One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXII  

COVERED WAGON TREK

"All the pulses of the world, Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat." ..Walt Whitman.

"FROM OVER THE: HILLS AND FAR AWAY," by rough roads and rougher trails, the long trek of the pioneers in their lumbering covered wagons led westward with the "tide of empire." These people ventured much. It has been said that they had nothing to risk but their lives. Their worldly possessions were few. But what they lacked of these was more than balanced by their other possessions: faith, courage, "grit," and ruggedness of physical being.

Through the almost impassable wilderness, these pioneers "blazed the way." They left their early homes amid scenes of civilization, and with axe and gun, they "wended their lonely way," often through unexplored wildernesses, until they came to the place where their future home was to be.

"When the Northwestern Territory was declared opened for settlement, about 1800," says Mcdonald, "most of them made their way in boats down the Ohio River as far as where Cincinnati now stands and settled in Hamilton, Butler and adjoining counties, and from there gradually found their way into southern Indiana, settling in the river counties.

"Emigration from southern Indiana to Marshall county began in 1835, but it did not commence, in earnest until 1836. In the spring of that year, in the vicinity of Maxinkuckee lake and farther north and east in the direction of Plymouth, the LOGANs, VOREISes, MORRISes, THOMPSONs, DICKSONs, MC DONALDs, BROWNLEEs, HOUGHTONs, BLAKELEYs, LAWSONs, and others, arrived and made a permanent settlement. From this on, the settlement of this region was rapid and permanent.

"The first settlers about the lake came in 1836. Several heads of families came in 1835 and entered lands, and early in the following spring built log cabins, cleared off little patches of ground, planted corn, potatoes, etc., and early in the summer returned to bring their families and take up their permanent residences in Marshall county.

They came in a caravan from southern Indiana in wagons drawn by ox teams, on horseback and on foot. They started on their long and tiresome journey on the twelfth of July, and arrived on the east side of Maxinkuckee lake July 26, 1836, just six days after the county had been organized and the county seat located at Plymouth, which occurred July 20, 1836. At that time there were only about 600 white people in the county and about 1,500 Pottawattomie [Potawatomi] Indians.

"The household goods of the members of the caravan were carefully packed away in the wagons, leaving room for the women and children and the supply of eatables prepared for the journey. The wagons were covered with sheeting for protection against rain and the hot rays of the sun.

Fourteen days were occupied in making the journey.

The roads most of the way were through swamps and over log bridges, and much of the way was but little better than Indian trails. From Indianapolis the Michigan road was followed. At that time it had only just been opened through this part of the state, and that only to such an extent as to make it passable by cutting down the trees and bushes along the line and bridging over the worst places with brush, poles and logs.

"The country through which the road ran at that time was for the most part thickly timbered, and all along was an abundance of wild game and fruits of all kinds, which the hunters of the little band brought into camp. The lack of pure water to drink was the most serious difficulty they had to contend with, There were seldom any springs along the way and the water far drinking and cooking purposes was mostly from stagnant ponds and small streams which were not much better.

"Every night on the way they camped wherever darkness overtook them, slept in the wagons and under the trees, the cattle and horses browsing about the camp and resting from the day's toil as best they could. The mosquitoes and flies were terrible pests, much more so than people nowadays can imagine."

To the present generation, a covered wagon, such as these first comers used, is a rare curiosity. Very few of the originals are still in existence, and practically all of those that remain are preserved as relics in museums. A typical prairie wagon more than a century old, in the possession of a private collector in this state, is described as consisting of nearly nine hundred pieces of wood, all handmade. The wagon is boat-shaped, with water wheels, an early method of construction used to combat high water when streams were forded.

In the long westward trek, Forbes's Road was the usual route across the Alleghenies, although the new Cumberland Road was shorter. "People of means," says COMAN, "traveled in the stage coaches, paying a round price for transportation and luggage. Single men might ride horseback at less cost. Families found cheaper and more commodious accommodations in a Conestoga wagon, purchased at Philadelphia to be sold at half price in Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], or, if their destination lay not far beyond, to be driven on for farm use. Every variety of vehicle, and all types of people, were making their toilsome way along the rough military road. The father may be seen driving the wagon [wagon], and the women and children bringing up two or three cows in the rear. They carry their provisions along with them, and wrap themselves in blankets, and sleep on the floors of taverns at a charge of twenty-five cents per family. Other pioneers without the wherewithal to purchase a wagon walked the whole distance, dragging their effects in a one-horse cart or pushing them along in a wheelbarrow.

