The Cabvans
The town of Franklin, in Howard County, Missouri, was opposite the present
City of Boonville. In 1828, the entire site of the town was washed into
the Missouri River. It was the cradle of the Santa Fe trade, and for some
years it was the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail. As population
spread to the westward other towns were established along the Missouri
River and the headquarters of the trade followed the population. When the
Trail was surveyed, in 1825, Fort Osage, on the Missouri, at Sibley, was
made the starting-point. Independence, Missouri, was laid out in 1827, and
it was soon the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. Other Missouri towns
engaged in the Santa Fe trade, and even the towns of Northwest Arkansas.
All these towns opened roads to the Santa Fe Trail. That is why old roads
as far south as Fayetteville, Arkansas, are known locally to this day as
the Santa Fe Trail. The roads all entered the real Santa Fe Trail east of
Council Grove, and most of them came into it east of the present town of
Baldwin, in Douglas County, Kansas. One of these trails, known locally as
the California Road came out of Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas
through the present Fort Scott, Kansas. It passed through what are now
Miami and Franklin Counties, Kansas, crossing the Pottawatomie at the
present town of Lane. That was Dutch Henry's Crossing, where John Brown
and his men slew the Border-Ruffians in the old border wars. This main
California Road had other and lesser "California Roads" coming into it.
This statement of the different "Santa Fe Trails" and "California Roads"
is intended to explain the confusion which often resulted when strangers
passed over the country, in early days. In their letters the Santa Fe
Trail may be spoken of as having been in Southwest Missouri, or even as
leaving Fort Smith. In such instances it is always the local road of that
name which was meant.
The business of outfitting traders made Independence a thriving town.
There were dealers in wagons, flour, bacon, oxen, mules, guns, ammunition,
ropes, chains and all kinds of hardware, and of the groceries of those
days, including whiskey. In the spring when the caravans were getting
under way the town presented a busy appearance; and there was almost as
stirring times, when, after having completed the tour of the Plains, they
drove into the great public square upon their return.
The supplies for one person from Independence to Santa Fe consisted
usually of fifty pounds of flour, fifty pounds of bacon, ten pounds of
coffee, twenty pounds of sugar, some beans, and some salt. Each man
carried a gun, usually a Hawkins rifle, made at St. Louis, and a supply of
powder and lead.
The wagons first used in the Santa Fe trade were such as could be obtained
at the local towns in Missouri. Some of them were made, no doubt, by local
mechanics. As the trade assumed volume the necessity for uniform and
strong wagons attracted the attention of manufacturers. Those in use when
the trade was at full tide, and even after, were made at Pittsburg, Pa.
The pioneer wagon first used had the high curved bed, but those used later
had but a slightly curved bed,—only enough to hold the bales and boxes
from sliding in going up or down hills or grades. All the wagons had
covers of heavy cloth stretched upon bows fixed over the wagon-beds. The
device for locking or "putting on brakes" in descending steep places
consisted of a chain attached to each side of the bed with which to
"chain" or "lock" the hind-wheels. There was a multiplicity of chains used
about the equipment of these wagons, the rattling and clanking of which
could be heard at considerable distance.
In the beginning of the trade the merchandise was carried on pack-horses.
The first wagons used were drawn by mules. After the escort of 1829, when
Major Riley used oxen to draw his baggage wagons, oxen came to be used as
much as mules. They drew heavier loads, but did not bear the trip so well
after the country of the buffalo grass was reached. The continual
traveling of the oxen over a grass-covered country were their hoofs smooth
and tender, making it difficult for them to travel in the latter stages of
the journey. In that day few knew how to properly shoe oxen with iron, and
they were sometimes shod with raw buffalo-skin—often an excellent
makeshift.
As the trade was conducted through the Indian country, and, from the
Arkansas River, through a foreign country as well, it was necessary for
the wagons to form a single body or caravan. This organization was
effected at the Council Grove, now the town of Council Grove, Kansas. Any
early arrivals there awaited the coming of the others. The time was spent
in resting and grazing the animals, in the final overhauling of the
lading, in the repair of harness, yokes, and wagons, and cutting and
preparing timbers to be used in case a breakdown should occur on the road
beyond. For there was no substantial timber to be had after passing that
point.
When the traders had all arrived at Council Grove a meeting was held for
the purpose of effecting a quasi-military organization for the remainder
of the journey to Santa Fe. There was elected a Captain of the Caravan,
whose duty it was to direct the order of travel and select the
camping-places. The caravan was separated into divisions, the number
depending on its size. For each division a lieutenant was selected. His
duties were to ride in advance and inspect the road and the crossings, to
look out for bad points on the trail and give notice of the same, and to
superintend the forming of the encampments at night. The encampment was
formed by parking the wagons and making an enclosure. The first wagon was
halted at an angle. The second wagon was driven by it to the same angle,
halting with its "near" hind wheel against the "off" front-wheel of the
first wagon. This process was continued until the enclosure was completed.
It was sometimes in the form of a square—one division to each side if the
caravan was composed of four divisions. But it was as often in a circle or
an oval. The wheels were frequently chained and locked solidly together.
