The Curious Case of Sarah Thomas' Tombstone
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- Опубліковано 2 лис 2023
- All that is recorded about Sarah Thomas is her date of death and her age at that time. These details were only preserved due to an inscription on her headstone, which reads: “SARAH A.THOMAS D. JUN 29 /54 AG. 22.” Fortunately, the curious narrative of the grave markers associated with Sarah Thomas found resolution when Randy Wise, the curator at the Lander Pioneer Museum, unearthed the original headstone from storage. Upon examination, it was confirmed that the inscriptions on the replica markers were an exact match to those on the original grave marker, which was inscribed and placed over Sarah Thomas's grave on June 29, 1854.
The Oregon-California Trails Association is the pre-eminent guardian and promoter of the inspirational story of the 19th century westward migration, which is unique in world history. Our mission is to protect the Historic Emigrant Trails legacy by promoting research, education, preservation activities and public awareness of the trails, and to work with others to promote these causes.
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#history #oregontrail #wyoming
I am the descendant of James W Ingram who brought the family to Oregon in 1852, he lost three children on the trip, Elva Ingram is buried in The Child's Cutoff, there is a marker there, I have not been there but plan to go this spring. I visited the grave of James this last fall, he is buried in Yachats Oregon.
Randy Brown , a noted OCTA member in Wyoming, installed the fence around her grave
@@octatrails Thank you for that information, , I recently retired and plan to travel the trail my ancestors traveled.
My tucker - Noland bunch came over in 1846, 1852,1853. My Dodson, Dawson group came in 1845-46, and 1847 respectively to the Willamette valley, homesteaded in Douglas, Josephine, Jackson and Yamhill, Washington county.
Insta or didn't happen lol jk
??@@marktravis793
Even though Sarah was deceased it must have been very very hard for her family to have moved on and to have left her lying behind and alone in such a desolate spot.
How true
More true than you know the very fact that somebody came to make sure shows that they never forgot her at least one cannot say the same about those who did not cross the United States during the 1849 Gold Rush and that went into the 1850's by the way they were told crossing through the area of Panama to get to the other side and taking a boat from the other side Pacific side to California would be quicker and less dangerous than going through the United States especially the desert and as someone who was a girl scout more than 40 years ago closer to 50 now walk the trail that those same families in people did to get to the Pacific side I can tell you from what I saw of their graves and the graves just literally line up along the path leading to the Pacific side I think it's called gold miners trail or something like that it's been 50 years ago so I don't know if I've got the name of the trail correct the point being though I can still remember all of those markers little flat stone markers that have the name date of death and age and then under it cause of death was you know it's a CD which meant cause of deathand it would have an initial YF was yellow fever some actually have the word spelled and some didn't and the saddest thing was when you saw a whole family that died and you had to ask yourself they took the time to write the name of every person they buried their along that path and trust me you couldn't walk through that entire trail without seeing the names of the Dead on the left or on the right side of the trail the trail itself was always kept clear and the reason that the gravestones such as they are they look a lot like Sarah's did except they're a little bit darker because the stones they used actually were easier to carve in and some of them actually from all the years of dirt and whatnot have actually managed to stay discolored enough that you can read their names... I remember asking as we were walking through their you know to get to the other side we were scouts and I remember asking as we were walking through their you know to get to the other side were we scouts we're supposed to meet up at the end of our journey and it's only one leg of it by the way we were little kids and they weren't going to take us the full journey, but I remember asking if any of their family ever came back to like fix the grave or fix the tombstones or whatnot and I was told no they never did and I said how could they not come back and was told that it was such a dangerous route and they had been lied to and were told it was far safer than crossing the United States in many ways it was for more dangerous because of the various fevers and illnesses that you could pick up cholera being the least of them all I remember asking how could they just forget about them and was told that they didn't forget you never forgot but to survive you remembered and that was all you could do. So there was no going back to fix a gravestone, like your museum people they often times went out to keep the grasses off the path and the trail because this was a now tourist event to show you know people travel it because they want to know how people did that way back when so they kept it up and many times if the stones were beginning to fade they would literally use a kind of metal paint I think it was and very carefully go over each engraved Stone in order so that the markings would be visible I remember asking how is that possible the only girl scout there that has so many questions, I was told that the you know how you scrape on a with a pencil on a piece of paper to see what was written there before they do that with apparently charcoal to get the markings from the original carving on the stones and the stones themselves were often picked because they could discolor easily and so you could read what was written there so they can go over that with some kind of special paint I think it was I don't remember it's been too long more than 50 years. Unlike your museum and others they never try to replace the stone they tried to keep it as best as they could I mean some of them were so hard to even see by that time that you could only briefly make out a name and maybe an age. One of the girls from my scout group actually hung back like I did to ask questions and when she found out what they did ask if she could take a paper and do that with one of the gravestone markers because you couldn't really read what was there and she got permission to do that and then she got very quiet and very sad because the gravestone that she had done that to was of a girl her own age and she had died of malaria. I saw our guide actually mark on a clipboard the information that she had gotten and where the location was on the trail so they could come back and fix the grave 🪦.
