Chicago Wagons by Zina Abbott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my second chapter of the first wagon train book I wrote for the Prairie Roses Collection,  I introduced my hero as a trader who had purchased three Chicago wagons for transporting freight to California. He chose them over the larger, heavier Murphy wagons often used for hauling cargo. However, at the time, I did not do a lot of research into exactly what constituted a Chicago wagon.

Last month, I came across information about Chicago wagons in a Daughters of Utah Pioneers lesson I taught titled “Down and Back Church Trains.”

Mormon Trail ctsy U.S. National Park Service

To set the stage, between 1847 and 1860, thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints traveled the Mormon Trail to the Great Salt Lake Valley. As time passed, fewer of these immigrants came from other regions of North America and more (like many of my ancestors) came from Europe. With no means to purchase fully-outfitted wagons to make the overland journey, increasingly the church began to send wagons and supplies from Utah Territory to the departure point which, for many years, was Florence (now part of Omaha), Nebraska Territory.

By 1860, on the cusp of the American Civil War, a concerted effort on the part of the church to send wagons and supplies back to Florence to collect the immigrants was put into place. During the years of 1861 through 1865, the American Civil War years when there was such a great demand of wagons (and replacement wagons) for the war effort, the church found it necessary to provide greater aid for those immigrants of their faith to reach their destination.

The following are excerpts from the circular sent from the church president, Brigham Young, to the bishops throughout Utah Territory to introduce this program:

“…There were only twenty-nine wagons sent to Florence last season; this year we wish to send two hundred wagons with four yoke of oxen to each wagon. In addition to said teams we also wish to forward as many loose oxen to Florence as our this year’s immigration may wish to purchase, as that will give us the use of their money before it goes into the hands of strangers [translation: many of them enemies, who overcharged the Mormons], thus saving for our use from about $10 to 30,000 which are yearly paid out in cash for cattle and wagons….

“The wagons sent should be the best Chicago make, 2 inch iron axletree, and be in such condition…Wooden axle Chicago wagons can be sent if there are not enough iron axle wagons of that make. Other good wagons, of similar make, can also be sent, if there are not enough Chicago wagons….”  

Overall, Chicago wagons is not a brand name. Rather, it is a type, and the designation indicates where the wagons were made. The reason Chicago wagons became a generic term was because some of the most legendary wagon makers were originally based in Chicago, Illinois. 

 By the mid 1850’s, the city of Chicago was a little less than twenty years old. The population was almost 80,000. Wagon makers numbered less than one hundred, most of them being Germans who did not speak much English. However, they produced quality wagons. In areas not served by a railroad, wagons were the primary means of transporting goods and people. As buyers saw the craftsmanship, attention to detail, and dependability of certain makes of wagons that came from Chicago, those became the wagons of choice—for farm use, travel, and hauling freight (particularly where the long-distance hauling did not require the heavier Murphy freight wagons). They were given the generic name of Chicago wagons. 

Eventually, Chicago claimed more than two hundred wagon and carriage makers during the heyday of horse-drawn vehicle making. Among the more notable brands besides Peter Schuttler were Weber, Louis Palm, and Columbus. Henry Mitchell, who eventually moved his home to Racine, Wisconsin his home, started his wagon construction business in Chicago.

An example: Weber Wagon Company, after a decade in business, employed eighteen people and produced two hundred wagons a year. (They eventually became the International Harvester Company.) In comparison, by about 1850, after approximately a decade in business, Peter Schuttler employed about one hundred men and produced about one thousand, eight hundred wagons a year. Keep in mind, at this time, wagons were largely hand-built.

In a different article, I learned in the case of Brigham Young’s statement, he referred to Peter Schuttler Company wagons, based in Chicago. Many wagons were sold to Mormons moving west. Because it was such a large company, for many, “Chicago” wagons also became synonymous with Peter Schuttler Company wagons.

Schuttler wagon

Chicago wagons were used for travel across the Great Plains and the western mountain ranges. Although many of the Chicago wagons built for hauling freight had about the same dimensions (3-1/2 to 4 feet wide by 10 feet long) as pioneer travel/prairie schooner wagons, the wooden parts needed to be built sturdier, with metal axles, and more metal reinforcements on the moving parts.

