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Who were the children who traveled the Oregon Trail, later known as the Family Trail--a 2,000-mile journey from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon State, across dry, dusty plains, over high mountain passes, and down the treacherous Columbia River? What chores did children perform while on the trail? What games did they play? What were some of the tragedies they faced and what memories of the Oregon Trail did the children bring to their new home?
Children had many jobs on the trail. The main chore was to gather firewood when they were on the plains. They gathered wood from furniture that had been thrown away along the trail when the travelers needed to lighten the wagon’s load. When there were no more trees or discarded furniture, the children had to learn to gather chips which were dried buffalo, cattle, and oxen droppings. They had to know which chips were dry enough for using as fuel. They would walk beside their mother and hand her the dried chips which she would carry in her apron.
There were other chores too. Boys usually helped their fathers. They would feed the oxen, fish, and hunt. Girls helped their mothers by cooking, picking berries, and sewing.
Play was hard for the children on the Oregon Trail. Space in the wagon did not allow room for play items such as rocking horses or board games. Along the trail if children wanted to play horses, they would have to pretend, make do with a stick for a horse, or just use their imagination. Imagination was what kids did best. If we don’t have a marble, we can use a rock. Along the trail, graves were shallow so sometimes kids found skulls and used them as a ball to kick around. If we don’t have a coin to toss, let’s flip chips--buffalo chips. The kids threw the chips like we toss frisbees. Perhaps, the kids on the Oregon Trail invented the first frisbee.
Part of the fun on the trail were the shared riddles, rhymes, jokes, and song. The kids remembered these things as fun along the trail.
The biggest tragedy for kids was death. If their parents died, they were left to travel with strangers. Kids had to walk beside wagons. Sometimes they fell beneath the wagon wheels and were crushed. They were susceptible to snakebites as they walked along the trail. When wagons rested at waterways, kids often cooled off in the rivers. Sometimes they were swept away by the raging water not realizing the strength of the rivers. But, by far, the biggest killer of all was disease. Disease was caused by overcrowding. Overcrowding meant lots of garbage, lots of human wastes, and using the same water sources. Some diseases were typhus, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, mountain fever (ticks), dysentery, cholera, and smallpox.
The kids didn’t necessarily remember the bad times. They remembered the thunderstorms--the sounds, and the lightning--the bright flashes. They remembered the bedding and clothes being wet. They remembered some wagons turning upside down because of the raging rivers. They did not remember the grueling, hard, long trail.
Kids remembered the anger of some adults at day’s end when the kids played tricks. If you played a joke on a man in a bad mood, he became furious and would strike. Mom who was tired at the end of the day would suddenly rise violently and rescue us kids. Kids saw the trip as exciting. It was a fun time.
The kids had hopes, fears, and dreams along the trail. For kids on the Oregon Trail, it was exhausting, irritating, and misery, but this was not what they remembered. Through it all, what kept everything together was the family.
Map of the Oregon Trail. Children of the Wild West, p. 19.
Gathering Chips. Children of the Wild West, p. 70.
Resting. Children of the Wild West, p. 15.
Family on the Trail. Children of the Wild West, p. 11.
Freedman, Russell. Children of the Wild West. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983.
Kalman, Bobbie. Early Settler Children. Crabtree Publishing Company, 1982.
(ONLINE) West, Elliott. “Family Life on the Trail West,” Vol. 42,History Today 1 December, 1992, pp. 33.