I am using voice to text from my comments so please understand they're not always very clear that last bit should have read gravestone but I was having a bit of a problem so he gave me grave and it showed me a picture of a stone and I could just about poke it and that's why it looks the way it does. When your hands don't work you do the next best thing.
I’m not so sure of that. In hard times, the heart adapts. They were probably very religious and may have simply consigned her to God’s care and continued with their lives.
I doubt that a very sentimental family would have undertaken this adventure to begin with.
Not for me to know.
We have a town here in Texas that was settled in the mid 1800’s because a child died on the trail and his/her (I can’t remember) mother couldn’t bear to leave him/her. So the family stayed and settled and the town of Southlake began. Where they buried the child is now the town cemetery and you can still see the very old marker under a tree.
For the sake of the unknown i feel sorry for the fools that felt it fine to dig her grave up for the sake of finding some odds & ends she may have been buried with is sick & to leave it as they did sacrilegious as hell i hope if there are spirits or ghosts i hope she found them & in some way make them pay for their indiscretions. Makes one wonder what goes on in the minds of thieves with no compassion. I have no doubt she at 22 was a wonderful young woman & no one deserves to be treated even in death as just an object to put on your mantle . Hope these fools will be haunted for the remainder of their miserable existences. All these folks that took this journey were brave as hell & none should of deserved what happened to young Sarah.
Very kind thoughts. Thank you
I like your thoughts.
I feel the same as yourself, and agree with every word you wrote 100%! Thank you so much for writing it!
I don’t know how to break it to you, but she was already gone
You are transferring feelings of someone who is alive (yourself) onto someone who is dead, and thus neither exists nor cares. It’s interesting to see people who wish peace for the dead while simultaneously wishing harm (albeit mild harm) on the living. Rather ironic.
My Granddad George Renner came across the trail in the late 1880's on the way to Oregon. They buried his young sister on the trail somewhere along the way in Wyoming. They marked her grave with an old wash pan. Years later my Granddad went back to see if he could find her but could not. Another little boy about his age was run over accidentally by his Dad's wagon and broke his leg. They set it as best they could and tied a rock to it and hung it out the back of their wagon. He got gangrene later and also died on the trail. At about 19 George thought there were too many people in Oregon and liked Wyoming, so trailed a band of sheep from the Williamette Valley and homesteaded on Gooseberry Creek south of Meeteetse. My Dad was the last of 13 kids and he had me when he was in his late 30's, and I am 62 now. I do remember my Granddad and my mom making a cake for his Birthday in his early 90's.🤠
That is a great family history!
What a story!
I've driven across many western states and I always think "here I am, covering 70 miles in an hour while pioneers on the trails might travel less than half that in a day".
Yes, I think 10 - 20 miles was a typical day for them
My mom’s family homesteaded in North Dakota. My great grandmother lost her parents when their wagon overturned in the Mississippi. Another person managed to grab her by her long braid and managed to pull her out.
Those were some tough people
Wow!
Randy impressed with you as a representative of the museum. Keep up the good work.