 

Murphy freight wagon. Note where driver sits

All three of the books I have written for the Prairie Roses Collection include freight haulers—private traders rather than regularly employed freighters—along with pioneers traveling the established trails of the day. I first mentioned the distinction between the larger Murphy freight wagons (12 feet in length) and the smaller Chicago freight wagons in the first book I wrote for the Prairie Roses Collection, Pearl. In it, my hero chose Chicago wagons over Murphy wagons. However, after giving the lesson, mentioned above, I decided it was time learn more about Chicago wagons.

In my third book, Lucy, set in 1863, this same trader sent his employees, including my hero in the second book, Clara, as trail boss—back to the Missouri River region of Kansas. The purpose was not only to purchase goods difficult to be found in the West, but to buy four new Chicago wagons to transport them west. The wagons would then to be used to haul trade goods to the gold and silver towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill in Nevada Territory.

To find the book description and purchase options for Lucy, Book 46 in the Prairie Roses Collection, please CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://wheelsthatwonthewest.com/blog/chicago-wagons/

https://alchetron.com/Peter-Schuttler

http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/bridgerd.html

Jeppson, Ellen Taylor, “’Down and Back’ Church Trains”; Tales of Triumph, Volume 6 (Salt Lake City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2023), Pages 288-289.  

https://westernmininghistory.com/4127/heavy-freight-wagons-of-the-american-west/

 

Council Bluffs, Iowa--a city at the crossroads

 While researching my latest wagon train story, Jana, part of the 2024 Prairie Roses Collection, I wanted to use a different starting point for the westward journey. Several towns served the purpose of being the gathering spot for lots of pioneers who wanted to head for California, New Mexico, or Oregon. Those families or individuals arrived at these known locations and bought their final supplies while waiting for leaders to step forward and announce the formation of a company.

The history of this city is rich. Lewis and Clark met with the Otoe tribe near a riverside bluff in August 1804. The explorers named it Council Bluff because the location was where they held a council. In the 1830s, the location became a reservation for Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi Indians who were displaced from the Chicago area. The Potawatomi leader, Sauganash meaning “one who speaks English”, was also known by his English name, Billy Caldwell, and the Indian village was called Caldwell’s Camp.

Missionary Pierre-Jean DeSmet founded St. Joseph’s Mission in 1838-39 to minister to the tribes. He did what he could to protect the tribes from the illegal liquor trade while also helping surveyor Joseph Nicollet to create a map of the upper Midwest.

The first emigrant wagon train west departed in 1841 with a Great Migration of 1843 involving between 700 and 1,000 people. Every spring, wagons gathered in varying numbers to travel west through the late 1860s. The town grew because business owners saw the opportunity of steady customers needing items to make the journey across the country for the California and Pikes Peak gold rushes. Across the Missouri River lay the mostly uninhabited wilderness of the Missouri Territory. By 1853, a steam-powered ship ferried people, animals, and wagons of the pioneers across the river to Omaha in what would become Nebraska Territory in 1854.

Mormons, seeking land where they could practice their religion, arrived in the region in 1846, with permission from Washington DC arranged by Thomas Kane to occupy a portion of the Indian land. They named their settlement Kanesville and used it to supply travelers headed west to Utah. This town became the official start of the Mormon Trail. Most of the Mormons had headed west by 1852. The town’s name changed officially to Council Bluffs in the same year.

Not only did Council Bluffs enjoy a robust steamboat trade, the city was directly opposite the starting point for the Transcontinental Railroad with construction starting in 1868. The town, its population expanded from 2,011 in 1860 to 10,220 a decade later, served an important purpose in the development of America, as well as benefited from being at the edge of the frontier.

Rail lines ending in Council Bluffs

My novella, Jana, will soon be up on preorder.

Other wagon train stories in my backlist:

Prairie Rose Collection multi-author series

Cadi, book 11

Amity, book 21

Tilda, book 31

Reluctant Wagon Train Bride multi-author series

Lona

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California Gold Rush and Determining a Place Name

 

More than 500 mining camps existed during the heyday of the California Gold Rush, the vast majority of names have been forgotten. Official dates connected with the rush are January 24, 1848-1855. So many immigrants arrived to seek their fortune in the gold fields that California acquired the needed population count to qualify for statehood. One example is San Francisco. The city went from about 200 residents in 1846 to 36,000 in 1852. Can you imagine the sounds of constant construction as homes and businesses went up?

Mining made a progression from single individuals kneeling at the side of a creek or stream, using a pan to swirl a small amount of water and river bottom to discover flakes.

