March
18, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We are going out west very soon. Our
captain has gotten $25.00 from each family.
We are worried we will not have enough money to pay for essentials and
things that are needed. Before we
pay we will see how much more money we need.
Instead of money, Christine and I are going to give Daniel and his
daughter, Abby, free education and a wool dress at the cost of three dollars.
March
19, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Our family has earned $100.00 more
for our trail money by working extra in Independence, Missouri.
We are all very happy.
May
1, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have earned $50.00 more for our trail money.
May
1, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Suddenly, when I was looking around for my last look at Independence, I
started to regret what I was doing and feel scared.
Why was I doing this? Would
I ever see my family again? Somehow I couldn't find the answers inside me.
But I figured it was too late now. The
supplies were already ordered and everyone is depending on me coming, so I can't
back out now. We have also gotten
our last call for buying oxen and horses. But
that was no worry because we brought 6 oxen and 1 horse from Robert's farm.
Even though we will need more oxen, it is not worth it now because they
will get tired from walking alongside the wagon.
May
1, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Everyone on the wagon train has gotten contaminated water from the well.
Our family has chosen to dump out the water and boil out the kegs.
We will now be careful to peel raw foods, cook raw meats, and boil our
kegs whenever there is a case of cholera!
May
2, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Our wagon train has reached our first river and have decided to cross.
We do not want to turn back. We
got across safely but they will soon build a bridge across it.
July
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
The kids in our wagon train have gotten an invitation to go and sign
their initials on top of Register Cliff. We have chosen not to let the children go to the
cliff because on the way up
the cliff they could get badly hurt or fall off.
Also there is a chance that the wagon train would leave them behind
because the elders would not have known.
July
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have noticed that Abigail Allison Whitman is missing.
There are many things that could have happened.
We decided to send a search party and traded food with the Indians for
information about Allison. They
didn't know anything. Allison was
eventually brought home safe and sound. Everyone
was pleased, especially her family.
Friday,
February 7, 1858
Dear
Diary,
On this trail of moving "Westward Ho," I have learned many
things. I have learned of famous
people such as Belle Star, Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, Buffalo
Bill, and many names I have heard before. Before
I got 'On the trail,' I only had a small idea.
Now that I am having a 'small'
experience about life on the trail, I
have learned and realized the hard times the emigrants had.
I know about snake bites and how a lot are poisonous.
Cholera is deadly and thirst and hunger can also cause death. Many
details are in my mind but it will take awhile to write them down.
I also have a duty in the wagon.
July
13, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We heard of a natural bridge a ways off the trail.
Our family decided not to go and hopefully we made the right decision.
There was a chance of getting lost, losing stuff in the river or losing
the wagon train. The people who did
go, caught back up with us and came back with two quarts of berries.
They also said we all missed out on a lifetime experience.
July
17, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have reached the North Platte river and are thinking of crossing the
bridge. The cost is $5 a wagon and
$1 an animal. Our family decided to cross anyway because it would only be
$12 for us to cross. If we wait for
the storm to be over we could be waiting for days.
We made the right decision by paying a toll. The others who decided not to pay had to pay anyway because
another storm hit and they lost two days of travel time.
July
23, 1858
Dear
Diary,
A lot happened in Fort Laramie today.
I took a bath and the water was sooooooooo refreshing.
It felt really good to finally get all the grimy dirt off.
We also lost all of our flour when we found bugs in it.
We bought more flour and decided to buy more supplies to hopefully get us
the rest of the way. We bought moccasins, buffalo robes, sugar, flour, and got all
of our animals sheared. Louisa had
a baby girl recently and named her Madison America Smith. A beautiful name I think!
The child is adorable. I
still shudder to think of all the muddy water with alkali in it.
Some families were unfortunate and lost their oxen.
But for the most part our plan worked.
We chose to lock the animals inside the wagon circle and have the men
watch and care for them during the night. Everything
turned out okay and Louisa is doing fine. Everyone
wants to hold Maddy so Louisa has gotten much rest. I look forward to the rest of the trail.
July
23, 1858
Dear
Diary,
I have many feelings about the trail.
When I started I was excited. During
the first half I started to get a little depressed and my energy began draining
out. But now the Whitman family has
offered to pay $1 per school lesson. There
is going to be a lesson during noon break and during campfire at night.
