Oregon Pioneers

3. Thoughts on moving to Oregon                            Voice of Mary Polly Pettingill Rice Cook

   January 1851

            “You want us to do WHAT?”

          Haven’t we moved far enough, yet? Oh yes, I know it is in my blood to move west. My fourth-great-grandfather Francis Eaton moved from Bristow, England to America on the Mayflower in 1620 and since then we have continued to move west. Sometimes there was a whole generation that didn’t move, but the next generation could not sit still. They moved further west. What is the great pull to the west I wonder?

            Now our kids say they are going to move again! We’ve lived in Burr Oak Ridge, Iowa about ten years. That’s such a short time. It seems that all my life, just as I get comfortably settled in my home, and get it fixed up the way I want it to be, we move again. When we first moved to Iowa, that was six years before Iowa became a state, we lived in a one room log cabin. Now they have built on to our house and we have several rooms. I was even planning on getting a new wood burning cook stove this year. Now we will be cooking over the open fire for another few years.

           It was the same way for the 25 years I was married to William. We were married in New York. Nancy was born in New York. Mary, Lucinda, Ruth, and Horace were all born in Ohio and William died when we lived in Illinois.

            William is gone and Beckwith and I have been married for nine years. We are settled in this home. We were married the year after I moved my family to Iowa. I was a widow with five children and Beckwith was widowed with five children. William and Sybil both died during the winter of 1839. Everyone was sick that winter.

           Now it is 1850 and over the past 230 years my ancestors have lived in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa, always moving west when too many people join them.  In September, the Federal Government approved the Oregon Donation Land Law and these young people of mine are talking about moving to Oregon. I guess they are continuing the family tradition of hoping for a better life and better land to farm. Now our kids all want to move again. Now they say they are going to go to Oregon. How much further west could they go? Don’t they know that Oregon is 2000 miles away and we would have to walk or ride in a Conestoga wagon for months and months? Hundreds of Americans have already moved to the Oregon Country, but why us?

             All of my men are farmers. In order to have food for their family the men must plow, sow and harvest. If we leave Iowa in March there will be no plowing this year. There will be no corn or wheat or potatoes this year. With all these little children and all the stock they plan to take with them it may take two years to get to Oregon. That means there will be no corn or wheat or potatoes harvested next year either. What do they plan to feed their family? They will have to take their cows. We need the milk and we will need to churn the butter. Can a cow walk 2000 and still give us her milk?

           Don’t they know that I am an old woman? I am sixty years old and Beckwith is 65. Don’t they have any pity on an old woman? I’m tired. I guess Beckwith and I could stay here. Yes! We will stay here where it is comfortable and I can spend my days rocking, spinning, knitting and sewing. When there are not so many grandchildren around maybe I can read my Bible a little more. Most of the grandchildren will go with their parents. What will I do without my grandchildren? Now they all live close to me and I can see them everyday. Don’t they know that grandchildren need their grandparents around?

            What will Beckwith and I do if some of our family decides to move to Oregon and some of them decide to stay in Iowa? I don’t know how many of them have made their final decision to go to Oregon. Cyrenius has already decided to stay in Iowa. We should stay here with him. But, I know that Nancy and Mansfield and Mary and Jeb have said they are going. How can we decide to separate ourselves from our family?

            Between us Beckwith and I now have nineteen grandchildren; some are his, some are mine and some are ours. They all live around here. Alvira is ten and Chloe is nine. Then we have four who are about six and six who are about three years old. Seven of them are infants who were born in the last year. Ruth and Alfred’s little Mary died of scarlet fever last year. She was only three years old. Cyrenius and Jane’s children are seven, three, and two years old. Sixteen grandchildren will probably be leaving for Oregon. How can I let sixteen grandchildren leave me? How can I leave the three little ones here? I may never see them again.

            If everyone but Cyrenius goes that makes six babies. How will they care for six babies in Conestoga wagons which are moving everyday? I hear the wagon trains travel eight to ten miles a day and riding on a wagon is so rough that most people just walk. How do they expect to carry a baby eight miles every day? How do those young mothers expect to take care of babies inside a rocking Conestoga wagon? They are all so small; the babies and the wagons.

         What about the laundry? There are six babies in diapers and that makes a lot of dirty clothes each day. How will they boil the clothes on the trail? How will the clothes get dry? What about the three year olds? How do you entertain six three year olds? Most of the time, those kids don’t even wear shoes. Do they expect to make a three year old walk for eight miles a day without shoes on? The older kids; what about the older kids? They ought to be in school learning to read and write and figure. Now we have a school here. On the trail and in Oregon, what about school for them? Don’t they know that there will probably be more new babies coming next year? What are those young women going to do without me to help with the birthing and caring for the babies?

           We will have to take so many things on the wagon. Will there be room for my spinning wheel? I can carry my knitting needles, but how will I spin the yarn without my spinning wheel? I know everyone will need new mittens, socks, hats, and scarves before this adventure is over. They will just have to hang my spinning wheel on the outside of the wagon with the wash tub, cooking pot and water barrel.

          What about the Indians? What about cholera? We have heard stories of so many people who have died on the trail.

          Beckwith says that even though we are old we have many years ahead of us and the offer of free land is too good to pass up. We know many people who have already moved to Oregon and they didn’t have the incentive of so much free land given to them. The few letters we receive from Oregon say that there is fertile land for farming, magnificent forests for lumber and building houses, snow covered mountains and mighty rivers that are full of salmon and other fish. They say it is beautiful in Oregon. They say that the summers are not as hot and humid or the winters as cold as in Iowa. Our friends say we should come and join them in paradise. Our men say that as soon as the snow has melted and the prairie grass is growing so there is something for the oxen to graze on, they will set out for Oregon.

         I guess I am not staying in Iowa if so many grandchildren go to Oregon.