I love that this photo from 1850 shows a woman

The next phrase was the use of sluice or rocker boxes. Here shovelfuls of creek bottom were put into a box that had wire mesh for the bottom held together by a wooden frame. Several people would shake or rock the box to let the water through and then what remained on the wire would be sifted through by hand.

When the majority of the gold flakes and nuggets were gone from the streams, companies bought claims and established operations at the side of a river. Or they dug into the mountains, following a vein or gold to be extracted. Or high-powered hydraulics were use to break up the rocks to locate gold within.

As a historical writer, I like making my stories as true to life as possible. When I start a new story, I debate the issue of using a real place or inventing a fictional location. The freedom of using a real place is that if the story is set in the 19th century—as all mine are—the likelihood that someone will argue about the layout of the town is very small. If I had a habit of incorporating real life figures into my stories, I might be faced with offended descendants. When I have referred to people who lived, I do so in a positive light and as a way to pay homage to the contributions those people made.

My just-released novella, Tilda, is a wagon train story. I knew I wanted both of the protagonists to come to terms with not reaching their hoped-for destinations—Flynn’s was Sutter’s Mill and Tilda’s was Sacramento. In my mind, the fact they alter their goals in the end not only shows personal growth but demonstrates they are more committed to each other.

As a native Californian, I’m familiar with the Sierra Nevada Gold Country (my honeymoon night was spent in a hotel there). What I wanted was a lesser-known name of a town that was in the right region. When the name of a contemporary town is used, readers who might have visited it picture the locale like it is now. I own a book on ghost towns of Colorado and another for Texas ghost towns, which have proved useful in establishing locales for past stories. But I was able to run through a list of towns I’d heard of and picked a name the settlement was known by before official incorporation.  Therefore, the Illinoistown in my story is present-day Colfax, California.

BLURB for Tilda, book 31 in Prairie Roses Collection:

Following her parents’ death, Tilda Torsdotter turns to her cousin, Rakel, for help and joins her family’s preparations to head to California. Tilda’s job will be to assist pregnant Rakel with her two children under age five and receive the protection of Rakel’s husband, Albert. Then Rakel sickens and dies, and Albert looks to Tilda to fulfill her cousin’s duties--all of them.

Flynn Mannix has his eye set on reaching the gold fields of California. An easy-going guy, he’s always made his way doing one task or another but now he wants to make something of himself. Hiring on as a driver on a wagon train seems like the easiest way to reach the west coast. Until he witnesses an inappropriate encounter and steps in. Suddenly, he’s committed to a marriage of convenience with Tilda and responsible for her safety until they reach California. At the end of the trail, will the couple go their separate ways, or will they realize the experience has made their marriage real?

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BONNETS OR BURN by Marisa Masterson

 

Glory trudged behind the wagon. Three days out and the walking hadn’t grown easier. Not like some silly man spouted last night at the company meeting. He’d said day three would be less painful on everyone. Something about muscles being used to the exercise.

Well, hers screamed to turn around and walk east. She wanted the home they’d left, rough though it was, and she longed for her mother. Both, of course, were gone.

Perhaps grief made each step harder than the previous. Lifting her feet one after another felt as if she hauled large, heavy stones. She knew deep inside that she needed to fall into the grass with its dry rattle to one side of the trail and rest. Its waving motion in the slight breeze mesmerized her.

She took one step and then another into it. “Where you goin’, Glory?” The voice surprised her. She pushed back the long-brimmed bonnet to see who spoke.

Alfie Severson ran up to her, his young face eager for excitement. “Are you gonna look for sticks? I’m good at findin’ them.”

Bonnets! That was what my wagon-train romance needed! I’d written a whole novel without adding the one thing that no woman would have been without in the 1850s.

My heroine finds herself on the Santa Fe Trail in the late summer. Historically, I knew that 1858 was a year of terrible drought and hot days. Every decent woman wore a bonnet at this time.

But why? Of course, it made sense that a woman out in the sun would cover her head to avoid heat stroke. Wearing the bonnet went beyond that, though, as I found in my research.

Women covered their hair outside or in public. Modesty and Christian teaching demanded this. Glory, my heroine, would never have left her wagon without something on her head.

Still, on the trail some of society’s rules were forgotten or bent. This one, I don’t think, would have been one of them. The bonnet, while hot, kept a woman’s hair cleaner and helped her avoid a sunburned face.

