The Road to California

The Road to California

I would like to illustrate not only the routes that people physically took to California, but what that journey meant to them. By giving emphasis to the words of women who traveled to California, I hope to showcase the strength of mind and body that these women showed in their determination to create a new world for themselves and their children in their new homes. I would also like to relate the experience of John Bidwell, one of the leaders of the Bartleson-Bidwell Party.

The men and women who traveled the long hard road to the west coast in their covered wagons in the period between the 1840’s until the building of the railroads, were tough and determined. There were several trails that folks who were striking out would use to travel. Missouri was the most popular starting point for the west; from St. Joseph to the north via the Bozeman Trail where it connected to the Mormon Trail and the Oregon/California Trail then north to Oregon, west to Sacramento, California or south via the Mormon Trail to Los Angeles, California.

The Oregon Trail, also called the Emigrant Trail and the Oregon/California trail, was established by an act of Congress to begin in Independence, Missouri and end in Oregon City, Oregon. But in actuality, pioneers could have started out from St. Louis, St. Joseph, Missouri or Council Bluff, Iowa. The establishment of the trail came at a time of the establishment of several trading forts in the west which later became military posts. Pioneers that were leaving from Independence would have traveled to Fort Kearney and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, then to Fort Laramie in Wyoming; to Soda Springs and Fort Hall Idaho. It is just past Fort Hall where those going to California would head Southwest and those heading to Oregon would continue north to Fort Boise and then into Oregon. Another option was to follow the Mormon Trail from Council Bluffs Iowa to Salt Lake City and continue from there to California.

“From the very first wagon train on, women would see and experience hardship like none they had ever imagined. They would also find out how strong a woman could truly be. Husbands often made the decision to start life over in the west without ever asking whether the wives thought this was a good decision or how it might affect them. Some wives did have a say though, and in a few instances, women not only influenced their husbands to go, but a few traveled westward by themselves.“   (Pioneer women:  author unknown)

The Bartleson-Bidwell Party was a group put together by John Bidwell who a group of people together, assigning himself as Secretary of the group, to ensure that those who signed the agreement agreed to purchase the proper equipment to proceed and the Western Emigration Society, as they called themselves, would agree to ensure that they were properly advised as to how to reach California. The goal was 500 names on the document, which they met, and the agreement to rendezvous at Sapling Grove in the State of Kansas on the 9^th of May, 1840.

Lydia Leaming Miller: “We didn't travel far the first day for with the picking up of families at various points, and really getting started, we didn't cover much territory, and it was not until the morning of the second day that we got into uninhabited territory. About noon of that day we met two men on horseback who were out scouting for additions to their train of twelve wagons which was ahead. The men told us they would go on until they could find water, then camp and wait for us. As soon as the next day dawned, two of the men climbed onto a wagon and reported they could see some black specks far ahead of us. They got on horses and said they'd ride ahead and make sure they were wagons. How happy we were when they returned with the good news they'd found the wagons. We reached them about noon and stopped long enough to elect a captain and to organize the train. Captain Cox, a member of the other train, was selected for captain. This was his second trip across the plains so we had confidence in his ability as a leader. We now had about two dozen wagons.“ (Migrating to Oregon in '66)

In his memoirs, John Bidwell admits that he knew nothing about the business of leading a wagon train across country except that they should point themselves west. Just before they left, he met and elected John Bartleson to lead them and he was elected as Captain of the group. They also met up with another group heading west, a priest and missionary nuns heading to the Indian territories in northern Idaho, and they were led by a mountain man named Captain Fitzpatrick, that had made the trip before. They proceeded on from Kansas, through Nebraska, Wyoming and on into Idaho to Fort Hall.

            Lydia Leaming Miller: “The first weeks were like an outing to me and to the others as well. The weather couldn't have been better had it been made to order. The camp was awake and astir very soon after dawn. As soon as breakfast had been cooked and eaten - it was cooked on an outdoor oven heated over a campfire - we were on our way. We stopped at noon only long enough to prepare a hasty meal, and then drove until evening. Our captain had an emigrant's guidebook which told us where we could camp and find plenty of water and grass. When we made camp for the night the wagons formed into a circle. The horses were corralled inside, and all of the cooking was done within the circle. At night the guard was stationed outside, and in this way the people were protected from attacks as much as could be possible under the circumstances. Although we were very glad to come into the white settlement we stayed just long enough to replenish our provision wagons and attend to several other matters. Before we were allowed to leave, the government officials inspected the train to see if we were capable of defending ourselves. After inspection they told us that we were the best equipped train that had passed through Ft. Laramie for a long time.” (Migrating to Oregon in '66)

After Fort Hall, the Bartleson-Bidwell Group struck out alone heading southwest in the general direction that they had been told at the Fort to go. They had also been told to not enter the Sierra’s to far south because they would be in a desert with scrubland and little water; if they went too far north they would encounter rocky territory that would make it very tough for the animals and any people on foot leading the animals. They were a much smaller group since about 20 families/wagons had decided to wait and head back to Missouri.