Thanks 👍Here is a link to the playlist where Randy has some additional stories ua-cam.com/play/PLxTzdgVbUd1t6fkaRYozszIEX2IqmpEjd.html
Depending on how the inscription was cut - it is written above as "D. Jun 29/54 Ag. 22" but in the program it is said to be inscribed "D. June 29, Age 22.54" - the age 22 being followed by the '54' says that she was 22 years and 54 days old when she died on Jun 29th. It would be more common to see "Age 22y, 54d" but, due to time constraints and available tools "Age 22.54" would suffice in getting the message across. If it does turn out to be her age, her birthdate could be calculated and that might assist in identifying and placing her within the framework of her family.
I agree, the museum guy is assuming it’s just referring to the year, but it could also be referring to the number of days beyond age 22.
It’s hard to imagine how one could be so callous as to dig up a grave and leave the remains scattered about.
Some people are truly worthless human beings. The Lord will remember their deeds.
Too bad people have disrespected that young woman’s grave. Being disinterred to having the original headstone removed. People in general just suck.
what a terrible attitude. 1 person did something wrong multiple people did the right thing after and for all the years before hand. "people" only suck if you fixate on the one wrong thing 1 person did they are kinda awesome if you consider all the right the others did and the care sarahs family had for her but ya know thats not the trendy people suck mindset of today.
@@dark1810 ok kiddo. 😁
@@dark1810 You'd be right, if it weren't for all the other evidence of how shitty people are.
If you don't believe me, look at how few comments sections aren't complete cesspools.
The further west you go in the US, the worse they get, then you reach the west coast, the worst.
What a beautiful story, and thank you for sharing. I find it amazing that so many of us are even here today when you consider all the adversity our ancestors encountered.
Thanks so much for watching. We hope you'll come back for more videos.
20 years ago, I did a photograpy project on the old cemetery in Ogden, Utah and discovered, in one corner, several small markers for people who had died on the way to Utah.
Do you remember the name of the cemetery?
I'd love to look these stones up on find a grave.
@@laurab1089 Ogden City cemetery..
Great story . I live in south east Wyoming and often ponder while working outside how many people crossed through here on thier journeys. Ive found artifacts in the dirt here just small things like rusted metal pieces of horse bridals and an old rusted horse shoe. This state is like a living mueum. My grandpa ,dad and mom would tell little stories when we were growing up like the Indian teepees along the platte river and migrating up from northern New Mexico to southern Colorado on horseback .
Thanks for sharing
These were daring and brave people. True pioneers. There's so many unknown and untold stories of survival and death from these travelers. Imagine, 22 years old dying on the trail towards a new life. Ill bet she was very loved. Alot of the roads today are built right on the old paths from these western migration routes. You could very well be driving every day past an unmarked grave which is now next to a telephone pole, or street sign. Think about that a little.
And what a disgusting shame, someone digging that young womans body up and leaving her out there like that. Unbelievable
Thanks for the comment
Sir. This is fascinating.
Thankyou.
Rotorua, New Zealand 🇳🇿
Thanks - I have been to your city
@@octatrails That's lovely to know.
I have also been to Rotorua (1993) and treasure a small Maori statue that I got there when I visited the Hot Springs. I also danced with Maori warriors during my visit - I loved NZ!!+!
The great Western migration and the Mormon Exodus are a wonderful part of American culture that I fear is being disregarded and forgotten as more recent generations come and go. Thank you very much for this short vignette. It’s a reminder of a glorious time.
Trying to keep history alive
In about 1996, a friend of mine was part of the Latter Day Saints 150 years re-enactment group. She walked the 1,010 miles. Many of them were pushing handcarts and of course they dressed according to the day. She said it was very hard (and they had back up support) but she would not have missed it for the world. Yes, there were accidents and people got sick but she didn’t mention any births along the way! Those pioneers were a tough and hardy lot.
What a great speaker .
Agree - Randy is wonderful to listen to
Oregon is a fascinating state. We have a long and rugged coastline, beautiful, bountiful rain forests and many rivers, a high desert, we have it all. And so many stories...
