Who Were Those Guys?
May 4, 2015 4:02 AM Subscribe
Mr. K and I are interested in the history of the Oregon Trail. He's good at research, but is coming up blank on papers or discussions to help understand who went, and WHY they decided to spend six months on an incredibly difficult trek in order to try to carve out a living in Oregon.
There's a surprising number of diaries, journals and memoirs (mostly by women), but those describe what it was like, but not so much why they went. (I haven't read them all, by any means, so I may be missing something obvious.)
The thing that's stumping us that they obviously weren't poor folk, looking for a better life. Outfitting a family to cross the country, and carry enough with you to start a farm, must have cost a significant amount of money. Even if they sold their previous home and used the proceeds -- why? Of course they must have been hoping for a better life, but in what way? I know there must have been a variety of reasons for different people, but I'm having trouble imagining it. Was the East that crowded? Was the government that repressive? Was the air that dirty? Were they just hardworking dreamers hoping that they'd find the Happy Land?
We're open to any ideas, and particularly, any suggestions of sources we could mine. Thanks!
There's a surprising number of diaries, journals and memoirs (mostly by women), but those describe what it was like, but not so much why they went. (I haven't read them all, by any means, so I may be missing something obvious.)
The thing that's stumping us that they obviously weren't poor folk, looking for a better life. Outfitting a family to cross the country, and carry enough with you to start a farm, must have cost a significant amount of money. Even if they sold their previous home and used the proceeds -- why? Of course they must have been hoping for a better life, but in what way? I know there must have been a variety of reasons for different people, but I'm having trouble imagining it. Was the East that crowded? Was the government that repressive? Was the air that dirty? Were they just hardworking dreamers hoping that they'd find the Happy Land?
We're open to any ideas, and particularly, any suggestions of sources we could mine. Thanks!
In 1842, a slightly larger group of 100 pioneers made the 2,000-mile journey to Oregon. The next year, however, the number of emigrants skyrocketed to 1,000. The sudden increase was a product of a severe depression in the Midwest combined with a flood of propaganda from fur traders, missionaries, and government officials extolling the virtues of the land. Farmers dissatisfied with their prospects in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, hoped to find better lives in the supposed paradise of Oregon. Source.
posted by jquinby at 6:03 AM on May 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by jquinby at 6:03 AM on May 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
I do a lot of research on people who came to the Northwest Territory in the pioneer days, and I think they are the same types of folks as the Oregon Trail people. A large portion of them were young men solo or in pairs looking for adventure and to get rich, many of whom had middle or upper middle class parents in the East. You don't get a lot of diaries from these guys, but you hear about them in the women's diaries. They are the guys who would start the newspapers or other founding businesses and stake early land claims. Then they'd maybe go back home and bring back a new wife after they established themselves. The richer guys would found the first banks and buy tons of real estate or log out vast tracts before the later settlers came.
The families who came later were often coming either with a head of the household who had already been there or on the prompting of friends. If your daddy's a farmer in the East, you might stay East, but if you're not the first born son and you want to farm, are you going to take a smaller portion of the farm? Neither you nor your brother will want that. So, you have to find your own land. But then, where? Where are you going to get the stake to come up with that land? So you go west where land is almost free, and (maybe) get rich logging out vast tracts of forest, or mining, or just buying up real estate for almost nothing in places you expect will someday be a city.
In essence, going west was about the intent to be upwardly mobile. Become a founding family in some town and therefore get your pick of natural resource exploitation and then land. It worked too, though many would get rich for awhile and then in the various panics (1873, 1893) would lose everything.
posted by RedEmma at 6:03 AM on May 4, 2015 [6 favorites]
The families who came later were often coming either with a head of the household who had already been there or on the prompting of friends. If your daddy's a farmer in the East, you might stay East, but if you're not the first born son and you want to farm, are you going to take a smaller portion of the farm? Neither you nor your brother will want that. So, you have to find your own land. But then, where? Where are you going to get the stake to come up with that land? So you go west where land is almost free, and (maybe) get rich logging out vast tracts of forest, or mining, or just buying up real estate for almost nothing in places you expect will someday be a city.
In essence, going west was about the intent to be upwardly mobile. Become a founding family in some town and therefore get your pick of natural resource exploitation and then land. It worked too, though many would get rich for awhile and then in the various panics (1873, 1893) would lose everything.
posted by RedEmma at 6:03 AM on May 4, 2015 [6 favorites]
Eden Within Eden: Oregon's Utopian Heritage sounds like it might answer some of your questions? I haven't read about it, but it was cited in this very interesting piece about white supremacy/separatism in early Oregon history: Oregon Was Founded as a Racist Utopia.
posted by mskyle at 6:22 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mskyle at 6:22 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
mskyle beat me to it!
