Notes

__STORY__

Hello there, my name is Elizabeth Ann Jones and I am here to tell you a story from my childhood. 32 years ago in 1811, when I was a mere 10 years old, my family and I started our travel. Our destination was to the West on the 2,000 mile long Oregon Trail and my Ma told me it was our country’s manifest destiny to settle that land. Pa and my 4 brothers (Ezra, Jacob, Samuel, and Charles) saved up all of their hard-earned money and put it towards our trip. When my parents told me the travel would be a very long travel by Conestoga wagon pulled by some of our farm’s oxen. They also told me some of the history before the journey. Some things they told me were that there were a few trails leading to the western land. Another thing they said was that a man named John Jacob Astor created a huge fur business called the American Fur Company and the got the fur/skins from people called mountain men. One very well known mountain man was named Jim Beckwourth that sometimes seemed to exaggerate some things.

In the very beginning of the journey, we decided to travel with another small family on the Oregon Trail. My parents were talking to this other family, the Smiths, and they made sure that they didn’t want to travel any other path like the Santa Fe Trail, California Trail, Old Spanish Trail, or the Mormon Trail. Long after the travel, I was told about people of Joseph Smith’s church that were called Mormons. At first, the travel was kind of boring because it was predictable and nothing very extraordinary. I was used to the type of land, the animals, and the temperature. Sometimes I would have a temper with my parents because the heat was unbearable. We had limited water supplies so I just had to learn to deal with it.

As the journey continued and days turned to weeks, the travel became better and it became worse. Better in a sense that there was more adventure and I was more used to the people and I had learned to adapt to change. There are so many wagons on this trail with us right now…literally dozens! One very interesting thing that my family encountered on the trail was meeting an empresario that tried to recruit us for the new Mexican land. Empresarios were the result of a failed revolt from Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. The people on the trail were basically divided by their choice. Some went to Mexico for their land while other families like us remained on our trail to the West.

Whenver Pa and the boys started to hunt, us girls cleaned up the wagon and had time to socialize with other families on the trail. We learned more about Mexico and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Texas was a new country founded by Stephen F. Austin that was involved in many battles such as the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. In the Battle of San Jacinto the Texans capured the General Santa Anna and made him sign an independence treaty for Texas. Althogh these talks didn't really make sense to me when I was younger, they are very interesting things to know now.

The days got longer and I began to get sick of the other family in our wagon. Looking back, it seems like everything wasn't as good as it was in the beginning. Ma and Pa were starting to fight but tried to hide if from us kids. I'm pretty sure that it was mainly because of all of the exciting news going around about James K. Polk becoming president that made us dwell about our boring trip to an exciting place. The tension was unbearable, but all of our troubles seemed to dissolve when we were only about 2 weeks away from our destination in Oregon.

Near the end of the expedition something very strange happened. While Pa and the boys were hunting, they met some Californios that came on horses. These colonists came to try to trade with Pa for fur because they weren't hunters, they were blacksmiths that weren't good at hunting at all. Pa gladly accepted and the men traded with a small amount of precious gold. Other people that are ride horses to herd cattle and sheep were called Vaqueros. Pa came home boisterous and Ma was so happy! Us girls in the wagon got out for a stretch and we got a glance at the gold.

America and Mexico were in a big war just south of our trail. Over the trees surrounding our path we could hear

As years went by


 * Sam Houston = leader of Texas military during Battle of San Jacinto
 * Juan Seguin = Captain of Cavalry (head of fighters on horseback)
 * Bear Flag Revolt = people in California raised a state flag to try to gain independence (tried to become California Republic)
 * Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo = treaty that ended the Mexican American War
 * Gadsden Purchase = when we (America) bought land from Mexico to extend New Mexico