So many stories is true. This is a playlist with stores filmed in the Pacific Northwest ua-cam.com/play/PLxTzdgVbUd1vDkhgJs7Krm9qeJoxyofDL.html
…and looney leftists who are ruining it all.
Best state in my opinion ❤
Yep, Oregon was worth going to in the 1800s.
@@octatrails Awesome! Thank you! 🌹
One's mind reels at thoughts of this brave young woman, Sarah Thomas, (my wife was a Thomas), who she was, what she did, etc. And all the other thousands of striving pioneers who risked everything to travel cross country to new lives in the west.
Think of this when you're next sitting in your seat on a jet plane, doing the 'heroic' trek in a few short hours, rather than months of hardship... or an eternity...
Great comment. Appreciate your thoughts
I always have that exact thought any time I fly west.
Yea that's all fine and dandy till you find yourself on an airliner spinning our of control towards the ground, thing is when they wreck hundreds die as opposed to when a wagon would flip over resulting in the death of 3 of the 5 occupants, just ask the passengers that were on flight MH370, oh that's right you can't, not only are they all dead no one even really knows where it is they died.
They had their dangers they had to face back in their day and we have ours, difference is their dangers were more common but ours result in more death's, I've never heard of a 50 wagon pile up on the Oregon or any other trail in the old west but every month you hear about one in our world.
And.....relevance? This comment should not look to diminish this presentation. Seriously??? Two different times. Both painful..
My great aunt Dorothy's family was one of the last to come across the trail. They branched off to the Santiam Trail. Before they remade the trail. They drive a model t ford truck. She remembers how sad she was when she lost her doll
Great story. Are you an OCTA member?
I remember that old saying: "The cowards never started, the weak died on the way to the Oregon area..."😢
Tough life
2 of my grandparents came across on the Oregon, both where immigrants and they met and married in Spokane WA so I’ve often wondered about the ones who didn’t make. I knew about them hiding the graves but a lot of the other info was new to me. Thank you for that.
Love to hear those stories and agree that it is great to learn more. Are you in the Pacific Northwest?
@@octatrails I was born and raised in Spokane WA but have lived up and down the coast from Seattle to San Diego .
Excellent report. I came out of NorCal to Reno east on a cross country trip last March and I was amazed at the snowstorm I hit all the way across Wyoming. It took me 24 hours to get across! Even with the heater on I had to stop and buy some gloves cause my fingers were freezing up on the wheel. Hope it's not that bad this coming March.
Clicked on this on a lark. So glad I did. Very good presentation, very interesting. subscribed.
Welcome aboard!
Interesting documentary. Thank you. I have been to that part of WY. When I am there I gaze out over the South Pass area and try to imagine how quiet and lonely the trail must have been when traveling west in a wagon.
Thanks for that comment.
Are you, by any chance related to the girl who went misding, named Brown, in the rodeo murders?
I'm sorry if that sounds crass. I don't mean any disrespect. It was back in the 70's.
I love hearing about the history of the Oregon Trail and would love to visit it and some of the lonely graves.
It's heart breaking than anyone would disturb a grave.
I would imagine most of the people back then sold their valuables to be able to afford the trip.
I know the ancestor on my father's side had been charged with horse thief in France and escaped to Canada eventually migrating to America. The other jumped off a sailing vessel on the West Coast after being tossed off the ship by a wave, and the next wave putting him back on that ship! He was so moved by God's grace that he became a preacher when he got here! Thanks for the info, I have learned to love history so I don't repeat it!!
Very interesting. Water must have been a real problem for them. You realise how strong they had to be.
Absolutely resiliant people.
I remember from school being taught that they were not legally allowed to mark graves. I learned there was only one grave marked.
This is so fascinating!! So glad I discovered this channel! Can't wait to watch more, thank you for this amazing content.
Glad you enjoy it! Please share the content and make these stories more widely known.
Thank you for the story!
Thanks for listening
Thank you for sharing ❤
Thanks for watching!
Most of my ancestors came over from England in the 1600s (some on the Mayflower), then their descendants crossed the plains in the 1800s and settled in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Colorado, and California. Great Pioneer spirit!
My family came over on the Mayflower too.