This is something I love so I don't mind.
I hope the rest of the trail goes smoothly because so far our family has
only had small incidents. Here is a
picture of my favorite view!
July
28, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have reached Devil's Gate and all of a sudden the ground started
rumbling. As we went single file
through the gate we saw a buffalo stampede.
Mr. George Joe Whitman hurt his leg trying to save his daughters.
Everyone made it safely but we lost a day's worth of travel time gathering
the spooked cows and oxen. We will
travel on with five buffalo added to our food stock.
July
30, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We are at Sweet Water Springs and our captain has decided to have a few people
go dig for ice, and the rest stay with the animals to protect them in case there
is alkali water. Robert McMillen,
Daniel Honeyman, and Captain Daniel Robbins are the only ones digging.
The men came back safely and with ice.
We all were happy.
July
31, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have made it to South Pass!
We are half way there and in the Rocky Mountains.
The water was rolling down the mountain very fast.
Looking at the steep trail it worries me that not all of us will make it.
But we were unlucky. One of
our wheels snapped and we lost our extra water cask. We needed to find a way to repair our wagon and fill up our
water cask. We need to think of a
way to fill up our cask because we only have one cask left. We finally found a way to temporarily fix our wagon, and will
fill our casks up in the springs. That
night we celebrated with dance, song, and with high spirits because we made it
down a deadly pass.
July
31, 1858
Dear
Diary,
While we celebrated we came upon another group of pioneers.
They stopped and joined the celebration.
They were thankful for the entertainment so they gave us two head of
cattle and a yoke of oxen. For
animals we now have two cattle, ten oxen, and one horse.
August
1, 1858
Dear
Diary,
When George Joe Whitman was bitten by a rattlesnake he was in dire pain.
Dr. Honeyman saved his life by feeding George whiskey.
There were lots of other remedies that could have been used, but we
thought that whiskey might be the most successful.
August
1, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have come to a fork in the trail!
We are now discussing which way we want to take.
We took the Fort Bridger trail and refilled our water casks, took a bath,
and let our animals graze. Everything
was fine until we woke up and realized that 2 of Lavina Honeyman's blankets were
missing. I suspect Indians. Hopefully we won't lose more!
September
9, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We are near Hot Springs today. Some
families had members who went TOO close and they got burnt.
The doctor says that they need to wear a bandage for two days.
September
10, 1858
Dear
Diary,
I'm starting to get used to the trail now. We are so close to Oregon and I'm really excited. Everyone is falling apart and tired but I have a feeling we all will make it safely.
September
20, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We are about to cross the Snake River.
Each family has to come up with a unique plan on how they are going to
cross this dangerous and curvy river. Here
is a drawing of our plan.
September
20, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We made it across the Snake. Our
family lost two provisions from our wagon, 3 pounds of peas and 5 pounds of
sugar. It is a lot to spare now,
but we will survive.
September
30, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We left Snake River. Now we
are facing the Blue Mountains. They
look cold and mystical. I'm hoping
the mountains are not as harsh. Leaving
the Snake was a sad but happy moment. We
all have seen much more difficult times like in the Rocky Mountains. This new life will be wonderful.
But it is difficult to think about that because walking is so tiring.
I feel like collapsing and resting for a week.
A nap would feel like a warm bath on a summer's evening.
Hopefully we will not see anything more depressing.
October
5, 1858
Dear
Diary,
On our way down the Blue Mountains our wagon toppled down the steep,
dangerous hill. Thankfully no one
got hurt. The Robbins family also
had a wagon that went out of control. Our
family and the Robbins family lost our provisions and each had to kill one of
our oxen due to a broken leg. Gathering
and finding the lost provisions was a difficult task but everyone helped.
The reason why our wagon toppled was we kept our oxen hitched to the
wagon. The oxen aren't strong to
hold the weight of the wagon and the provisions inside it so that caused the
wagon to flip. The oxen that was
killed was saved for meat. This
depressing trail is almost over with 400 more miles to go.
We are now in Ladd Canyon Hill and finally in Oregon!
March
6, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Dead Man's Pass seems awful! Many
people died and lots of oxen didn't make it either.
I have heard that it is the 'grand daddy of all passes,' the steepest,
the narrowest, and people had to go through single file.
