Crossing the Missouri River

Around the campfire

Camp Scene

Oxen team and wagon

Mormon Trail onn Platte River

Chimney Rock, Nebraska

Scott's Bluff, Nebraska

Fort Laramie, Wyoming

Independence Rock, Wyoming

Devil's Gate,Wyoming

South Pass, Wyoming

Fort Bridger, Wyoming

Up the steep mountains

Echo Canyon, Utah

Salt Lake Valley, Utah

In the last blog, we followed Charles William WILLDEN and his family from Yorkshire, England, to their arrival in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in May of 1850. Once Charles and the pregnant Eleanor arrived with their six children, they purchased a farm of 50 acres or more, including two houses, for the sum of $20, which left the WILLDEN family with a total of $2.00.
Here they grew corn and wheat, churned butter, raised cows, chickens, and sheep, while Feargus and Ann attended school in Council Bluffs. Their early neighbors were mostly Scottish immigrants, some Mormon, some not, but here is where Charles and Eleanor planned to stay for awhile. The 1851 Iowa State Census lists Charles as a "steelmaker" who owned his on farm. In November, Eleanor gave birth to Mary Ellen Elizabeth, her eighth child, and everything seemed to be settling down for the WILLDEN clan....but it was not to be.
Mormon missionaries arrived in Council Bluffs, bringing the news that all Mormons were to gather in Zion (the Utah Territory) as soon as possible, which of course meant once again selling the family home, packing all of your belongings that you could into a wagon, and traveling for months to an unknown place. Many residents of Council Bluffs were not happy with that decision, as the land was fertile in Iowa, and they had heard the Trail stories since 1847. One Mormon pioneer wife later wrote in her journal, "What would people say today of a woman who was to start off with a family of six or seven children in an old wagon and four yoke of unbroken cattle to take on a journey of over a thousand miles in the wilderness. They would land her in the asylum." Ann WILLDEN, Charles and Eleanor's daughter, also wrote later of the journey, that she had wanted to know why someone "couldn't worship the Lord she knew and loved on her beautiful farm in Iowa" ...I can only imagine these thoughts coming back to her a few years later when she found herself living in a "dugout" ( a depression dug in the dirt with a roof on it) in the Utah Territory...but that's a later story.
At any rate, in the Spring of 1852, Charles and his sons began gathering timber wood to construct a wagon for the trip, and a man named Montieth was hired to do the job. The WILLDEN wagon was well-made, and above average for the Trail, and was pulled by horses rather than the common oxen or cattle team. The canvas cover over the bowed rib wagon top was double ply, which helped keep the wagon occupants safe and dry during the thunderstorms of the Great Plains. Two small carts pulled by horses, nine head of cattle, and a small flock of sheep driven by the children would round out the WILLDEN team. Charles appointed Milton Huff to sell his farm for him, which Milton promptly did, selling all 50+ acres and buildings for a second-hand watch....which he forwarded to Charles in Utah.
Mormon wagon trains were organized much better than other pioneer trains, in that they traveled together as a cohesive unit with a common goal, unlike the wagon trains composed of hundreds of individuals, and a few small groups traveling together. Other trains were made of gold seekers, soldiers, merchants, those running from the law, and many others who had no idea of their destination....just going West in hopes of a new and better life. Charles WILLDEN and his family became part of a Mormon "Company" of 50 wagons led by Thomas C. D. Howell, from Gibson County, Tennessee, who at age 38 had served in the Mormon Battalion and already made two trips across the desert. Howell would keep the wagons together until they were clear of the "hostile" Pawnee and Omaha Indians, then divide them into groups of ten wagons, still under his charge. In the first week of June, 1852, Charles WILLDEN and his famly began the journey along with nearly 300 other pioneers that would take them over a thousand miles during the next three months.
The WILLDEN family crossed the Missouri River most likely by private Ferry Company, and headed west from today's northern Omaha, NE, on a route that had existed for years as a trading path with the Pawnee settlements on the Loup River, about 90 miles from the Missouri. When only a few miles from Council Bluffs, Charles realized they had forgotten their axe, so young John was sent back to retrieve it. The plan was to follow the north side of the Platte River all through present-day Nebraska to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, a distance of about 525 miles. By remaining on the north side of the Platte, they would avoid any confrontations with the Oregon Trail traffic which was on the south bank of the Platte. From Fort Laramie, the WILLDENS would join the rest of the Oregon Trail traffic to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, another 400 miles, and then follow the tracks of the Donner Party into the Salt Lake Valley....a total trip of 1,031 miles according to the LDS Emigrant's Guide published in 1848. Charles would average about 11.2 miles per day while in the Platte River Valley the first two months, and about 9.4 miles per day once he entered the bluffs and mountains of the West, and that's without traveling on Sunday.
Each night the wagons were circled and guards were posted, having learned from the thousands of emigrants who had gone before them. Anne WILLDEN wrote in her journal, "One day an old Indian chief came to our wagon. I saw him coming and ran to the far end of our 'prairie schooner'. He saw that I was afraid of him, so to tease me, ran his long spear as far into the wagon as he could reach. I surly was frightened for I thought he was going to kill me. There were still Indians living on the plains, mostly only curious or friendly. The pioneers treated them well and traded with them, being always aware that there might be a renegade among them who could cause trouble". Eleanor WILLDEN explained to her daughter that the old brave probably got a chuckle out of scaring the little white girl. Anne writes about other moments, like when she was walking behind the wagon barefoot and stepped on cactus hidden under the tall prairie grass.....or the time she was accidentally knocked down and the wagon wheel ran over her back, but as she said, "I must have been made of India rubber", and was fine the next day.