I really enjoyed this. In researching my family history, I found that one of my dad's GGG-grandfathers traveled with his wife and family on the Oregon Trail in 1846. His name was Hugh Leeper Brown, originally from Knox County, Tennessee. He helped found the town of Brownsville, Oregon, and was a representative in the Oregon Territory Legislative Assembly from 1854-1857. None of the family passed away on the trail, but I find this type of video fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
The emigrant Trail
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Well told. Through and most interesting. Looking forward to more stories. 🇨🇦❤️
We're glad you enjoyed us. Be sure to comment on the other videos and let us know what you think.
Thanks for sharing this story.
Thanks for stopping by the channel. We hope you'll stick around for more content.
Thank you for sharing this story. So very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
fantastic information - keep it coming
Thanks for commenting and we hope you enjoy a lot more of our content.
Interesting story, Sarah Thomas is not forgotten! This is also my grandma's name!
I grew up inLander😊and my father took the family many times on the Oregon trail we seen lots of graves and locations that you could see where they would unload somethings to lighten the wagons loads 😕 thank you for sharing🎉
fascinating story, but also a sad story.
A great story and well told, thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it
The history of the human race is largely dictated along the lines of rulers and wars, and sadly the day-to-day lives of the very people who constituted the human race has often been given short shrift and as such so much has been forgotten and lost to the historical record. For instance: I happen to be a fan of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories. In one of the stories the author, Arthur Conan Doyle, mentions something called a "gasogene". Now I had absolutely no knowledge of what this was so I looked it up and it appears that it was a device to produce carbonated water in the late 1800s, which, thereby, introduced whiskey and SODA to the collection of alcoholic beverages. It was also the precursor to soft drinks by its carbonated water's addition to sarsaparilla. It occurred to me at that time that there were probably many such things that people in the past just took for granted, that everyone of those times knew, which are complete enigmas to us today.
This is why I feel that the work that organizations like Oregon-California Trails Association is doing is of incredible importance to the future awareness and understanding of America's historical past. In my opinion the _TRUE_ history of the human race is to be found in the details.
We agree and hope all reading this will consider joining our cause as active members. Learn more at www.octa-trails.org.
Fascinating. Thanks for this.
We're glad you enjoyed it
Thank you, Randy. I used to live in Fremont county in Lander. I cooked at a small restaurant.
Very cool!
Interesting. Thank you
Interesting video. Well done.
Thank you very much!
Sarah Thomas Died June 29, 1854...Probably too far from Westport, MO to South Pass, WY to have left in the Spring of 1854. Most likely "laid over" somewhere in the Greater South Pass - Casper country in the winter of '53-'54 and was just getting back on the trail and underway. I wouldn't put her any farther east than Ft. Laramie during the winter of '53-'54. As you probably know all too well, there is still snow in that country in June and not a lot of grass to fuel draft oxen on the road. Maybe she fell in love with a local. I would look for her in the early 1850's trains or in local resident records of 1853 more or less a little. Could have been LDS.
I was a member of OCTA from 1995 to about 2007. Most of my research was in NE Kansas.@@octatrails
That's a really good idea. It's quite possible that her father signed the register at Ft. Laramie during that winter.
Pretty much everyone who left Missouri in the spring made it to Oregon or California by September or October. Making it to South Pass by late June or early July was very common.
So young. So loved. Sad that none in her family recorded in a journal or letter what happened, or if any had, that nobody saved it.
Soo much history thank you
Well presented
Thank you, we hope you'll watch more of our videos.
My heart goes out to Sara Thomas: She was blessed to caring individuals. Her spirit will be proud. Often names are forgotten. Hers was not for all eternity.
We work hard to ensure these people are never forgotten. Consider joining our cause. Learn more at www.octa-trails.org.
Interesting. Thank you.
Thanks for watching! Hope you can share the OCTA UA-cam Channel with others who might appreciate it
when i worked for a tree service i saw an old marble headstone in a lady's backyard and asked her about it. She said she was digging in her garden and found it, was probably from an 1800s farm that disappeared and had a suburb develop on top of it. Crazy to think how many unmarked graves there are around us and we'd never know.