Diana Lucina Spicer Block: “I met Albert Block when I was twelve; he was eighteen. He came home with my father. When I was seventeen he "came a-courtin'." In 1887 when I was eighteen years old, we were married, He worked on the railroad and made a good living. (Through the rest of the story she refers to her husband as "papa".) Papa was a good hard-working man, but he liked to travel. A year later, we loaded all our belongings into the wagon and moved to Idaho Falls.

In 1891, I lost a pair of twins and nearly my life. Papa and I felt badly about losing our babies but I was young and strong and it wasn't long before I was well again. Lucy was born the following year, 1892. After her birth I was sick and run down. The doctor told us to move to Oregon. We turned our homestead back to the government and sold our improvements to the people who took it over. Again we loaded our wagon with our children and worldly possessions and started out.” (RootsWeb)

            When they came up to the foothills of the mountains, they decided to abandon the wagons and load the animals with packs to carry their stores and other belongings. Unfortunately, as John Bidwell admits, packing an animal is an art, and there was no one in the group who really knew what they were doing. Putting packs on the horses and mules was pretty simple, because horses and mules are used to carrying people on their backs, the packs weren’t much different. But the oxen had a difficult time with the packs, and unless they were very carefully packed to distribute the weight evenly, they would jump around and belongings would fall off and slow everyone down. They learned by trial and error while they moved west. They also lost their way a couple of times, going too far south, then being concerned that they had gone too far north when they hit a rocky streambed to follow, but finally they found the Humboldt River that would help them find their way into and across the mountains by following the river through canyons until they found a place to cross.

                Diana Lucina Spicer Block: “At American Falls we met a family by the name of Davis. They were headed for Santa Rosa, Calif., and we decided to go with them. It was early September and we wanted to get over the Sierra Nevada Mountains before winter set in. We followed the old Immigrant Trail. It was a long, hard trip. When we came to a settlement, we would find out how many miles it was to the next one. We planned for our food and water accordingly. But by November we had nothing more to sell. We were out of money and our food supply was nearly gone. It had been a long time since we passed through the last settlement and we had seen no one. Then came help...one day a cowboy rode into camp...right away he could see what a bad fix we were in. He told us he was working for a big ranch that was about five or six days travel ahead of us. If we could just hold out until we reached there, he was sure they would help us out.

             We have just started out again when Mrs. Davis went into labor. It was the first baby I had ever helped deliver. We knew Mrs. Davis needed a day or so to rest but we were afraid to wait. When we finally reached the ranch, two or three days later, we were in a mighty bad way. After we set up our camp, papa and Mr. Davis went to the house to ask for help. The foreman told them they did not have supplies to give us. But they would give us enough food for our supper and we could replenish our water supply and spend the night. But papa didn't know we had callers while he was gone. A bunch of the cowboys had seen our camp and stopped to see what we were doing there. Something told me to show them our tiny baby. They were amazed and crowded in to see it. It was the first newborn baby some of them had ever seen. They left before papa and Mr. Davis came back. That evening we were sitting around our campfire trying to console each other, trying to find a way, when we saw a group of people coming to our camp. I believe it was every ranch hand on the place. The men who had been in our camp that afternoon had spread the story of our little newborn baby. When the foreman heard, he filled two big wheelbarrows with grub and was bringing it to us. We still had a long way to go. The baby died three months later. (RootsWeb)          

After crossing the Humboldt River, Bartleson and a few men decided that they would abandon the group because they were moving too slowly. But after a couple of days they returned because they had eaten through their stores and decided it would be better to stay with the group. Also, during the night, the lights of Indian campfires could be seen all around in the foothills. Definitely a good reason to be with a larger group with its safety-in-numbers.

Continuing west, they crossed the Carson River to the Walker River and following the Walker River they entered the Sierra’s. One of the group hiked ahead to the summit and found a way down to a stream to follow down out of the mountains, which later turned out to be the source of the Stanislaus River. They had entered the San Joaquin Valley but they did not know that they were in California until they had traveled a day or so further and sighted a Rancho at the base of what would later be called Mt. Diablo, and were told that they were in the Spanish Territory of California.