Some prairie bonnets had even longer brims.

The prairie bonnet, as it is called, had a longer brim. Some of the women who traveled the trails would probably have had a shorter brimmed sun bonnet. Those are what my great-grandmother wore.

My grandmother's bonnet had cardboard compartments

that made the brim stiff so it didn't flop onto her face

 as she worked in the garden. This is an example of that.

My family never threw away things. My great-grandmother’s every day bonnets were kept in a closet at my grandfather’s farmhouse. I remember playing with them, not realizing how old they were. Beautiful, simple cotton with cardboard compartments to make the brim less floppy, I can still see them. Each bonnet actually matched a shirtwaist and skirt that was born for every day wear!

With those old family bonnets in mind, I’ve got some rewriting to do. Yes sir, the ladies in my novel are wearing bonnets!

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER! 

Dead set on making Pike’s Peak and its goldfields, Glory’s father leaves her little choice but to go. Will they make it leaving so late in the season?

Insights about The Oregon Trail

 

For the current story I’m writing titled Cadi, I’ve been researching travel on the Oregon Trail. Not only have I read The Prairie Traveler, a manual that helped travelers prepare for the trek (and became a bestselling book), I’ve also read firsthand accounts of people who made the journey. The thing I found most interesting was the differences in the type of personal observations.

Madonna of the Prairie by
William H.D. Koerner--an idealized portrait

Men related details about the terrain, weather, geographic locations, and miles covered each day. They discussed if any special precautions were undertaken at river or creek crossings. Women counted gravestones, worried about the health of their children, and often fretted about ever reaching the destination. They weren’t wrong to do so because few families ended the journey without suffering a loss of some type. From the women’s journals emerged a common complaint: none of them initiated the trek. All would have been happy to remain in their east-of-the-Mississippi-River homes and work a bit harder to get ahead.

Oregon trail reality courtesy of Center of the West museum
Notice the mismatched mule & ox team in right wagon

But because of the times they lived in, they had to accede to the wishes of their husbands who were the recognized heads of the households. They had to leave behind their friends and families (and often the majority of their cherished household furnishings) and embark on a promised four-month trip that often expanded to six months due to unforeseen circumstances. For these women, they drove ox or mule teams or trudged across prairie grass for most of the sunlit hours, always looking forward to the time after the evening meal when they might have a few minutes to talk with other women. The trip was only make bearable by reestablishing what they knew--gathering with other women to share the stories of where they’d lived, what their lives had been like, and to speculate on what life would be like in their new homes. They clung to the familiar in a world they didn’t understand.

The McCully Train-Iowa to Oregon 1852 by Sanford R. Wilbur & Sally H. Wilbur

The Prairie Traveler by Captain Randolph A. Marcy

Westering Women and the Frontier Experience 1800-1915 by Sandra L. Myres

Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel

After her father betrayed her trust by gambling away their Kentucky horse breeding business, Cadi Gruffyn salvaged the pregnant prize mare gifted for her 21st birthday. The loss of the horse farm displaces her aunt and uncle, so Cadi joins them on a wagon train to northern California where her brother established a ranch in the Diablo Valley. When her uncle dies, several men approach Cadi, insisting she needs a husband to help her finish out the trip. She refuses, afraid they only want to claim her valuable mare.

Carpenter Trynt Pembroke just wants a fresh start. A week before his wedding, he was betrayed by his fiancée who ran off with his brother. He’s looking to get as far away as he can and start a new business. As much as he doesn’t want the complication of a woman in his life, he keeps coming to the rescue of strong and determined Cadi, a woman who shares his cultural heritage. Can he convince her they are stronger together than on their own?

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Visit the April Facebook Launch Celebration on April 27th to learn more about the story and read about other titles. Prizes are offered by multiple authors. Click to join event

Wagons Ho!

I’ve written a few books about life on a wagon train and I find the research interesting. I have great admiration for those brave pioneers who left their comfortable home to walk across the country under the most primitive conditions. Some had no idea where they would end up or what to expect at the end of their journey.

In search of inexpensive land and opportunity, American pioneers migrated westward by the thousands. The early British American colonies for the most part hugged the Atlantic Ocean. As the population of the colonies grew and expanded, westward migration began and never really stopped.