Some background on Sarah A. Thomas:
She was born Sarah Ann Campbell, daughter of Hiram Campbell and Catharine Denison, in Ohio about 1831. She was married to William A. Thomas in Linn, Iowa, in 1854. In the 1850 US Census she is found with her husband and her son John C. Thomas, living next door to her family. FamilySearch has some additional information, including the obituary of Sarah's husband William.
Thank you😊
You're welcome 😊
Fascinating...will check out your channel
Thank you
Welcome!
So interesting.
Correction:
They weren't immigrants. There was no U.S. State of Oregan at the time, they were in fact, settlers of a territory.
They were called emigrants because they were emigrating to a new country.
Thank you, I was just going to say that. Emigrant is different than immigrant@@octatrails
My husbands family signed in an immigration book of the Oregon Trail in Weston Oregon. Might there have been A Thompson family signature at the beginning of the trail or another stop?
If you are interested - I can put you in touch with some of the trail diary experts at OCTA. Let me know
Sarah , thank you for your sacrifice. Rest in peace.
Interesting!
Glad you think so!
You should check out the graves from by the Oregon Trail near John Day and the painted hills.
Great suggestion. We have a Northwest OCTA Chaper. Would you be interested in learning more about them?
Thank you.
Thank you for watching
There is another Pioneer Women's grave going over the pass at Mt. Hood Oregon along side the old Barlow Road. Of course the Barlow toll road was built in the 1840's from The Dalles to Oregon City so that emigrants had a choice, either float down the Columbia River on a wooden raft or take the toll road over the Cascades. Parts of the old Barlow road is accessible by 4x4 in certain times of the year. At least it was last time I traveled it.
A couple of books that I found interesting. First is by OCTA members Reg Duffin and Randy Brown that describes many of the marked graves. wsupress.wsu.edu/product/graves-and-sites-on-the-oregon-and-california-trails/ Second is an interesting history of the Trail in the Blue Mountains of Oregon www.amazon.com/Powerful-Rockey-Mountains-Oregon-Trail/dp/0962677213
I actually traversed both the Old Barlow toll Road and floated down the the Columbia River on a wooden raft. This was in the early 90's and I made it both times but it was really tough. Thankfully I saved my game right before I decided which path to take!
@@bad74maverick1 -- Well, rafting down the Columbia River is easy now considering all the dams built in the 1930's. There isn't any rapids left. So they let you go through the locks at each dam on the Columbia with a wooden raft??
@@ironcladranchandforge7292It's a joke. We all played the game titled Oregon Trail in grade school in the late 80s and early 90d lol.
@@whiskeymonk4085 -- Oh..... I never played that game. But then again, I grew up way before home computers and games. I thought he was serious about floating down the Columbia on a raft, 🤣. Thanks for letting me know!!
A bunch of my classmates in elementary school died of dysentery on the oregon trail
How? Tell us more please?
@@Henry_the_Frenchie Well, they ran out of food and couldn't shoot any bears
I came here as a legal emigrant in the 90's, I often think of the pioneers. They don't make people like that anymore, resilient, though, determined. I have the deepest admiration and respect for the first emigrants going west. They vested all they had, some paying the ultimate price of dying.
Honestly once you were on the trail there weren't many choices. Pretty much the same as migrants now:desperation pushes people on. It just is.
When I was growing up in Central America there is an area and it is called the gold miners trail I think we were told those of us who were from the girl scouts that we would see markers all along the path from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side there was no way to avoid going on the road there without seeing a gravestone sometimes a whole family's gravestone and sometimes just one single person's gravestone most of the time it was children, almost all the markers there I was told dated to 1849 around the time of the California Gold Rush the thing I said really interesting was they took the time and they wrote as best they could on the stone slabs and while you wouldn't expect it the natives actually respected it like Sarah Thomas they were young and it often said died of as if to explain why their body was there sometimes it would only have initials died of YF signifying yellow fever and various other illnesses but I remember that one because it was so simple, like most of the tombstones on the side there... The saddest thing when you think about it is this while the majority were childrennot all of them were infants or toddlers in a lot of cases some of them were teenagers and you would look at these gravestones and go does anybody up keep this place and you'd be told yes because tourists are taken through to be shown how the 49ers and others went from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side which led to them getting on a ship of the Pacific side and continuing their journey to California…but all I could think of was while the gravestones are kept clear and clean because of the fact they're kind of like a tourist attraction for anybody traveling along the path to go to the Pacific side and see what the 49ers and others had to go through to get to boats to take them to California all I could think of was how these people died and there really wasn't almost anyone that ever came back there no descendants no family you have to wonder what happened to the rest did they ever even come back to you know save their grave or even just to acknowledge that their ancestor was there.
