The Star News 10/10/05

Wagon Train trip West led to mutiny for maricle and other travelers


by Britt Aamodt
Special to the Star News

From 1862 to 1867, the Northern Overland Trail carried thousands of Minnesotans to points west — to the goldfields in Montana, to Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley, and to the cosmopolitan San Francisco.

The passage of the Homestead Act in 1862 contributed to the exodus. For anyone willing to make the journey, the act provided 160 acres of free land.

The transcontinental railroad wouldn’t link East and Eest Coasts until 1869. Meanwhile, settlers, prospectors and adventurers like 19th-century diarist and Elk River resident, Abraham Maricle, gathered at the St. Cloud trailhead for a three-month wagon train journey.

Of the St. Cloud wagon trains, the 1867 Davy Train was probably the most notorious. The expedition’s captain, Peter B. Davy, a former patent medicine salesman and cavalry officer, had more flair than common sense.

He went all out publicizing the expedition. His circulars painted an idyllic vision of prairie flowers, trout-filled streams and evening recitals by the train’s very own brass band.

All that promotion cost money, and Davy still had provisions to buy. But at the train’s departure, June 25, no one, not even Davy, had any idea how the financial shortfall would plague the trip.

Maricle was one of Davy’s approximately 70 passengers. His diary, though scant on detail, records an uneventful beginning. The 22 wagons made Sauk Centre by July 1 where the passengers “went to the shoe and had a dance.”

The outlook darkened July 21. The cook assigned to Maricle’s wagon went for water and never returned.

“I cant tell whether She got it or not” was Maricle’s brief take.

Two days later, mutiny erupted. Passengers had paid Davy $125 each, yet were crossing the plains on foot, the wagons too full of baggage. Worse, food was running low.

“A big row in camp about (electing) a new commander of our train Some of the men are going back. Davy is still in command,” wrote Maricle.

Conditions didn’t improve. By Aug. 9, the passengers were eating “hard tack and bad buflo meat.”

Other calamities beset them. A German woman went insane. Four dogs starved to death. Two men dueled. And a boy was crushed under a wheel.

Armed warriors circled the train on Sept. 3. But the brass band came to the rescue, performing an impromptu concert for their guests.

The wagon train finally straggled into Helena, Mont., on Sept. 29. Davy and Maricle would eventually return to Minnesota, but many would not. Though they didn’t know it then, the passengers had participated in one of the last wagon trains. In two years, the railway would make them obsolete.

Journalist

http://www.erstarnews.com/2005/october/10diary.html 

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