Citations:

The Century; a popular quarterly Volume 0041 Issue 1 (Nov 1890) Title: Gold Hunters of California. The First Emigrant Train to California [pp. 106-130] Author: Bidwell, John, http://digital.library.cornell.edu             (note: this is a fascinating book that you can read online; much like a Mark Twain adventure. It chronicles the first wagon train to establish the road over the Sierra’s in 1841and mentions seeing Mt. Diablo before entering the San Joaquin Valley; this all occurred before Fremont and Kit Carson)

Trails West: A Map of Early Western Migration Trails                                http://www.tngenweb.org/tnletters/usa-west.htm

Pioneer Women: History & Biographies: author unknown                   http://www.essortment.com/pioneer-women-20354.html

RootsWeb-Diana Lucina Spicer Block.......Her story: Related by Devona Block and Submitted by Gail Coutts http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nwa/block.html

Migrating to Oregon in '66: Lydia Leaming Miller: Her recollections of her journey from Iowa to Oregon as she related them to her daughter, Lois (Miller) Van Vleck            http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nwa/leaming/lydia.html

History of Free People of Color in New Orleans

Slavery in the French and Spanish New Orleans was still slavery. But the French and Spanish had been slaveholders in the Caribbean and other parts of the New World far longer than Americans had been. They brought a different approach to the endeavor. The authorities did not outlaw individual owner’s endeavors to educate their slaves or to hire out skilled slave craftsmen, which allowed a measure of autonomy to the slaves provided they returned what they earned to their masters. And there was a large community of free colored whose ancestors had either been given their freedom, bought their freedom or was free through contract via birth from a colored mistress of a white man.  Some were artists, and craftsmen who had been expelled from Haiti after the failed revolution.              

Louisiana was claimed by France in 1682 and the city of New Orleans was founded in 1718. Because it was a Roman Catholic society, the city attracted new immigrants from Ireland and Italy and Canadians of French ancestry who had been thrown out of Nova Scotia by the English. Even during the years of Spanish occupation, the city was still a purely French society and didn’t feel the pressure of change until the territory was invaded by the “Kaintocks”, American frontiersmen who descended on the city of New Orleans selling goods and disrupting society with their demanding ways in 1800. By 1803, the territory had been sold to America.

Slaves were first imported to New Orleans and the rest of the territory in 1727 at the same time the Sisters of Ursuline came to establish a convent to care for orphans, operate a school, free hospital and instruct slaves for baptism. New Orleans “held a uniquely free black community because of the city's French and Spanish heritage, long history of racial mixing, and the property-based power of many of its free black members. These Creole blacks included a significant number of light skinned, wealthy men and women who participated fully in a rich, black cultural life that included literary clubs, opera, churches, and the theater. Free blacks and slaves in New Orleans lived in a world far different from the rest of the urban or rural South, although there was no question about the strict limits the law imposed upon enslaved blacks as property.” (Davis)

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes' Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, states, “These Creoles of color with Latin blood, and certain other free blacks, made up a group known collectively as gens de couleur libres. This caste seems to have existed from the first introduction of slaves, and the gens de couleur were a part of the population from the beginning of Louisiana history: they are specifically named in the Black Code issued by Bienville in 1724. The Haitian descendants excelled as musicians, artists, teachers, writers, doctors, and in all major professions. Some amassed considerable fortunes and educated their children in France or in unsegregated schools. They were an integral part of southern Louisiana life and maintained their own social status with rigidity as strong as that found among the whites.” The Free People had a rich society mirroring, but separate from the whites, which included their own shops, schools, hospitals and benevolent societies. Their young men and women were either sent to colleges or finishing schools in the North or to France. They had an active life of social entertainment which includes boxes in the second tier at the Opera, their own Theater and Balls in the winter and spring. Wealthy Free Black families had country homes to escape to in the summer during the mosquito and yellow fever season as did the whites. By the mid 1830’s, the free blacks owned $2.5 million in property in New Orleans. According to FrenchCreoles.com, “Kinship ties to white persons, as well as patronage, gave some free people of color added economic leverage. Some white fathers publicly acknowledged their free black consorts and offspring and donated personal and real property to them.” And, during the period of Spanish occupation of the city of New Orleans, “A society stratified by race and class such as prevailed in Spanish New Orleans primarily operated according to parentela (extended family) and clientela (patron/client) relationships. Advantages accrued to those free blacks who were linked by kin and patronage to leading white families.” So although skilled free blacks tended to only occupy the skilled laborer type of jobs such as shoemaker, carpenter, cabinetmaker, seamstress, they could excel and achieve middle-class wealth with the patronage of kin. The exceptions to full parity with white men were that they could not vote, hold public office or marry a white person. And all free blacks had to carry legal papers documenting their freedom.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory inflicted American laws of slavery and segregation on New Orleans Society. Where the city affairs had been conducted on a European model, the arrival of the Americans brought distaste for the Creole way of life. New Orleans was invaded and seized by the Union Army early in the Civil War and the occupation created hardships for all, white and black. After the surrender of Lee at Appomattox and the end of slavery, floods of refugees came into the city which included poor whites which created competition for free black businessmen. And competition heightened hostility between poor whites and more well-to-do blacks. This led to the Jim Crow era of restrictions beginning in about 1877. Jim Crow was basically a racial caste system which started as a set of rules but became a way of life when the laws were enacted in 1910. The mindset that justified the institution of slavery in the south now became a legitimization of anti-Black racism, which taught the belief that Blacks were biologically and intellectually inferior to Whites;” that Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior: sexual relations between Blacks and Whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America.” And that social interaction and any activity that might suggest equality might encourage interracial sexual relations and violence, if necessary, must be used to keep Blacks at the bottom of the hierarchy.