The migration of pioneers had pushed the American frontier to the Mississippi Valley by the 1830s. Traders, explorers and missionaries who traveled further west described of fertile valleys, great forests and abundant farming, mining and hunting opportunities in the Oregon, California, Missouri frontiers and other western regions west of the Mississippi River. 

From the 1840s to the 1860s more than 300,000 pioneers crossed the plains and mountains of the West along various routes such as the Oregon and Santa Fe trails.

How Did They Travel?

Sometimes they show the pioneers using Conestoga wagons pulled by horses, with the pioneers riding. Actually, Conestoga wagons were too big and heavy for the Oregon Trail. Converted farm wagons, called Prairie Schooners, were actually used and pulled generally not by horses, but oxen.

Oxen were slower, but more reliable and tougher than mules. They ate poor grass. Oxen were very strong and could haul fully-loaded wagons up ravines or drag them out of mudholes. A large wagon needed at least three pairs of oxen to pull it.

What Trails Did They Use?

The major southern routes were the Santa Fe Trail, the Southern Emigrant Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail, as well as its wagon road successor the Mormon Road, a southern spur of the California Trail used in the winter that also made use of the western half of the Old Spanish Trail.

Wagon Trains were composed of up to 200 wagons, though more common were trains of 30 or less wagons. It was decided early on that the larger the caravan of wagons, the safer the travelers would be. 

What Did the Pioneers Need For the Trip?

BEDDING & TENT SUPPLIES: blankets, ground cloths, pillows, tent, poles, stakes, ropes. TOOLS & EQUIPMENT: set of augers, gimlet, ax, hammer, hoe, plow, shovel, spade, whetstone, oxbows, axles, kingbolts, ox shoes, spokes, wagon tongue, heavy ropes, chains.

FOOD: flour (600 lbs.), bacon ( 400 lbs.), coffee (60 lbs.), baking soda, corn meal, hardtack, dried beans, dried fruit, dried beef, molasses, vinegar, pepper, eggs, salt, sugar (100 lbs.), rice, tea (4 lbs.), lard (200 lbs.) 

Beans and rice, dried meat and salted bacon, dried fruit, hardtack or crackers (hard dried bread which had to be softened in water to eat). They took flour and sugar and sometimes baked bread, biscuits, or pies

A wagon and oxen team cost each family about $400 to $600. The total weight of wagon's cargo pulled by the oxen was about 2500 pounds. That was a lot of money back then.

What Were the Biggest Hazards?

Contrary to popular belief, attacks by Native American Indians were rare. Often, the local Indian tribes welcomed the Wagon Trains to trade. Although the long westward journey caused numerous deaths and injuries through accidents, weather and terrain related causes; the biggest danger was disease.  Thousands of pioneers died along the way due to disease and lack of medical attention. 

Illnesses claimed far more lives than violence, and the majority of violent deaths on the trail were entirely accidental.

·           Disease. Illnesses such as food poisoning, typhoid and, particularly, cholera were the primary causes of death for travelers on the Oregon Trail. ... 

·           Wagon Accidents. ... 

·           Drowning. ... 

·           Gunshots.

A Typical Day on the Trail

4:00 am: a bugler blows a trumpet or a rifle is fired by the night guards to wake up the camp. 

5:00 am: cattle are rounded up after being allowed to graze during the night (except when Indians threatened). 

5:30 am: women and children are up and fixing breakfast of usually bacon, corn porridge or “Johnny Cakes” made of flour and water. 

6:30 am: women rinse plates and mugs and stow bedding, while the men haul down tents and load them in the wagons.

7:00 am: after every family has gathered their teams and hitched them to wagons, a trumpeter signals a “Wagons Ho,” to start the wagons down the trail. Average distance covered in a day was usually fifteen miles, but on a good day twenty could be traveled. 

7:30 am: men ride ahead on horses with shovels to clear out a path, if needed. 

“Nooning Time”: animals and people stop to eat, drink and rest. 

1:00 pm: back on the trail. 

5:00 pm: when a good campsite with ample water and grass is found, pioneers stop to set up camp for the evening. Wagons are formed into a corral. 

6:00 pm: families unpack and make supper. 

7:00 pm: mothers do chores, men smoke and talk, young people dance. 

8:00 pm: camp settles down for the night, guards go out on duty. 

Midnight: night guards are changed.

My Newest Release is A Bride for Nathan, book 3 of the series: Proxy Brides.

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