In Their Own Words

The Oregon Trail

Compiled by Prof. Jim Tompkins

Disclaimer:  Prof. Jim Tompkins has compiled the following information for classes he has taught.  He has kindly contributed them for general use.  This information has been gathered from a variety of sources and, while it is free to use, copyright infringements may make it unsuitable for commercial purposes.hered from a variety of sources and, while it is free to use, copyright infringements may make it unsuitable for commercial purposes.

[Note: The following quotes are highly edited for easier reading. They contain corrected spellings and words inserted by the speaker to clarify or replace undeterminable modifiers. Ellipses have been eliminated. No intent of the authors has been changed, although sentences not written together may have been combined or sentences not essential to the thought may have been removed.]

By information received from these gentlemen [Robert Stuart’s party eastbound from Astoria], it appears that a journey across the continent of N. America, might be performed with a wagon, there being no obstruction in the whole route that any person would dare to call a mountain in addition to its being much the most direct and short one to go from this place to the mouth of the Columbia River. Any future party who may undertake this journey, and are tolerably acquainted with the different places, where it would be necessary to lay up a small stock of provisions would not be impeded, as in all probability they would not meet with an

Indian to interrupt their progress; although on the other route more north [Lewis and Clark’s route] there are almost insurmountable barriers.   St. Louis Missouri Gazette, May 15, 1813

Mr. Printer: I see by your last paper that someone called “O’Regan” has given name to the river and the territory on the Pacific. I wish to know whether the Christian name of that family of the O’Regans is Teague; for if so be that name, at full length is “Teague O’Regan,” why let us have it, and not be after robbing a whole country of the best parts of its name. Yours to serve, Patrick   St. Louis Missouri Republican, July 4, 1825  
 

The Oregon Song

To the far-far off Pacific sea,

Will you go - will you go - dear girl with me?

By a quiet brook, in a lovely spot

We’ll jump from our wagon and build our cot!

Then hip-hurrah for the prairie life!

Hip-hurrah for the mountain strife

And if rifles must crack, if we swords must draw,

Our country forever, hurrah, hurrah!

St. Louis Missouri Republican, 1840

One of the preachers told me it was almost presumptious for so old a man as I to attempt such a hazardous journey. Mr. Greene said there was a possibility of my returning, but not a probability.  
Rev. Joseph Williams, 1841

The Oregon emigrants are of a superior order to those of our people. They are not the indolent, dissolute, ignorant, and vicious, but they are generally the enterprising, orderly, intelligent, and virtuous.  
Lansford Hastings’ 1842 Guidebook

No other race of men with the means at their command would undertake so great a journey, none save these could successfully perform it, with no previous preparation, relying only on the fertility of their own invention to devise the means to overcome each danger and difficulty as it arose. They have undertaken to perform with slow-moving oxen a journey of two thousand miles. The way lies over trackless wastes, wide and deep rivers, ragged and lofty mountains and is beset with hostile savages.  
Jesse Applegate, 1843

Gentlemen, they do say, that out in Oregon the pigs are running about under the great acorn trees, round and fat, and already cooked, with knives and forks sticking in them so that you can cut off a slice whenever you are hungry.  
Peter Hardeman Burnett, 1843

Then it may be asked why did such men peril everything, exposing their helpless families to the possibilities of massacre and starvation, braving death - and for what purpose? I am not quite certain that any rational answer will ever be given to that question. James Nesmith, 1843

What a hullabaloo the neighbors set up when Father said we were going to Oregon. They told him his family would be killed by Indians, or if we escaped the Indians we would starve to death, be drowned, or lost in the desert.  
Benjamin Bonney, 1845

These intrepid pioneers of civilization have formed the broadest, longest and most beautiful road in the whole world - from the United States to the Pacific Ocean.  

Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, 1851

I am very surprised to find such a well-beaten road as broad as 8 or 10 common roads in the States, and with a very little work could be made one of the most beautiful roads in the world.

Rebecca Ketcham, 1853

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