There was a discussion here on Metafilter not long ago (though I can't seem to find it now) on racism in Oregon's history. The bitterness and violence between slavery and anti-slavery factions was so intense that it drove some to look for a place free of it out West. There is also the story of directional signs at a turning point in the way West: a pile of rocks painted gold, with an arrow pointing towards California; and a sign reading "Road to Oregon", for those who could read.
posted by mmiddle at 6:28 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
There was a discussion here on Metafilter not long ago (though I can't seem to find it now) on racism in Oregon's history. The bitterness and violence between slavery and anti-slavery factions was so intense that it drove some to look for a place free of it out West. There is also the story of directional signs at a turning point in the way West: a pile of rocks painted gold, with an arrow pointing towards California; and a sign reading "Road to Oregon", for those who could read.
posted by mmiddle at 6:28 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I grew up in Oregon, and in grade school one of the things we studied in history was the Oregon Trail. And I always wondered why anyone would go through that.
When I was grown up I got a job in Massachusetts and lived there for a few years. Then I began to understand. The soil there is terrible. It's full of rocks, and not very fertile; the rains are not reliable, varying from "deluge" to "drought" over pretty much every growing season. No one who had a choice would want to have a farm there.
The Willamette Valley (pronounced "will-LAMM-it", which is where the "Oregon Trail" ended) is some of the best farmland on Earth. The land is mostly level. Topsoil goes down for feet, and there are no rocks in it, so it's relatively easy to plow once you've cleared it. The rain is reliable and not torrential. There was (and is) plentiful game to hunt to augment your farm produce. The climate overall is very mild, with warm winters and cool summers (at least by comparison to MA) The natives in the Northwest weren't particularly warlike and didn't represent any kind of hazard. There was regular mail delivery from Oregon to the East Coast (via ships) and the people who were already there would have been writing glowing descriptions of what must have seemed like Eden. More or less, "Hey, you gotta come here! I know the trip is hard, but it's worth it!"
And most people who received those messages would have ignored them and stayed where they were. But some people adventerous enough, or stupid enough, gave it a try. Some of those got dysentery and died, but most of them made it, and in turn joined the rising chorus of "Hey, it's great here!" being sent back to the folks in the East.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:53 AM on May 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
When I was grown up I got a job in Massachusetts and lived there for a few years. Then I began to understand. The soil there is terrible. It's full of rocks, and not very fertile; the rains are not reliable, varying from "deluge" to "drought" over pretty much every growing season. No one who had a choice would want to have a farm there.
The Willamette Valley (pronounced "will-LAMM-it", which is where the "Oregon Trail" ended) is some of the best farmland on Earth. The land is mostly level. Topsoil goes down for feet, and there are no rocks in it, so it's relatively easy to plow once you've cleared it. The rain is reliable and not torrential. There was (and is) plentiful game to hunt to augment your farm produce. The climate overall is very mild, with warm winters and cool summers (at least by comparison to MA) The natives in the Northwest weren't particularly warlike and didn't represent any kind of hazard. There was regular mail delivery from Oregon to the East Coast (via ships) and the people who were already there would have been writing glowing descriptions of what must have seemed like Eden. More or less, "Hey, you gotta come here! I know the trip is hard, but it's worth it!"
And most people who received those messages would have ignored them and stayed where they were. But some people adventerous enough, or stupid enough, gave it a try. Some of those got dysentery and died, but most of them made it, and in turn joined the rising chorus of "Hey, it's great here!" being sent back to the folks in the East.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:53 AM on May 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
Seconding what chocolate pickle said above. Poor rocky soil and short growing season in the northeast. One solid way to figure out where they came from would be to look at the 1860 US Census for Oregon which would list everyone's birthplace. Some historian has probably done this.
posted by mareli at 7:58 AM on May 4, 2015
posted by mareli at 7:58 AM on May 4, 2015
For a lot of people on the Middle Border (which was a generation later, but similar dynamics already existed from the early nineteenth century) setting up a farm, waiting for the right time to sell (or missing it and going bust), and moving on to new tract (or fleeing your creditors) was an established life dynamic. Hamlin Garland's wildly popular early twentieth century regionalist novels are all about his experience growing up in a constantly moving family in the upper Midwest as his father tries to get ahead, or just think about how many times the Ingalls move in the Little House on the Prairie books.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 8:10 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 8:10 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ignore the census links I posted above. Check your mefimail.
posted by mareli at 8:36 AM on May 4, 2015
posted by mareli at 8:36 AM on May 4, 2015
Just a bit of trivia: the reason the land in MA is so lousy is glaciers.
The reason the land in the Willamette Valley is so wonderful is the Missoula Floods.
Of course, 150 years ago they didn't know about either one.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:46 AM on May 4, 2015
The reason the land in the Willamette Valley is so wonderful is the Missoula Floods.
Of course, 150 years ago they didn't know about either one.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:46 AM on May 4, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by at at 4:32 AM on May 4, 2015 [1 favorite]