My Grandmother was born on A Ranch in South Pass..in 1891 ....
God bless these brave folks 😊🙏
I live in an area that has markers every so often along the Interstates that tell that this was part of the Trail of Tears or a Civil War route. I often wonder how many were buried along these roads, and if we might be driving right over their lost and forgotten graves. It always makes me sad and I don't want to think about it, but I can't help it.
Just finished watching 1863 (a prequel to Yellowstone) and it left me depressed. I liked it but lord it was tragic.
Interesting stuff
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How terrible that someone dug up her body.
Very sad
Find a grave says
Sarah was the daughter of Hiram D. Campbell and Catharine Dennison. She married William Alexander Thomas on 15 September 1848 in Linn County, Iowa.
They had three sons, John Clark, Lee Dignis, and Louis K (who died in infancy).
Colorado had a similar grave destruction. The cemetery in the Nederland, Colorado in the eastern mountains. Someone in modern time cut the grave stones off and took them. We are not able to know those people buried there
My relatives came in the early 1800s. Does anybody know anything about the Starr family? My 4x GR GPA was Moses Starr, whom they left behind in Ohio when he was a baby.
Contact the OCTA office - they can help get you in touch with genealogy (816) 252-2276
Thank you Randy for a VERY interesting video. I have been 'exploring' the E. Mojave
Desert for over 50 years and there is a pioneer grave out in a very remote location. It is the grave of one Bonnie Keebler Harris. She was born in New York. She and her family were following the old Morman wagon road which followed the old Spanish Trail. She died on Dec. 24, 1872.. Her family buried her as deep as they could (very rocky area) and covered the grave with stones. They left a identification note in an old mason jar, telling who she was. The original jar is in the Mojave River Valley Museum in Barstow. A copy is still under a rock on the grave. Museum folks installed a permanent marker at the site. Anyone do a 'google' search and find info on this grave...........
That's great information to know. Thanks for sharing it! We also have a UA-cam video about the Old Spanish Trail in California. You can view it at ua-cam.com/video/6wylXFeW8yM/v-deo.html
Thanks Randy for the reply. I looked at your view and it brought back more memories, I did a 'field study' with Leo Lyman about 25 years ago. It was to follow/map the remains of the Morman wagon road from Emigrant Pass to Resting Springs. In places you could still see wagon wheel ruts in the stone. Brian Brown has been a personal friend of mine for over 30 years, so know that area well.. The water at Resting Springs is excellent and that spring produces about a million gallons/day!!! I used to know the owners of the ranch, but new people are there now.......@@octatrails
wow! so young. rip young lady
It’s astounding that pigs would dig up a grave and scatter the bones looking for trinkets.
Unfortunate. We can thank some wonderful people in Lander, Wyoming for working to do the right thing and preserve her grave.
My 4-greats grandfather and his son (my 3-greats grandfather) died, 4 days apart, of cholera on the trail. Even sadder, if true, is the story that the younger guy was not actually traveling West…but had ridden to catch up with the wagon train to tell his father about the two new grandchildren born back in Missouri.
Brave folks ❤
According to family stories, my great-great-great-grandmother took her three kids and bought an oxen team and wagon and left her husband and came west. At some point, the oxen were thirsty and bolted for water. Unfortunately before they could be stopped, they found themselves in a hot spring and they scalded their hooves. The wagon members said she should bust up her belongings between the wagons with room, kill the oxen and spread out the kids between families. She said NO! GO! Leave me here. She knew the natives would probably leave them alone because they would think she was crazy. It worked. Some days later, when the oxen's hooves had healed she got the moving by dangling her biscuits on a stick in front of them. They all made it to California. No natives bothered them.
