Beginning in 1841 wagon trains brought settlers from Independence, Missouri, to the West Coast along what was known as the Oregon Trail.
The first large migration, with several hundred women, was in 1843.
Thirteen-year-old Martha Ann Morrison (later Minto), who went west in 1844, wrote in her diary that women not only did all the cooking, but they “helped pitch the tents, helped unload, and helped yoking up the cattle.”
Women also collected buffalo dung as fuel for campfires.
Although the men usually drove the wagons, women took over and cracked the whip if the men were sick.
Illness, accidents, and death were frequent occurrences on the trip west, as were births.
At the beginning of her trip west in 1844, 12-year-old Catherine Sager ( later Pringle) described experiencing motion sickness because of “not being accustomed to riding in a covered wagon.”
It took several weeks to get used to this, and the constant rain, which meant the flaps had to be kept closed, didn’t make it easier.
Sager’s journey was especially difficult. Her mother gave birth to a girl, then became ill and died. Sager broke her leg. Her father was killed trying to turn a buffalo stampede away from the wagon.
Sager and her brothers and sisters continued with the rest of the wagon train to Oregon.
A dramatic drawing portrays the dangers of prairie travel.
Nevertheless, women and men flocked west, willing to make the difficult journey to better their lives.