Page 64 of the album continues the story of the wagon train - you’ll need to start reading from the first post for this to make sense!
How did these pioneers of the West travel? Was it comfortable? Was it well organized? Was it very slow? In the first place, no family, or even two or three families, would be wise to travel alone. They waited until sufficient emigrants had gathered at Independence, St. Joseph or Council Bluffs on the Missouri river, then they organized themselves into companies until a great wagon train was made up, maybe of a hundred or more wagons and as many families. True there were smaller trains, but the bigger ones were safer.
Then, in due course, everything would be arranged. Each member of the wagon train would pay an agreed amount into the treasury. In the case of the Charleston Company, one of the best-planned treks across the continent, the amount was three hundred dollars. With this money stores were purchased, guides and scouts engaged and other necessities paid for.
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Tags: Cartoon | Covered Wagon | Wild West
