Wagons, Ho!

In the movies lines of covered wagons with lily white canvas covers head westward under the command of a rugged yet handsome, clean-shaven wagon boss who keeps matters well in hand. At the end of the day, he ensures that the wagons make a perfect circle from which the travelers can fend off Indian attacks, and in the morning he gestures them forward with a clear baritone voice commanding “Wagons, Ho.”

Often times when wagons rolled, they banded together for safety in numbers as they headed westward on the Oregon Trail. Maps show the trail winding along as it dodged mountains, streams, forests, and known hotbeds of Indian resistance. Of course, we think of the trail as passing south of us through Kansas and Nebraska via St. Louis, Missouri. But population numbers began increasing farther north of there which brought some demand for another trail.

On my bookshelf I have a book titled “Wagons North: Minnesota to Oregon,” co-authored by William C. Sherman and John Guerroro. Sherman is better remembered as the Father Sherman who at one time served Catholic churches in Enderlin, Sheldon, and Alice. For this article we’ll lean heavily on the information found in this rich resource.  

The authors write about one of the wagon trains, the Davy expedition, which passed through Ransom County in 1867 and spent a few days at Fort Ransom while the fort was still under construction. Peter B. Davy organized the train and promoted it. After reading accounts of previous journeys, he realized the train would be far removed from the normal rules of law and order and accordingly must be led with a firm hand. Davy exercised that firmness.

Fort Abercrombie became the rallying point for various segments that joined the train. U. S. citizens comprised one group, German immigrants another, and 60 freight wagons, a company of infantry, and a herd of cattle headed to Fort Ransom as resupply. Included with the families were forty children, one family having four kids all under the age of six.

The book is based on the diaries of two men travelers, Abraham Maricle and Henry Leug, with Leug’s being far more informative. He says at the outset that “bad times and painful experiences in St. Paul” caused him to join up, the cost of which was $125 plus the necessary supplies including a Colt revolver and a Spencer repeating rifle. 

Heartache accompanied them. On July 14th at a spot east of the Sand Hills, the diary tells of a German family who buried a child there. Traveling on, the train camped on July 16th southwest of the big bend on the Sheyenne River probably near what we know as Okiedan Butte. On July 18, a day he writes was cold enough that they might’ve seen snow, the train reached Fort Ransom where they stayed until July 24th.

The train found no amenities at the fort. Instead they found a barren plain where “everybody is  still sheltered in tents since no buildings have yet been erected.” And there was dissatisfaction with their wagon boss “who has shown himself a drunkard and an irresponsible person.” 

We can’t report on the whole book, but after reaching Helena, Montana by the end of September, a Catholic priest came into camp and baptized a child who’d been born at Fort Ransom. The trouble brewing between the leader Davy and the train members reached a breaking point when he demanded more money and took 40 oxen for security. Well, they took Davy to court and beat him fair and square. The diary ended October 12.