MY TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS
TO CALIFORNIA AND
OTHER RECOLLECTIONS
By Frances Leon Scott Dam
April 30, 1915
This appeared in the Diggers Digest, Volume II Number 4
On April 6, 1865, at 4 p.m., we left home near Liberty Prairie, in Madison County, Illinois, and drove to Uncle CHARLEY BELK’S and, it being Saturday, we stayed there till Monday morning and then drove to Uncle TOM BELK’S and stayed there until Tuesday after dinner. Then we drove into Alton and had to wait till the drafting of soldiers for the Northern Army closed, which was about 6 p.m. None of our party was drafted; so then we went aboard a boat on the Mississippi river and was on the boat that night and next day till nine that evening, when we arrived at Keokuk, Iowa. Then we climbed into our emigrant wagon and drove into a corral till morning. Then we had breakfast and started out. At first, the trip was pleasant, as there were lots of prairie chickens and nice farms where we could get things to eat; but things were not so pleasant later.
The first of our trouble commenced when one of the young men was taking up the tent. His name was CHARLIE COOPER. His gun went off and shot him through the calf of his leg, so that meant to stop there a day and the doctor dressed it. Next morning, we started and my mother had to dress the wound twice a day for a long time; he was not able to do much but drive the first month.
Then we kept going till we got to Omaha. There we had to camp two weeks to wait till COLONEL ALEXANDER got his emigrant train ready and the streams were lower, so we could cross them. COLONEL ALEXANDER’S train consisted of four mule teams; I think there were thirty wagons with four mules or horses in each. He had crossed the plains six times before. That made his seventh, and his wife went with him every spring. He hauled goods to Salt Lake. Every night the wagons were driven up so as to form a corral and the stock were all tied inside that corral; one man was on guard all night, but the guard never had to call an alarm. Once we saw a band of Indians coming and were ordered to form a corral and unhitch, but it happened they were on a hunt and were friendly. The men gave them tobacco and they stayed awhile and rode on, but all the men stayed up all night, as they were afraid the Indians would come back. That was the only real scare we ever had, but lots of Indians used to come and beg.
We had some dreadful electric storms and lots of rain, so it was very hard sometimes to find anything to burn. We always carried fuel to start a fire, but could not carry much. Many a meal we cooked with buffalo chips and were glad to get them.
We had to camp on Platt river once for a few days as the river was too high to cross. When we crossed streams, two men would ride across, then come back and the teams would follow the men, so as not to get in a hole and turn over.
When we got to the desert where the water is so salty, we camped all day before going to the salt water. Then we traveled all night and till next day about noon before we got to a place where the stock could get a drink. Then we camped that afternoon and night. We had to take turns walking, so as to make the load as light as possible. The men walked beside their teams all night. My mother and I took turns walking all night and till noon the next day.
Every night we had to stop early enough so the men could unhitch and take the stock out to feed and stay with them, for they did not dare to let go of them. At noon, we did not unhitch. We all got out and, if there was anything we could make a fire out of, we would broil our dried beef for a change. Dried beef and crackers make our lunch every day for three months. If it wasn’t convenient to make a fire, we just ate our crackers and dried beef until we got to civilization, where we could buy some other meat. We cooked meat for supper and also cooked enough for lunch next day.
When we got to Salt Lake, we camped a few days to let the stock rest. There we had our first pie and I tell you it was good. DAVE KELL said to me before they left to take the stock to feed, I wish you would see if you can find any place to buy a pie, and he slipped 50_ into my hand. So I went to a house which must have been a Mormon house, for two women with babies were there, and both seemed to be at home; they had other children also. I asked if I could get some water and they said “Take all you want” Then I said, “Can you tell me where I can get pies?” They said they could let me have some currant pies. I said “How much?” They said, “Twenty-five cents.” So I took the water to camp and went back and got two pies. My, but they were good! Next day we got a can of lard and after that we had pies every time we wanted them, as my mother was a dandy cook.
After leaving Salt Lake, it was better in every way; only the stock had gotten so thin, it was hard for them to pull up the mountains. My uncle, MILES SCOTT, had to stop at Virginia City. Uncle Mile’s four horse team had nearly given out; so he tied his wagon behind a freight wagon that was going back empty from Virginia City to Sacramento and the freight team pulled Uncle Miles back until they got down into the Sacramento Valley. The teamster hauled from Sacramento to Virginia City.
Uncle MILES SCOTT had come to California in 1850, and had returned to Illinois in September 1864. He fell in love with mother’s first cousin, ELIZABETH BELK, whose father, WILLIAM BELK, was a soldier in the Union Army and was killed in the Civil War. Uncle Miles and Elizabeth Belk were married in the spring, February or March, 1865. Uncle Miles talked my father into coming to California.