Why in the world would you condone removing that marker from the grave?
The tombstone was removed by grave robbers. A local historian not only saved the original tombstone from further degradation, he also lovingly replaced it with a more modern and more legible stone. It is not uncommon in even well-kept modern cemeteries for stones to be replaced when old ones become weathered, damaged, or vandalized.
Can anyone figure out what the stone at 9:41 says under the horizontal line?
Circle of life
It happens no matter if you stayed home on a farm or left.
Re: getting run over by a wagon. How easy could that be? It just seems so unlikely. Were people walking along beside a moving wagon and just fell or what? Thank you for this presentation - you present very well!!
Sometimes people would ride between the oxen and slip and get ran over. Here's perhaps one of the more famous incidences: octa-trails.org/people-places/joel-hembree/
You do not understand how getting run over by a wagon occurred? What typically happened is that the wagon wheel became lodged in a rut or a hole and the oxen had trouble pulling the wagon out. Or they were going up a hill or incline. In any case, at that point people helped to push the wagon and if for some reason it rolled back it rolled onto their foot or leg or even them. It was that easy. Think of being in the wilderness back then? No doctor, no pain medication, no antibiotics, absolutely nothing, not even alcohol to drink. Those folks were brave and very tough. Even the women who gave birth were tough because they gave birth without any doctors and pain medication or knowing if they were going to develop fever afterwards. Babies and children were not inoculated or vaccinated. Can you just imagine how difficult it was? And at fetid poisoned water to the mix and you have a perfect recipe for sickness and death. I am surprised many made it at all. God bless Sara Thomas and all of the people who died on their trips to something better for themselves and their families.
Is the picture of the 3rd stone a photo negative reverse or did they actually write out letters backwards?
That is actually they way they were written.
@@octatrails Thanks. But I can't hardly think in the 60's they didn't know how to write an "S" so that it wasn't backwards?
I’m wondering the same thing. The 1960’s wasn’t a time of hand-carving sloppy grave stones.
@@heard3879 exactly!
What a difficult trip. Imagine trying to cross the Mississippi River.. if they came from the east they had to. Talk about an almost impossible task..
0:38 I could not imagine going there and thinking I was going anywhere....
But then again I have been in Wyoming.
No offense to this channel is really pretty interesting and thanks for your good work.
But I couldn't imagine....
Glad you're enjoying the channel!
Today, one could probably ID Sarah Thomas using DNA. It would be most interesting.
Yes - that is an interesting thought
I didn't realize that the death rate was so high on that rugged journey.
It is estimated that between 1840 and 1860, Native Americans killed 362 emigrants, and emigrants
killed 426 Indians. It is also estimated that less than 200 emigrants died from firearms accidents in that time frame. Of these "accidents"- only a handful (about 20) have ANY documentation.
Glad people took care of her grave.
The headstone was recovered and replaced after vandals and grave robbers violated the grave over 100 years ago. A local rancher reburied her remains, and the grave site is respected and protected today. You could always track down those responsible and raise the issue with them.
@@octatrails I didn't watch the whole video until after I made the comment, sorry.
@@octatrails Didn't watch all the video before I commented, sorry
I live in Scio Oregon.
Any pioneer ancestors?
“Gary has died from dysentery”, if you know, you know.
A grave every half-mile doesn't work out to 50,000. It should in reality be more like 25 grave/mile!, Say, a grave every 200 ft! Of course, some sections much lower (close to jumping-off), some sections much higher. I just read the reminiscences of a 49er's trip and experiences, _very_ interesting. I'll try to find a reference. I believe he absolutely lambasted the Seminoe cutoff.
@7:14 - - translation of the stone ....
Why would someone dig up a grave ?
Makes you wonder doesn't it?
Unless they're going to have genealogical dna done, I see no viable reason.
Maybe animals
Guess I answered that too soon in video. Apologies
In the East n French n Indian war General Braddock was killed n he was originally buried in the road n later mover