Hostile Indians, snow cave-ins, and sicknesses are some causes of death.
The pass got its name (Dead Man's Pass) by a whole group of men being
killed by hostile Indians during the Bannok War.
Some people claimed to have heard screams, gunshots, arrow shots, and
other things in the pass. (Before Dead Man's Pass it was called Crawford Hill.
The name changed on July 12, 1878.)
Although there are all these bad things, the main good thing it that the
pass is around the 1,671st mile!
October
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
We have reached Whitman Mission in Walla Walla County, Washington.
We are at the 1,709th mile, and nearly in Oregon!
Our supplies are going low and have nearly no food or water!
But we have gotten an option to buy, trade, or sell our supplies.
Before we decide what to do with our supplies we have to decide what we
want to do
when we get to Oregon. We could
stay at the Whitman Mission, take the Barlow Toll Road, or canoe down the
Columbia Gorge. They are all
dangerous but only one is the one we are going to take.
We have decided to canoe down the gorge, sell and trade our supplies,
wagon, and oxen. We will get new
food, water, and clothing to bring down the river.
We will use our extra money that we earned form selling our supplies to
buy new animals in Willamette Valley. Hopefully
we make it!
October
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Some emigrants came to the Mission with a tattered wagon cover, two
almost broken wheels, and a broken axle. We
saw them and asked them if they wanted to buy our wagon, our extra wheels, and
our axle for a total of $96.00. They
made their decision very quickly, thanked us and told us that they would soon be
on their way down the Barlow Toll Road.
October
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
Three families from a wagon train each had to shoot two oxen because they were lame. They each only had a total of six oxen and now they only have four. Since four oxen wouldn't be enough to go over the Barlow Toll Road we sold all nine of our oxen to them for a total of $60.00. Our prayers are with them as they go over the road. We donated our two cattle and all of our supplies except 5 lbs. of cornmeal, 4 lbs. dried peaches, 6 lbs. dried apples, 10 lbs. salt, 3 lbs. sugar, 1 loaf of bread, 2 blankets, 1 rifle, and 2 wool shirts and pants, to the Mission. As we get ready to go on the canoe all we can do is pray.
October
12, 1858
Dear
Diary,
For the canoe trip we needed to choose two scouts.
The nominees were John Honeyman, Daniel Honeyman, and my own husband
Samuel McMillen. At first Daniel
and Samuel were chosen, but John Honeyman noticed that they were both doctors. Then Lavinia Honeyman noticed that if both Daniel and John
went Lavinia and Margaret might lose both men in their family.
Our train decided to keep Daniel here as the doctor and have John and
Samuel be scouts. All families who
have members in danger are worried and hope they survive.
October
28, 1858
Dear
Diary,
The Honeyman's canoes crashed on a rock and that caused the scouts to
stay behind. All others made it
safely to Oregon. But when the
guides got back they said there was
no sign of the men. We all were sad
but knew we had to move on. Everyone
in the wagon decided to have a reunion with the survivors and a proper memorial for those who died. I
have said that from now on I will be called Ms. Cecelia Emily Adams.
Summer
1859
Dear
Diary,
I, Ms. Cecelia Emily Adams, have been living in OREGON for quite some
time now. Knowing that my husband
Samuel Connor McMillen died along the last part of the trail,
I think I'm holding up very well. I
am living on the Robert's farm with my sister and her husband.
Together we remember Samuel during morning bible readings and evening
prayers. In memory of him I have
decided to stay single and not marry again.
Looking back on the past year of my life, I consider myself a very lucky
women and a brave soul. Like many
others before me and those who will come after me I give some advice.
Be prepared for a new life, new ways, and a tip for the
ladies,,,,,,,,,,,,, don't forget
your manners, you tend to lose them out here. Out in Oregon I have started to say things like; "Hi Y'all",
"My young'ns have grown", and started doing jobs men normally do.
Even though I have all these chores, I am delighted to say that the
Oregon Country is everything I have dreamed of.
It has brought me a happy life, a new beginning and I am not just living
inside of Cecelia Adams, I am living inside the new, exciting, brave,
courageous, and independent Cecelia Adams.
Signed,
To the People
and Projects
Comments? Email Mrs. Gurwicz
Last Updated: 08/28/04