"Many of the keelboats that floated down the Ohio carried an entire family and all their earthly possessions, household goods, farm tools, cattle, and horses. They landed where chance or caprice might determine, on the Kentucky or Illinois bank, or if the current favored, pushed on to the Mississippi or to the Missouri. It was a veritable race migration, impelled by the love of adventure, by land hunger, by the gambling instinct of the frontier."

With the German emigrants, it was not so much of a "gamble" but more of a "sure thing." Their little communities were staid and prosperous and were located with careful foresight on the most fertile soil and within easy reach of a good waterway. Early travelers testified that the most promising of the pioneers were the Germans. People of other extractions were more venturesome no doubt, which may account for their beating the Germans in claiming Union Township lands. The coming of the German emigrants to this immediate region occurred a few years later than the first permanent white settlement.

Among those brave families from over the seas who pressed on to the "lands of the farther West" was one led by JACOB FREDERICK and CHRISTIANA STAHL. Although they arrived in this region about twenty years later than our earliest settlers, the story of their migration westward is typical of the hardships and perseverance that characterized such treks in the early days.

The STAHL’s came from Germany. They crossed the Atlantic in a sailing vessel, and landed in New York, from whence their land journey led forth, with only brief stops at Newark, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, until finally a longer pause in the migration occurred in Greenville, Pennsylvania, where the breadwinner of the family found work sufficient to provide food for the way. In other words, "He earned a living as he went." While at Greenville, Father STAHL found a farmer who had "bought a piece of land" somewhere in Sandusky County, Ohio, and in a covered wagon, so JACOB PETER STAHL, the family historian, relates, was about to "go and see it." The farmer graciously invited Father STAHL to go with him, taking the family along, of course. This opportunity was seized upon with gratitude.

"This covered wagon," the historian continues, "thus became, at once, the passenger coach, the baggage car, the Pullman, diner and all in one." A peculiar interest in this wagon became attached especially to Regina, one of the children, for it was she that fell from the vehicle and broke her arm--an extra worry and concern for her mother. In Ohio, Father STAHL bought forty acres of land near Hessville, cleared it, cultivated the soil, and planted fourteen bushels of seed-wheat and a vast amount of toil yielded a harvest of an even fourteen bushels. Such was the reward for all his labors. The boll weevil had taken the rest. Since crops failed, he could but keep on with his day labor away from home until he had earned enough to pay for his seed-wheat. Meanwhile, the family rations were reduced to plain cornbread.

Three years the STAHL family remained there, but with all the accompanying discouragements and the strain on the father's physical constitution, they seemed quite long enough. The farm was disposed of and the family pushed on into Indiana. They stopped at South Bend and at Plymouth, at that time a prosperous little village; then proceeded south on the Michigan Road to a point directly east of the community of "Germany," thence west about six miles to the point of destination.

"This long, tedious journey," says JACOB PETER STAHL, "was begun in the early month of March, and in consequence was attended with snow and ice and slush, altogether too disagreeable for a family of children in a covered wagon. The trip was without striking incident, except that brother Fred and sister Regina, being the oldest children, had to walk much of the way. Not infrequently, also, did they have to ask for a little bread for the _ babies,' and occasionally for themselves. One other thing: The spirit of hospitality along the way was so poor that often they had to ask at several places even to get privilege to camp for the night. They were often pointed to taverns miles distant ahead, though darkness had already set in. This so aroused Father, that he resolved never, should he ever have a home of his own, to turn aside the stranger from his door, a resolve he maintained to his dying day."

This he did without charge until Mother STAHL insisted that strangers ought at least pay the price of one meal. To this insistence he yielded, and members of the family have known her on occasion "to charge the enormous sum of twenty-five cents." "Charity overdone," remarks the historian.