June 25, 2023
I am going on a journey following the Oregon Trail. You may have an interest in my journey, or you may have an ancestral connection to the story.
I am roughly following a book that was written by my ancestor, Joel Barnett, titled “A Long Trip in a Prairie Schooner”. If you want to read the book, here is a link to a digital version: #1 – A long trip in a prairie schooner / by Joel Barnett – Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library
Joel is my Great-Grand Uncle, an older brother to my Great-Grandmother, Laura Barnett Jackson. Joel wrote the book in 1927 and self-published it in 1928. The trip starts in 1859 when Joel was 7 years old, having been born in March of 1852. He wrote the book partly from memories and from a diary that was kept by another traveler on the Trail that died later in the trip. Their ultimate goal was Walla Walla in what is now Washington state. They made it there, but it was not without hardship, illness, and death. Spoiler: the party returned from Walla Walla seven years later, settling in Earlham, Iowa. This town is where I start my journey. They started in Keokuk, Iowa, in the southeast corner of Iowa next to the Mississippi River. Just letting you know – I will not be following the full Trail. My terminus is Fort Laramie, Wyoming before I have to turn around and return to Indiana to resume work. Please enjoy!
The organizers of this journey were Amos and Mary Mendenhall Barnett, Joel Barnett’s parents. I don’t know what the impetus of the trip was, and it is never laid out in the book why they went to Walla Walla. I think all Joel knew was that they were going. I doubt that as a child he was privy to any of the decision-making. He describes his parents as William Penn type of Quakers. “thee” was always used instead of “you” in conversation. They were always in their places of worship on the Sabbath, and they set aside their labor for an hour of worship on the fourth day (Wednesday). I misspoke about Joel going on this trip when he was eight. I checked the dates, and he was seven. Eight children, ranging from eighteen to two years old went on this trip. They had three more children while in Walla Walla, and two more when they returned to Iowa, one of those being my Great-Grandmother Laura Barnett Jackson.
Joel describes their first river crossing in Iowa was the Nishnabotna. Not a wide river by current standards but try getting a prairie schooner across it without a ferry. The preserved Ferry House here used to be next to the river but now is a few hundred yards away due to some engineering in the late 19th century to straighten the river. Turns out this was on the Mormon trail as well.
The next big destination was Council Bluffs to acquire provisions and get in line for the ferry to cross the Missouri River. The provisioning included finding armed men willing or wanting to make the trip to provide protection for the traveling party. The ferry was steam powered and it was the first they had ever seen. Joel stated that the wait to cross the river was a long one, but they finally made it across and were on their way. The first photo was taken on the Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge. You can walk from Iowa to Nebraska and back. The second photo is Omaha as seen from Council Bluffs
