[or-roots] relative hardships of travel

[Leslie Chapman]

Carla;

I would suspect the relative hardships would be highly dependent on
financial Status, my greats who came around the horn, or however were well
enough off to indulge themselves in shipping great grandma's organ along
with whatever else they brought. The Melvins were probably fairly well off,
I show 2g grandma as having $400 real estate and $50 real property in 1860.
Interestingly in 1870 the property is listed under Step Grandpa.

I am amazed that somehow all this time I was thinking Milan Morell came west
with them, but they are in Iowa until at least 1870 and MMM was married in
CA in 1858 and is in Oregon in 1860. I must have put those facts together
before, but sure don't remember it!!

Anyway what I figure is someone with good finances could probably afford
fairly decent accomodations (by the standards of the time) would have been
better off traveling by boat. Except for one caveat and that is the odds of
sinking. Of course you had many of the same hazards both ways in disease,
hostile natives if by land and Pirates by sea and getting lost either way.

One possibility that I think was better overland was to hire your way west;
a strong young man might be able to get a job herding or driving oxen or
some such if his personal funds didn't cover the cost of the expedition. Of
course a lot of people came west by hiring oon ships and then jumping them
when they got her so again that is kind of a wash for the decision process.

Someday I hope to find MMM's wagon train, makes me wonder now that I realize
he didn't come with Gram if he might have come with the Wisner's from the
Salem area??

Les

-----Original Message-----
From: or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us]On Behalf Of
cklooster at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 7:59 PM
To: or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: Re: [or-roots] I Need a History Lesson


I thought the same thing...my family was living in Southern Illinois...but
then I remembered that the river systems were major transportation routes in
those days.  I've never researched the issue but I'm guessing that it was a
fairly expensive way to travel.  It would be interesting to compare the
rigors of ship board travel with those of the Oregon trail.

Carla