These social rules, according to the Ferris State University Museum of Racist Memorabilia, itemize the Jim Crow Laws:

a. A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.

b. Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be place between them.

c. Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female—that gesture implied intimacy.

d. Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.

e. Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: “Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black Person), that I spoke to you about.”

f. Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sire, or Ma’am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.

g. If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, The Black person sat in the back seat, or the bed of the truck.

h. White motorists had the right-or-way at all intersections.

This was Jim Crow Etiquette; Jim Crow Laws began in 1877 with the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, and Southern and Border States began to restrict the rights of Blacks. Although the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution guaranteed the same rights of Whites to Blacks, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the Jim Crow laws and discrimination and segregation of Blacks in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. In 1890, Louisiana passed the “Separate Car Law, which made it illegal for Blacks to sit in seats reserved for Whites, and Whites could not sit in seats reserved for Blacks. Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighth white and one-eighth black, therefore black (according to the “One Drop Rule” which decreed that if you had just one drop of black blood, or one ancestry who was black, you were black), decided to test the law by sitting in a White only railroad coach. He was arrested. His lawyer argued that the state could not label one citizen as White and another black for the purposes of restricting their rights and privileges. The Supreme Court decided that as long as state governments provided legal process and legal freedoms for Blacks equal to Whites, they could maintain separate institutions. The Court by 7-2 upheld the law. Jim Crow signs were place above water fountains, restroom and other public facilities. There were separate schools, hospitals, prisons, cemeteries.

The most effective attack on Jim Crow and was in 1954, 1955 by Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board of Education, arguing that segregation was inherently unconstitutional and that it denied an entire race the equal protection guaranteed by 14^th Amendment. Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Court ruled that, “ ‘separate but equal’ “ has not place” in public schools. This struck the death knell of Jim Crow and the beginning of the struggle of equal rights.

Works Cited:

Gateway New Orleans, The Louisiana Purchase and New Orleans-The Crescent City, Web 1994 to 2008. http://www.gatewayno.com/history/history.html

Slavery in America.org, Slavery in America: Historical Overview, By Ronald L. F. Davis, Ph. D. California State University, Northridge, http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_es_overview.htm

Desdune, Rodolphe Lucien, Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, translation 1973, by McCants, Sister Dorothea Olga. Reprinted in African Americans in New Orleans: Les Gens de Couleur Libres http://nutrias.org/~nopl/exhibits/fmc/fmc.htm

Brasseaux, Carl A.; Fontenot, Keith P. and Oubre, Claud F.,  Gens de Couleur Libre, web Frenchcreoles.com Source Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country, http://www.frenchcreoles.com

Les Gens de Couleur Libres: The Free People of color of New Orleans, History. Web source 2002 Hammond, Louisiana. http://www.creolehistory.com/history3.html

Pilgrim, Dr. David, Professor of Sociology, Ferris State University, Sept., 2000, Web site: Jim Crow, Ferris State University Museum of Racist Memorabilia http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

Tafari, Tasahai, Jim Crow: A National Struggle, The Supreme Court, Important U.S. Supreme Court cases in the battle for civil rights. Source website: PBS. org http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/struggle_court.html