We got to Uncle JAMES SCOTT’S place about eight o’clock p.m., August 10, 1865. It was dark, and we had had a long day of it and were very tired. At noon that day, we took off our linsie-woolsey dresses, which were bright plaid woolen dresses of bright colors, and threw the dresses as far as we could, as we had worn them all the way out and they were badly soiled. We put on new calico dresses and felt all dressed up. At that time, calico cost 5¢ a yard; the same that costs 50¢ today.
Uncle JAMES SCOTT was a bachelor, so he got us some supper; and it did taste good to sit down to a table and eat off of real dishes. He made hot biscuits and baked sweet potatoes and fried ham and coffee and put some fruit on the table. That was before telephones were in use, so he didn’t know when to look for us. In fact, from our last letter, he didn’t expect us for two days. That night we slept in the wagon as usual, but next morning, I was up early and the most disappointed girl you ever saw. I said “Is this the California I have heard so much about?” It was the 11th of August and so hot and dry we could not see anything but dry pasture and stubble unless you looked over Bear River. A hot north wind was blowing. Oh, how I wished I was back in Illinois!
Uncle James and Miles had an empty house of four rooms on Dry Creek, up near the Muck place. We moved into that house and remained there while my father hunted a place, which was only a short time. Then we moved out to a place that CROFF CLARK owned. It was a good house of seven rooms on the south bank of the creek that now flows through our Scott field. The house was plastered. It was pleasant there. I could go out and catch a mess of fish in a short time. I lived there until June 6, 1867, when I was married to CYRUS KING DAM, in that house.
My father died in this same house on October 18, 1876. My father had bought the 640 acres, now known as
Scott Field from CROFF CLARK, and gave him back a mortgage. My father paid the interest, but had paid nothing on the principal at the time of his death. After my father’s death, my mother gave the place up to CROFF CLARK, who then made her a deed of 160 acres adjoining the west side. Then my husband bought the Scott place from CROFF CLARK. My husband moved the old house down across the road from the red barn, where it stands today.
Our family, at the time we left Illinois, consisted of my mother FRANCES BELK SCOTT, my father, SAMUEL WATSON SCOTT, and the following children; myself, CHARLIE, ETTA, FILLMORE, EMMA, GEORGE and JULIA, who was a baby in arms. The only other relatives in our party were Uncle Miles and his wife.
We had bought a cow in Iowa to take with us so as to have fresh milk on our trip to California, but she gave out after a few days; so we sold her and bought another and she lasted only a few days. Then my mother gave dried peaches, mashed up, to my little sister, Julia and that child lived on dried peaches till we got to California.
In April, 1865, we were getting ready to camp for the night near some little village, we noticed that the flags were all at half-mast. My father said to the boys, “You unhitch and I will go out and see.” In a few minutes he came back and said, “Old Abe Lincoln has been shot. Hooray!” (All the rest of us felt very sad. My father was a strong Southern man and always kept his Southern prejudice). He didn’t take kindly to my marrying Mr. Dam, because he was a “Yankee”; but when he came to know my husband, he became very fond of him. My father would not come into the room when I was married but sat out on the porch.
We were married in the middle of the harvest. Mr. Dam ran a header all forenoon, but didn’t go back to work after dinner. We were married at three o’clock. He went back to work at noon the following day. Then I went to live with my husband near Wheatland, in the house down at the old orchard on lower Grasshopper. Mr. Dam’s mother and brother BEN, also lived in the same house. HARRY and FANNIE were born there.
In the spring of 1870, we moved up on the hill now known as the B.F. Dam place. PEARL was born there December 26th, 1871. In the spring of 1872, Aunt Addie went East and said that she wasn’t coming back until my husband and his brother, Ben, who had been farming as partners, had divided up their property. I, also wanted them to separate and each one to farm for himself. In the spring and summer of 1872, Cy and Ben divided the property; Ben took the house and Cy took more land, the McGrade field of about 80 acres, to make up for it.
In November 1872, we moved into a two room house, which we had built on the present site of our home in Wheatland. There BERT and ARTHUR were born. In the fall of 1876, we built quite an addition to the house, adding a parlor and spare bedroom and three bedrooms upstairs and a bath room down stairs. This was the first bath room with the first bath tub in Wheatland. CARRIE and CORA were born in the spare bedroom in October, 1879. In the summer and fall of 1892, the house was again remodeled into its present form. We moved into the present house in November 1892. The old kitchen of our first house was moved out to the red barn place, after the house was rebuilt in 1876, and is now the kitchen at the red barn place. The old men’s cabin was later moved out to the camp on the Mercer place. Our present kitchen and pantry and china closet were the sitting room and dining room of the old house. The new part was built in 1892 and consisted of our present dining room and living room and hall and the upstairs portion over those rooms. The present parlor and spare bedrooms upstairs over them remain substantially as before, except that doors and partitions have been changed.
(Oct. 2004: Please contact Cathie Manwell Adams if you would like to share any information on this Scott line.)
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