Hi, my name is Frances Ann. Ma said you might be walking with us today.
I hope you aren't eating dinner with us because we're low on bacon.
"Frances Ann! Mind your manners!"
"Yes, Ma." That's my mother. Up in front, driving the wagon, is my father.
His name is Lloyd Rollins, and he is taking us to Oregon to find gold.
"Hi, darlin'."
"Hi, Pa!" Pa says one day we're going to strike gold and we'll be rich.
Over there is my sister Josephine. She's bossy, so I walk on this side of the wagon where she can't tell me what to do.
That man with her is Ezra Meeker, but I think he's crazy.
He loves the Oregon Trail, and I think he likes my sister.
Behind us is Henderson Luelling, and Pa says he really is crazy.
He's bringing three wagons to Oregon, and two of them are full of fruit and nut trees!
Well, since we've got all day, I may as well tell you about where we've been. So listen closely.
In 1836 when my sister Josephine was born, Pa's friend Marcus Whitman left to go to Oregon.
Pa wanted to go with him, but Ma said she wasn't ready yet. Oregon was two thousand miles away.
On my seventh birthday, Pa said his girls were grown, and it was time to leave.
So here we are, going to Oregon in 1850.
Our trip began in Missouri.
We loaded up our wagon with a thousand pounds of bacon, coffee, flour, salt, and sugar, and got on a ferry to cross the Missouri River.
We jumped off at a town called Independence and waited for the grass to grow.
There were hundreds of wagons all over the town.
It was March then, and since grass doesn't grow until April, we all had to wait.
If we left too early, our oxen would starve to death, and we'd be stuck.
Of course, if we left too late, we would freeze to death at the end of the trip.
It takes a long time to walk two thousand miles―almost six months.
So everybody had to wait for the perfect time to leave. Every day more wagons arrived.
There were so many that I could almost walk to town on the tops of them.
April finally came, the oxen ate the grass, and everyone left at once.
There was dust everywhere. Ma was worried that I might trip and fall under a wagon.
She said that if that happened I could lose my leg or even die, so I've been really careful.
Oh look, there's another stove. Ma wanted to bring our stove to Oregon, but Pa said no because it was too heavy.
Ma cried. She said other women were bringing stoves, but he wouldn't let her.
And now look, Pa was right. These people had too much stuff in their wagon, and they had to throw their stoves out.
Why? Well, because the stove was too heavy, and pulling it made the oxen tired.
These oxen aren't as pretty as horses, or as fast, but they're stronger.
Some people have mules because they are strong too, but they kick too much and don't go when you tell them.
I wish I could ride the oxen, but Ma says it isn't ladylike. I don't mind getting my hands dirty.
I'm getting hungry. It must be dinnertime soon.
Every morning we get up with the sun at six o'clock.
Ma cooks bacon and bread, Pa ties the oxen to the wagon, and Josephine and I clean up.
We walk all morning and have a short lunch of bacon and bread.
Then we walk until the sun is just about down, and we have bacon and bread for dinner.
At night we have to make a circle with our wagons to keep our animals inside.
I collect buffalo chips so we can make a fire. What are they?
Why, you are silly! Buffalo chips are dried buffalo dung.
But don't worry; they don't smell bad and they make a nice fire.
After dinner we'll crawl under the wagon to rest.
Sometimes Ma and Pa talk when they think I'm asleep.
Ma cries because she's worried that we won't make it to Oregon.
In some wagon trains, two out of every three people died of cholera.
Of course there are also lightning strikes and sometimes hail the size of apples.
People have run out of food, drowned in rivers, and even been hurt by accidental gunshots.
Ma worries about everything, but Pa says it will be worth it.
Pa says that one day we'll be rich.
We'll be so rich, he'll name a place Josephine County, and hundreds of people will come to live there. I hope he's right.
The Real Story
Though Frances Ann is a fictional character, some of the other people mentioned in this story actually made the journey across the Oregon Trail.
However, many details about their lives have been invented and changed in this telling of Frances Ann's story.
Ezra Meeker loved the Oregon Trail so much that he traveled it four times.
Henderson Luelling was also a real person.
He arrived in Oregon with his family and many different kinds of trees (apple, cherry, pear, plum, and black walnut).
His orchards grew to be abundant. And because no one else in Oregon had these trees, they were worth over a million dollars in 1860.
Lloyd Rollins and his daughter Josephine arrived in Oregon and found gold as he had hoped. Mr. Rollins named the site Josephine County.