GIVE 'IM A GOOD DOSING! by Marisa Masterson

 

Oh, the wisdom of the older generations! Once upon a time, children were given cod liver oil daily. Now fish oil is a huge industry since it contains important nutrition to keep a body healthy.

For those traveling overland on trails during the nineteenth century, common sense and herbal medicine replaced a doctor. Most wagon trains didn't have a physician along so they relied on folk healing.

Stomach complaints were a problem on the trail. Constipation was as common as diarrhea, maybe more so. Dysentery happened when people dug holes along the river bank to find water, perhaps because of droughts. It also struck when people drank alongside of the animals or got brackish water from marshy areas. 

Most any stomach complaint received the same medicine. A bottle of castor oil was a must on the trail. This old-fashioned treatment would push through whatever was causing the problem. At least that's what people believed.

Excerpted from my newest release, Glory--

By twilight, Pa’s face took on a gray cast. Enid shook her head and tsked. “I gave him castor oil. Gettin’ the bad stuff out shoulda made him better. Most people feel sorta weak but relieved in their innards.” Her head shook from side to side. “It’s like whatever took hold of him is mighty powerful.”

Lee erected the tent Arnie Simms used every night. Enid was confident that there was nothing catching inside it. After all, it was only a piece of tarp over a rope. The front and back were open so air moved through it freely. No bad air could be trapped inside it.

He gave the tent a doubtful look after tying off the rope. “It don’t look very comfortable, Glory.”

She shrugged slightly. “It won’t matter. I’ll be inside the wagon with Pa.”

“Oh my!” Enid’s exclamation drew both of them to the end of the wagon. The older woman held up a work-roughened hand. “There’s more’n a stomach upset plaguing ‘im.”

Part of the novel's mystery depends on what has happened to Glory's father. I won't give away whether or not the castor oil treatment works. 

If you'd like to read further about medicine on the overland trails, check out this blog. I used it when I researched for the novel. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/disease-death-overland-trails/.

Carylin' on the Oregon Trail - Day Five

After such a grand Day Four and Independence Rock, we awoke in Rock Springs on Thursday, December 20th, had an awesome breakfast and hit the road . . . or the Oregon Trail. The landscape turned from rocks everywhere to a few trees here and there. In the 1850s when wagon trains traveled our direction, fires for cooking were important.

More trees meant more wood to gather for cook fires.

Fort Bridger was our first stop that morning in Unita County, the southern-western-most corner in Wyoming.

I introduced Jim Bridger in the last installment as the guide for the U.S. Army when they were searching for the best way through the territory for the wagon trains.

He is honored there with a full statue.

Mister Bridger established a trading post on the Black Fork of the Green River in 1842, and the Army, a military post in 1858 during the Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Buchanan's Blunder, the Utah Campaign, ot the Mormon War or Rebellion.

It basically was a non-bloody confrontation of the soldiers President Buchanan sent to Utah to negotiate and the Mormons who suspected they were to be slaughtered, having been persecuted before in other areas.

It became a vital re-supply point for the settlers heading west. Fort Bridger served the area until 1890 when it closed.

At that time William Clayton was named sutler, a civilian merchant who sold provisions. 

About twenty minutes (for us----more like two days for the settlers) out of Ft. Bridger, the landscape changed again to abundant scrubby evergreens that would have been used for fuel to save the gathered wood.

From there, we traveled north toward Ft. Hall.

It was a boring stretch for sightseeing. On the way though, we stopped in Montiplier, Idaho where there's a wonderful Oregon/California Trail museum.

Bear Lake there served as a resting place for the wagon train sojourners with lush meadows and water aplenty.

No doubt they had their fill of fish for supper, for which I'm sure they were profoundly grateful.

It is estimated that conservatively, twenty thousand souls died on the Oregon/California Trail; illness was the most common cause, accidents next. Smallpox, influenza, measles, mumps, tuberculosis claimed many lives, but cholera was the worst.

Being run over by a wagon was the number one cause of accidental deaths with accidental gunshot wounds coming in second. The deceased were often buried directly under the trail so the dirt would be hard packed, protecting the body from scavengers.

Imagine a wife losing her husband or worse, losing a child on the trail.

In UNIQUELY COMMON and REMI, the two books released in April and May, they had to quarantine the wagons once for measles, and two minor characters died from them. Another man was killed in an accident. It proved a hard, merciless journey.

The two titles have different heroes and heroines, but the same group of folks, you'll enjoy spending more time with! Each is a stand-alone, but UNIQUELY COMMON, a Lockets and Lace Collection story, could be read first to keep the stories in order. I hope you can tell how much the trip we made on the Oregon / California Trail enriches Remi's story.

BLESSINGS!