Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/267

 REMINISCENCES OF SEVENTY YEARS 259 she did pray for all the poor and needy, every night, and she certainly could not leave them out, because she knew their circumstances. Now, I have written this simple fact to illustrate what I have always said about the privations and starvations of the dear old emigrants. I will now say again, for myself and our company, that I never passed a more pleasant, cheerful and happy summer in my whole long life, and see no reason why the others cannot agree with this statement. We never had any sickness nor fear of any, more than we would have had in the oldest state in the Union, until we ran into the Cascade Mountains. Up to that time, we never had an obstacle in the way that we could not easily overcome. We forded every stream from the Big Kaw, where Kansas City now stands, to Oregon City, and we never doubled our teams to get over any hills or mountains that I can recollect. We never lost a horse, cow, nor ox on the entire trip. When we got to Fort Hall, on the Snake River, we laid by a day or two. Some of our company wanted to go to Cali- fornia and here was where the roads parted. But my father said he was going to drive his teams into the Willamette Valley. Superintendent Grant, of Fort Hall, the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, was present, and remarked, "Well, we have been here many years and we never have taken a pack train over those mountains yet, but if you say you will take your wagons over the mountains, you will do it. The darned Yankees will go anywhere they say they will." So the next morning, a mutual and friendly division took place. About half the wagons took the California road and the remaining twenty wagons continued on the Oregon route. Our family com- pany, consisting of thirteen wagons, traveled down the Snake River on the south side and crossed it the first time at the Great American Falls ; thence over to Boise River to its mouth at Fort Boise. We then crossed Snake River again, the deepest river we had forded. We raised our wagon beds about one foot and got nothing wet. We then went down the Snake River to the mouth of the Malheur. There Steve Meek was