Cluster Research Works - the FAN Prinicple breaks down brick walls.

 I made a page at WikiTree for my 1864 Oregon Trail Ancestors -- and included all the Family, Associates, and Neighbors that I knew. After running out of leads about the journey on my ancestors, I started in on their "FAN club". I found two obituaries of people on the Oregon Trail with my ancestors, which have thrown light on the journey. Lucinda Ridgeway  was a young woman at the beginning of her Oregon Trail journey with her parents and siblings. She met and married her husband, Caleb Harnett, about half-way through the trip. They finished the journey to Oregon and raised a family of thirteen children in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. You can read the obituaries on her profile at WikiTree.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a day the pioneers also celebrated.

 They were thankful for what we might consider basic necessities: warm dry shelter, food on the table at mealtime, shoes on their feet and a warm coat in winter, and work to earn their daily bread. 

After crossing the Great Plains and skirting the Rocky Mountains, the Oregon Trail Pioneers arrived at... practically nothing. Nothing that was like a town back east, nothing that was easily bought at a store, and nothing on the land they came for, except the trees and grass and bushes. They would have to build a house if they wanted shelter, would have to plant a garden if they wanted food. They were farmers, used to hard work, but starting from nothing at all was.... hard.

They built barns to house their cows, steers and horses, and built fences around the pastures to keep them safe. They built the most rudimentary cabins for shelter in the first year, while they had so much work to do immediately on the farm. Some would fail due to ill health or lack of preparation. Some would simply lose heart at the immensity of the work ahead of them, and go back east. The rest would stay and work and prosper. Many who now live in Oregon, Washington and Idaho are descendants of those pioneers who made the great trek along the Oregon Trail. It defined a generation. "Have you seen the elephant?" was their way of putting the trip in perspective -- it was as rare and huge and unimaginable as - an elephant!

Sooner or Later, we have to Pay Attention

to the technical aspects of genealogy in this age of computers. Without the marvels of digitized records and high capacity micro chips, we could not build our large collections of family, loaded with citations and images. All this simply leads up to stability: making sure our records are complete, accurate, safe and accessible. 

I'm spending the last two weeks of November and the first two weeks of December in a class, "Mastering Family Tree Maker". It includes fun things that are not difficult once they're explained, like color coding for the tree and index. It also includes hard things that I don't consider fun, like doing GEDCOM uploads to my database.

Benefits outweigh difficulties: I will be able to print beautiful charts, to print timelines and make a book of ancestors. I'll have everyone in one tree for looking up their facts and images.

I remind myself to have patience.

So has anyone been reading "The Brazen Overlanders of 1845"?

 I have been taking a quick look between homework... I found out WHY there was the rush to land in Oregon. I found what the pioneers were doing a year before they left, to prepare for the journey. I discovered something that rather surprised me -- the wagons were all inspected by the trail masters before they left! To make sure people were bringing what was necessary, to make sure they weren't bringing anything that would be a burden or even a liability (whisky or guns to trade to the Indians). The survival of all depended on the preparation each one made, to be ready to take care of themselves, and feed their families, repair the wagon if necessary (wheels and other things did break).

It was not just an enthusiastic but unprepared group of people leaving for the Oregon Trail -- it was a group of determined, well prepared people who would be able to succor each other in an emergency, but not create needless demands for help along the way.

Explorers leaving Victorian England for a year in Africa couldn't have been more serious or detailed in their preparations, than those overlanders. A lesson to me (maybe to all of us) to be ready for whatever life may throw at you.

Music to match today's blog.  Chapters, by Southern Raised, their original lyrics - worth considering.

Pandababy is going to a class beginning today through Dec 11th, and...

these four weeks may have fewer postings here on Pandababy. The class is on "Mastering Family Tree Maker". I have used Family Tree Maker for years, including its amazing 'sync' feature, but have not been able to take advantage of other technical features. The class, sponsored by Family Tree University, costs $$$, and I plan to be present for all of it.

Now is a good time to review what you may have missed -- this blog goes back to 2007.

It is also a good time to consider what you can add to our digital family tree, whether at WikiTree.com, or FamilySearch.org, or Ancestry.com. Do you have any good pictures you could upload? Or any special family stories you could write down and share?