The WILLDEN wagon would have passed the "Liberty Pole", a forty foot high pole with a white flag to mark the Trail joining the Platte River, and signed by every emigrant that could climb it until there was no more room. By the second week of June, they would cross Shell Creek, where earlier traders had built a bridge, but the Pawnee Indians often showed up to demand a "toll" to cross, normally a small amount of food or other items....which was always smartly paid. Travel was fairly uneventful for the wagon train across Nebraska, although there were some interesting moments. Some of the wagons had their canvas shredded during rain and hailstones, the storms so intense the occupants crawled under their wagons for safety.
One journal entry of the WILLDEN wagon train was by an emigrant whose wife had just died along the Trail, saying, "The brethren were very kind to us in this our affliction though there was no boards to be found in the camps by of which to make a coffin--they took pains to go over the river nearly a mile distant and bring timber to lay over the corpse then filling the grave with dirt to preserve it from the wolves. This was on the river Platte, 250 ms. W. of Mo. [Missouri] river[.] Thus terminated the life of my old and worthy companion[.] a life which had been checkered with many afflictions & hardships & anxieties—but they have passed away now[.] I hope she is where the weary pilgrims are at rest".
Anne WILLDEN wrote of another bit of Trail Knowledge, "The stock would stampede if they saw a dead animal by the roadside. At one time some women were walking ahead of the wagons, when they came upon a dead ox. They knew there would be trouble if something were not done, so they stood in line between the dead ox and the road, holding out their long skirts at their sides, thus making an effective screen while the long train passed by".
Many of the wagons were pulled by oxen or cattle, and as the days wore on, the animals tired of the heavy loads. Anne WILLDEN wrote, "The traveling was so hard that their stock had given out, and so to lighten the loads, many of the household goods were thrown out and left behind; pots, pans, tubs, heavy articles of wearing apparel, and feather beds, were strewn all along the roadside. Our party would have liked to have picked up many of these things, especially the feather beds. Our teams were in good condition, and we could have carried many of these things, but we did not do so for fear of disease".
Charles and his sons hunted rabbits, prairie dogs, birds, deer, and even buffalo when sighted. The buffalo meat would be dried over a "slow fire" and packed in cloth for travel. After one such buffalo hunt, Charles and a hunting companion did not return when expected. Anne WILLDEN wrote, "The train could not wait for them, as camp had to be made further on so they were left behind. At nine o'clock that night they had not reached the camp and the company became uneasy about them. A lantern was hung on a tall tree and guns were fired every few minutes. About three o'clock in the morning an answer came to the watching and anxious people. The answer was a gunshot fired by the lost ones". Anne's brother Charles had been missing once for four days, as he had gone back to find a wagon that had taken a wrong turn, and Charles guided them back to the main element.
From the area of present-day Sutherland, NE, the Trail west would become a challenge with its' foothills, bluffs, steep mountains, and narrow rocky canyons. Along the way the WILLDEN wagon passed all the famous Oregon Trail icons such as Chimney Rock, Scott's Bluff, Fort Laramie, Register Cliff, Independence Rock, and Devil's Gate. At Fort Laramie, journal entries note that there were no white families, only a few mountaineers living among the Indians. Not far from Fort Laramie the WILLDEN wagon crossed "Raw Hide Creek", so named because at this spot a trader shot and killed a nursing Indian squaw, and the braves responded by skinning him alive. Probably not a story shared with the children in the wagon train. And their journey along the Sweetwater River was not an easy stretch, as a journal entry tells, "The Sweetwater is a very crooked stream; one day we forded it 12 or 14 times. There was heavy emigration that summer, both of Saints and gold-seekers. The cholera was bad, but we didn't get it in our company. There were fresh graves all along the way for miles. In one place wolves had dug up a body; it was lying by the side of a grave. The men got their shovels and buried it again". On a more positive note, between Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger, Wyoming, was a place called Ice Spring or Ice Slough. Here was a place where underground water froze in winter amid peat-like soil that insulated the ice even into summer. The emigrants could dig down a few inches and find ice...in the middle of nowhere...a welcome and somewhat unusual treat.
In the first week of September,1852, Charles and Eleanor finally entered Echo Canyon, only about 60 miles from the Salt Lake Valley. Anne WILLDEN recalled in her journal, "While passing through Echo Canyon, we found it to be a very wonderful place, for there were great rocks and high cliffs, the fist we had ever seen. We children shouted, 'Hurrah,' and there came back to us, the answering 'Hurrah.' Again we called, 'Who are you?'and again came the answer. 'Who are you?' So we called, yelled, and shouted just to hear that mysterious, answering voice, echoing from the rocky cliffs. The older people soon tired of our noise, and we were forced to stop. It was also feared that our commotion and noise would stampede the cattle".
On September 13, 1852, Charles and Eleanor WILLDEN entered the Salt Lake Valley of the Utah Territory, ending their thousand mile ordeal, the trip described in a journal entry as "a long, hard, tedious journey through a tractless wilderness". Questions/comments to graveyardgossip@gmail.com