California subsequent to
1849, from soon after the discovery of gold until this time, the usual
date at which the annual emigrants started from the settlement borders
along the Missouri River was April 15th to May 1st. The Spring of 1857
was late, and we did not pull out until May 17th, when the prairie
grass was grown sufficiently to afford feed for the stock, and summer
weather was assured.

At that time the boundary line between the "States" and the "Plains"
was the Missouri River. We crossed that river at a point about
half-way between St. Joseph and Council Bluffs, where the village of
Brownville was the nucleus of a first settlement of white people on
the Nebraska side. There the river was a half-mile wide. The crossing
was effected by means of an old-fashioned ferryboat or scow, propelled
by a small, stern-wheeled steamer. Two days were consumed in
transporting our party and equipment across the stream; but one wagon
and a few of the people and animals being taken at each trip of the
ferryboat and steamer.

From the landing we passed up the west shore twenty miles, seeing
occasionally a rude cabin or a foundation of logs, indicating the
intention of pre-empters. This brought us to the town of Nebraska
City, then a beginning of a dozen or twenty houses, on the west bank.
Omaha was not yet on the map; although where that thriving city now
stands there existed then a settlement of something over one hundred
persons.

From Nebraska City we bore off northwesterly, separating ourselves
from civilization, and thereafter saw no more evidence of the white
man's purpose to occupy the country over which we traveled.

There was before us the sky-bound stretch of undulating prairie,
spreading far and wide, like a vast field of young, growing grain, its
monotony relieved only by occasional clumps of small trees, indicating
the presence of springs or small water-courses.

Other companies or trains, from many parts of the country, especially
the Middle States, were crossing the Missouri at various points
between St. Louis and Council Bluffs; most of them converging
eventually into one general route, as they got out on the journey.

It is perhaps impossible to convey a clear understanding of the
emotions experienced by one starting on such a trip; leaving friends
and the familiar surroundings of what had been home, to face a siege
of travel over thousands of miles of wilderness, so little known and
fraught with so much of