Maybe there is a podcast or two, or a class, that you want to take. American Ancestors has a treasure trove of seminars, and so does Ancestry, as well as Family Tree University and shorter freebies in the magazine. Some of these are free, some are inexpensive and others cost $$$ - but are worth it.

Don't forget to read the featured book from this blog yesterday. The Brazen Overlanders of 1845 is the best I've seen for explaining the driving forces behind the Oregon Trail immigration. 

The Real, the True, the Raw Story of the Oregon Trail:

Pandababy has published many snippets and/or watered-down versions of the Oregon Trail Journey, as told in various books, newspapers and diaries. I do not look to shock modern sensibilities with what our ancestors endured. However, it is an excellent reality check to get at least for once, a true picture of what they endured. Now, you can read for yourself what "it was really like".

This book is free to download as a pdf, or read online (I recommend the pdf).

The Brazen Overlanders of 1845, by Donna M. Wojcik

This is the best adventure I can send to you tonight. I hope you will enjoy it.

"Tribute to a Strong Pioneer Woman, Hannah (Barchus) Colson Daniels"

Hannah (Barchus) Colson Daniels 1838 - 1916 -- an Amazing Life

Hannah was born on the Ohio farm of Thomas and Sarah (Bacon) Barchus in 1838. In 1848, when Hannah was ten years old, her father Thomas died, at age 35. Hannah's mother Sarah stayed on the farm long enough to be recorded in the 1850 census with her four children.

In 1855, Sarah Barchus took Hannah and her three other children to Marion County Iowa, where they lived with Sarah's brother Samuel Bacon and his family. They are recorded there in the Iowa State census of 1856 -- all but Hannah. She had married Thomas Colson, 29 Nov 1855 in Mahaska County, Iowa. Their son-- John Dudley Colson, was born a year later, on 23 September, 1856.

Thomas Colson died 14 March 1859, age 22. His wife Hannah (Barchus) Colson was three months pregnant with their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Colson, born 23 September 1859, a post obit baby. Meanwhile, on 19 August 1859, Hannah's mother Sarah married Reuben Daniels (senior) in Mahaska County, Iowa. Reuben Daniels had a son, Reuben Daniels, a bachelor 30 years old. Reuben Jr. married Hannah (Barchus) Colson 25 Feb 1860 in Jasper County, Iowa. Hannah's son John Colson, and her daughter Sarah Colson, would go by the surname Daniels from 1860 until they were adults. 

Bow yokes on a bullock team, Creative Commons License, credit to Cgoodwin

In 1864, Reuben Daniels and Hannah (Barchus) Colson Daniels, along with their two Colson children, and their parents, Reuben Daniels Sr. and Sarah (Barchus) Daniels, with Sarah's two younger children, Caroline and Constant Barchus, plus Sarah's eldest daughter Julia (Barchus) Campbell, her husband W J Campbell, their three young children, W J's father, Alexander Campbell, and various brothers of Reuben Daniels and of W J Campbell, plus the town doctor and other people, left Iowa May 1864, and traveled the Oregon Trail. 2,170 grueling miles later, they settled on farms in Clackamas, and Linn Counties, Oregon, later spreading out to farms in Washington.

Hannah raised five children, and took care of many grandchildren, while helping Reuben run their farm. Reuben died in 1911. Hannah died 13 June 1916, and was buried with Reuben under a monument that says "DANNALS". The family spelled their surname both ways -- Daniels and Dannals, as can be seen on various records. Hannah was only twenty years old when Thomas Colson died. She was a strong woman who raised five children, traveled the Oregon Trail, and made her mark on building this country. 

Hannah, and her family, did not do it all alone. They were Christians who took their faith seriously. They stood by each other with love.

Rock of Ages

Constant walked into the kitchen saying, "Mother, I have bad news. Tom has died of the influenza. I can hardly believe it -- he was only 22."

"He was so sick, I was afraid of this happening. Please go hitch up the horses while I get ready. Our bags have been packed for a week - just in case. Hannah will need me."

Sarah began putting bread and staples in a box, to take with them. She started weeping as she worked, thinking of her little grandson, John Colson, only two years old, losing his father. She soon called herself to order, and said a prayer for peace of mind through this trial. She would be no use to Hannah if she was in turmoil.

Constant came in to eat lunch, hitching the wagon and horses right outside the back door.."It is only a little after noon, so we can get to Hannah's before dark, can't we?"

