Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/405

Rh ladies at Mount Carroll, Illinois. He came from a fine family of educated Christian people.

Copy of a letter written by Tallmadge B. Wood, about April, 1844, from Willamette Falls, Oregon, to his friends at Milton, Saratoga County, New York. The letter is written on large foolscap paper, tinted blue, and the lines on which the writing is placed are a shade of darker blue. This letter was nicely written; the letters were at a slant of about forty-five degrees.—Florence E. Baker.

One year has elapsed since I had an opportunity of communicating with you; at which time you doubtless recollect receiving- a letter from me, which was mailed at Missouri; & in which I informed you of my intention to take a trip to Oregon, which I accordingly did, & after seven months tedious traveling, arrived at Willamet Fall, on a branch of the Columbia River. My road lay through a Savage country, a distance of Twenty-three hundred miles, which you are aware makes it necessary to travel in caravans. As I presume you have a curiosity to know how we journeyed, & the country &c, I will attempt to give you as much of a description as the limited space of a letter will allow; I set out (from Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, which is the general place of rendezvous for emigrants to this country;) April 25th, 1843; in a company of One thousand: three hundred of which were able men; the remainder were women & children.

There was three [one] hundred & twenty wagons, drawn by oxen or mules (chiefly oxen) of about three yoke to each wagon; they performed the journey admirably, I was myself equipped with two yoke of cattle, to haul my provisions; two Horses & one Mule, to ride by turn, & though my horses & mule were of the best quality, they were not sufficient to carry me the whole distance. We also had about two thousand head of cows, young cattle, & horses. We traveled in some confusion, 'till we arrived at Con [Kaw or Kansas] River, a distance of about ninety miles from Missouri line; We there found it necessary to have some order in traveling, for which purpose we elected Officers, & came under a sort of military discipline, & thus marched very pleasantly through a fertile country, until we arrived at Blue River, a branch of the Con. [ * * ] Here we found our stock was too large to get sufficient sustenance from one campground, therefore we concluded to sepperate & form two divisions, & march a few miles apart. I had the honor of being second in command, of the division in which I traveled. We struck Big Platte River about 300 miles from the Missouri line. We