Thus was constructed a sort of temporary fort or stockade. In case of
attack it afforded a defense, and the animals were sometimes driven into
it. The encampment was made where wood and water were to be had, if
possible,—and where the grass was sufficient for the animals of the
caravan. Guards were always set at night, and every man was expected to
take his turn at guard-duty. Sometimes a second lieutenant was elected for
each division, as well as a chaplain, and court, composed of three
members, for the caravan.
The teamsters, or drivers, became expert in their duties. The wagons were
usually drawn by eight mules or the same number of oxen—four spans of
mules, or four yoke of oxen. The driver of a mule-team rode the "near"
wheel mule—that is, the mule on the left-hand side of the span hitched
next to the wheels of the wagons. He carried a heavy leather whip with a
short flexible handle, and he held in his hands lines for the guidance of
the spans of mules hitched ahead of him. The driver of an ox-team walked
on the left-hand side of his team. He did not use lines to guide his oxen,
but depended on his commands, delivered in a loud voice, and reinforced by
a long plaited leather whip having a handle or staff of such length as he
might choose, usually a little better than four feet. This staff was made
of second-growth hickory, tough and flexible, tapering from a heavy butt
to the diameter of half an inch at the end where the whip was attached.
This whip was always pointed with a buckskin "cracker" fifteen inches in
length. It was a cruel implement, but the good driver rarely struck an ox
with the full force of it. In the hands of an expert it would lay open the
side of an ox for several inches at each stroke. Many teamsters boasted of
having driven to Santa Fe and return without "cutting the blood" from any
ox on his team. The ox is an intelligent animal, and he soon knew whether
he or the teamster was to be master. If he had a poor driver he would "lag
in the yoke" and not pull his part of the load unless closely watched and
sometimes punished. On the other hand, if he recognized in his driver a
master, he "pulled up in the yoke" and did his part. The Americans always
yoked their oxen by attaching the yoke by a bow around the neck. This
method enabled the ox to throw his whole weight and all his strength
against the yoke pulling his load instead of having to push it when the
yoke was bound upon his horns, as was the Spanish and Mexican custom.
The whip used for driving oxen in America had not been entirely neglected
in literature. In that masterpiece of Ingalls—Blue Grass—there is a
crucifixion of the Border-Ruffians of Missouri, the redemption of whose
country he submits a plan for:
Seed the country down to blue grass and the reformation would begin. Such
a change must be gradual. One generation would not witness it, but three
would see it accomplished. The first symptom would be an undefined
uneasiness along the creeks, in the rotten eruption of cottonwood hovels
near the grist mill and the blacksmith's shop at the fork of the roads,
followed by a "toting" of plunder into the "bow-dark" wagon and an exodus
for "outwest." A sore-back mule geared to a spavined sorrel, or a dwarfish
yoke of stunted steers, drag the creaking wain along the muddy roads,
accelerated by the long-drawn "Whoo-hoop-a-Haw-aw-aw" of "Dad" in
butternut-colored homespun, as he walks beside, cracking a black-snake
with a detonation like a Derringer.
Gregg compiled a table showing the extent of the Santa Fe trade for a
number of years. It is the best authority on the subject and is appended:
| Years | 1822 | 1823 | 1824 | 1825 | 1826 | 1827 | 1828 | 1829 | 1830 | 1831 | 1832 |
| Amt | 15000 | 12000 | 23000 | 65000 | 90000 | 55000 | 150000 | 60000 | 12000 | 25000 | 149000 |
| Wagons | 26 | 37 | 60 | 55 | 100 | 30 | 70 | 130 | 70 | ||
| Man | 70 | 50 | 100 | 130 | 100 | 90 | 200 | 30 | 140 | 390 | 150 |
| Pros | 60 | 30 | 80 | 90 | 70 | 50 | 80 | 20 | 60 | 30 | 40 |
| T'n to Cha | 9000 | 3000 | 3000 | 5000 | 7000 | 8000 | 20000 | 5000 | 20000 | 80000 | 60000 |
| Remarks | Pack Animals Used | Pack Animals used | Pack Animals and wagons | Pack Animals and wagons | 3Wagons only henceforth. | 3 men killed, being the first | 1st U. S. Fed., 1 trader killed. | First oxen used by traders. | Two men killed. | Party defeated on Canadian. |
| Years | 1833 | 1834 | 1835 | 1836 | 1837 | 1838 | 1839 | 1840 | 1841 | 1842 | 1843 |
| Amt | 18000 | 150000 | 140000 | 18000 | 15000 | 90000 | 25000 | 50000 | 150000 | 160000 | 15000 |
| Wagons | 105 | 80 | 73 | 70 | 80 | 50 | 130 | 30 | 60 | 70 | 200 |
| Man | 185 | 100 | 140 | 135 | 160 | 100 | 230 | 60 | 100 | 120 | 220 |
| Pros | 66 | 30 | 40 | 35 | 35 | 20 | 40 | 5 | 12 | 15 | 30 |
| T'n to Cha | 80000 | 70000 | 70000 | 50000 | 60000 | 80000 | 10000 | 10000 | 80000 | 90000 | 390000 |
| Remark | 2 men killed. 3 perished | 2nd U. S. Escort. | Arkansas Expedition | Chihuahua Expedition | Texan Santa Fe Expedition. | 3d U. S. Ex.—Purts closed |