"It's only eight and half miles, Connie, so we should be fine. As soon as you finish eating, we're leaving. Go find your uncle Samuel and tell him what happened."

"I won't have to go far, I think that is him coming in from the barn right now."

"Then please load these bags and boxes while I say goodbye to your uncle."

"Sarah, what is this about a trip to Hannah's? Is it because of Tom?" 

"Sad news, Samuel. Hannah's husband has died. We thought he was young enough and strong enough to fight it off, but the influenza has taken him too."

"Leah and I already talked about how we could help you if this happened. We'd like Caroline to stay here with her cousins. At seven she's too young to help you and Hannah."

"That would be best, and I thank you, Samuel.  Pray for Hannah. She wrote to me last week that they are going to have another baby in September."

Despite what she told her son, they would have to drive steadily to get there by dark. Getting a fast start helped, and she would push the horses the whole day- no dithering or dallying. Her daughter needed her, so she went. 

The sun went down, and darkness pressed in on them as the dusk faded. The moon peeped above the trees, over half full, but it shed enough light. The road ran straight before them, and soon they would be at Hannah's house. The air cooled down fast with the sun gone. These spring days were so short. Spring. Planting time. What would Hannah do now, a widow only twenty-one years old, with a two-year-old son, and another baby on the way? Well, she couldn't do much about it but pray, and that was what she did, on the long road to Hannah's. Some problems were too big for anyone but God. Sarah prayed for consolation for her bereaved daughter, for wisdom on how to go on, for the means to support Hannah and her children, and for the peace of God to be with them in this time of weeping and sadness.

Sarah's mother Hannah, raised a Quaker, was a woman of quiet and confident spirit. Now those verses her mother taught her when she was a child came back to lift her up, head and heart.  She started humming, and her son beside her began to sing the words, in a soft but steady tenor.. "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee." Constant skipped to the third verse, the one he liked best of all.

"While I draw this fleeting breath,

When Mine eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown,

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee."

The lights of Black Oak shone out of the night. The Colson farm, on the western outskirts, was shining brighter than them all. Drawing a deep breath of relief, Sarah pulled the horses up to the front of the farmhouse. Hannah was watching for her mother, and came running down the steps, her eyes streaming with tears.

Sarah rushed to catch her daughter in her arms, murmuring words of love and comfort. Now others came from the house, a fine young man and his father by their looks. She recognized them as they came up to offer greetings. It was Reuben Daniels and his father, also Reuben. The father spoke to Sarah, "We don't want to intrude on the family at this time, ma'am, but we're friends of Tom. We didn't know but that Hannah could use our help, with all to do for the funeral."

Sarah gave thanks to God in her heart, for answers to prayers already in evidence. 

Sarah spoke for Hannah and all of them, "We want you to consider yourself part of the family. Tom used to talk about his friend Reuben. You are welcome to stay, and your help will be needed.

Who Was on the 1864 Wagon Train from Jasper County, Iowa?

 Click link below to see who was on the 1864 Wagon Train from Jasper County, Iowa with Constant.

1864 Oregon Trail Wagon Train of Constant Barchus

Sarah Barchus was grateful. She was a widow with four children, yet they had a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Thanks to her brother, Samuel Bacon, they had a place to stay once they sold the farm. This year, 1859, marked the fourth year they shared Samuel's home. Sarah's daughter Hannah had married Thomas Colson the first year they were in Iowa. Sarah's daughter Julia married William Jefferson Campbell  in 1857, two years after their exodus to Iowa. Now in 1859, Sarah herself was being courted by Reuben Daniels Sr., and she was inclined to say yes.

Reuben had a large family of grown children, and he expressed sincere welcome to Constant and Caroline, who were too young to establish their own homes. With the Daniels family, they would be many around the table at dinner again. Yes, it was time to move on, leaving the past behind emotionally as well as physically. With Reuben, she would establish a new home, and their two families, who still missed their mother Hannah Daniels, and their father Thomas Barchus, would be whole again.

Chris R. Sims (Simsc) - Own work  - GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
Sourdough bread

Sarah enjoyed the work of a farm wife - the baking and cooking, the spinning and weaving and sewing, and tending her vegetables and flowers. She smiled as she considered the ways she could bring the warmth and comfort of a wife and mother into the Daniels home. There was a peaceful rhythm to a day on the farm.  Nothing said Home like the smell of fresh baked bread.   It was going to be good for them all.

