Imagine an eight-month-pregnant woman riding in a covered wagon for thirty-four days. That's what my second great-grandmother did in 1880. This is the story of the Utter, the Hunt, and the Russell families, who traveled west by wagon train.
In the mid-1600s, my tenth great-grandfather was a soldier of the Vestmanlands Regiment in Sweden. He served as a light Auxiliary troop that may have acted as a Flanker, Forager, Skirmisher, Baggage, or Prison guard. He sailed to America on the Orn. He stayed behind in Connecticut when the ship sailed for its homeland. He then served in America for a time during the King Philip War. As the Utter family grew, they migrated to Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.
Indiana was the home of my third
great-grandfather, Milton Henry Utter, and his fourteen children. In the
mid-1850s, Milton's daughter, Hannah, married, and she and her husband left
Indiana for Iowa and Kansas. In 1859, they had a child in Peoria, Iowa. By
1862, they were at their destination in Burlingame, Kansas.
The photo below shows the Leander Scott Utter family as they are leaving Kansas, 1915.
After Milton Henry died in 1874, most of his boys prepared to migrate to Missouri. In 1876, Elijah and James were the first sons to head west. James was married to Mary Elizabeth Hunt and Elijah was married to Mary Jane Russell. Elijah served as wagon master to forty wagons. Those wagons consisted mainly of the Russell family. From online records, the wagon train arrived in Clay County, Arkansas, in 1876. There, they encountered swampy land. Many died from drinking bad water. Mary Jane was one of them. She died December 4, 1976, and is buried in the Richwoods Cemetery. Later, in 1877, Elijah brought the wagon train to the Ozarks in Southwest Missouri. After they settled, he and James let their brothers know in Indiana what life was like in the Ozarks. That's when those brothers decided to make the change. Here's a photo of Elijah Burton Utter and wife Mary Jane Russell.
Christina Hunt, my 2nd great-grandmother, married David Utter. In early autumn of 1880, they left Indiana by wagon and headed for Missouri. During my research I was delighted when I found a 1966 Joplin, Missouri newspaper account that documents Christina and David's journey.
They loaded their eight children into a
covered wagon and migrated from Indiana to Southwest Missouri. It took them 34
days to travel the route. David took a different route than brothers Elijah and
James. He likely moved west to St. Louis, Missouri, crossed the Mississippi
River, and came by the famous Springfield Road. Research shows that the
Springfield Road had many names: the Trail of Tears, the Military Road, the
Government Trail, the Old Wire Road, the Telegraph Road, and the Butterfield
Overland Stage Route. One month later, in the fall of 1880, my
great-grandmother Christina gave birth to a baby girl named Mabel Missouri. This photo shows my 2nd great-grandparents, David Jefferson Utter and Christina Hunt.
Ambrose Hunt was my fifth great-grandfather.
His daughter, Leah, was Christina and Mary Elizabeth's cousin. Leah Hunt
traveled with her family from Halifax County, Virginia, to Kentucky along the
Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap at age five. She married Thomas
Riggs, and they had eleven children. In her late twenties, she and Thomas moved
by oxen cart and foot to Ray County in northern Missouri. When she was 56 years
old, Leah and Thomas joined a wagon train with their grown children and set out
on the Oregon Trail in the spring of 1846. Shortly after they crossed the
Missouri River, Thomas suddenly became ill with "camp fever." He died
on May 7, 1846, and was buried along the trail on a bluff overlooking the
river.
In September, the wagon train arrived in Oregon. Leah and most of her surviving children stayed in Linn County. She died September 27, 1857, at age 75. She is listed in the records of the U.S., Early Oregonians. Leah Hunt Riggs had to have been a true pioneer and a strong woman. From caring for her children to burying her husband along a lonely trail, she proved her strength. She truly had the Pioneer Spirit. Here a picture of Leigh Hunt Riggs.
I love reading about the spirit and bravery of
the women in my family. I can't imagine how hard it was to bury your beloved in
the wilds of a foreign land and travel on without them. Or being pregnant,
riding along a bumpy, overgrown road path for over a month in a covered wagon.
My women ancestors were extraordinary, much more than I am today!
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