The 1864 Wagon Train from Jasper County, Iowa is getting ready to leave.

It is the middle of winter, but they are leaving for Oregon in May, as soon as the snow is no longer on the ground. The supplies of food for the travelers, the supply of seed for when they arrive and plow, plenty of bedding, essential cook pots: the things they have to have versus the things they want to bring -- books, and heirloom furniture, the whole kitchen furnishings - but even if it would all fit, the oxen would die pulling such a heavy load. Their clothes and their shoes will wear out on this trip: 2,170 miles, mostly on foot, because the oxen had to be able to pull the wagons all the way.

From: The Ox Team - or - The Old Oregon Trail by Ezra Meeker,
published 1906.  page 178.  Recommending this book by Ezra Meeker

They are all so eager to get started, and they are all working furiously to have everything done in time. If they weren't turning over their farms to a grown son - or a daughter who married a farmer - they were selling them, and it had to be in time, but also at the last minute. They wouldn't miss this difficult Iowa farmland - hilly, with marshy ground, full of fog and miasmas. No where else had they seen so much illness and even death. They couldn't wait to leave! But how hard it was going to be, to leave behind loved ones who would not, or even could not, make the epic journey.

On the Prairie from Ezra Meeker's book: The Ox Team - or - The Old Oregon Trail
Publishing date: 1906. Page 88

Could Constant bring his precious fiddle? There would be room for Caroline's flute, but the family piano would have to stay behind. And what about the chickens, the milk cows, the sheep and pigs and cattle and horses? They would be needed at the other end of the Oregon Trail, but who was going to herd them along that long, long, trail?

Finding the Family Farm - How I located the ancestral homesteads.

FIRST - Don't worry about knowing the meaning of all these technical land description terms. They are just labels standing for something we want to know. Don't let the language get in the way of finding your ancestral homestead. I'll share my method here step-by-step.

This system has worked for me here in Oregon, I have not yet tried it with the homesteads my farmer ancestors claimed in Iowa, Indiana, and Kentucky, where I know my farmer ancestors took up homesteads. Here is what has worked for me with the Oregon Territory Donation Land Claim farms.

First find their name in the DLC book of claims, which is by county. Get the DLC number from the book, or, here in Oregon, from the Early Oregonian database our state government created from state and federal records on those early pioneers.

Then put their name, and the DNC #, with the county, into the BLM search engine. Sometimes it works with just the name, or just the name and DNC #. The result looks like this: (remember: click to enlarge)

Image from BLM, a Federal document, not under copyright. This is the description of James and Mary Ann's 320 acre farm. Their land description is 14 South, 4 West, in Section 17 of Linn County. When you get your own BLM document, check those little boxes on the top and left side of the attached map. It is interactive, and will show a graphic exactly where the property is located.

The land description reads: State/Meridian/Township-Range/Aliquots/Section/Survey/County. What I needed at this point was a good (free) map showing the land in Linn County where Sherrills settled with the meridian and section lines, to begin. I found a good one at "Linn County OR Plat Map" You can see that the whole map is large connected squares. Those squares represent one square mile of land. Notice the numbers and letters - those represent the distance from the Willamette Meridian in terms of east and west, (north and south are measured from a baseline - it works whether we know the details or not, for these purposes). Here is where it really helps to have a feature in the land that will make it easier to identify. Sherrill's homestead is located at Irish Bend on the Willamette River, which makes it easier to see it on various maps.

Now we come to the "aliquots". This is just a way of describing smaller sections of the land. Here is a picture of how it works, and a link to a simple explanation.

The state of Oregon ordered surveys of the state in 1876, and those maps are available at no cost, no copyright, at the Library of Congress. I have downloaded one section of one of the maps, that includes the Sherrill's homestead, and then put it in a paint program, and labeled the sections where their homestead is. You can see it at WikiTree on my 1852 Oregon Trail page. There are other maps showing the survey lines, some with road maps on them, others topographical. The interactive map won't work on the above image, it is just a picture. Try out the interactive map with this link to my 2xgr-grandfather James Sherrill's homestead Patent. Good luck with finding your ancestral homesteads!