EARLY DAY STORIES. 15 



At the beginning of the year 1852, I was living near 

 Flint, Genesee county, Mich., where I had lived since early 

 boyhood — had never been anywhere else since I was a small 

 child, and had no knowledge of any other place or country 

 except from reading and from listening to the talk of 

 others. At that time I was teaching a country school — the 

 first I had ever taught, a four months' term, for twelve 

 dollars per month, and ''board round." My cousin, Wesley 

 G. Conant, about three years my senior, but also my chum 

 and companion, was working in a cooper shop, making 

 flour and pork barrels. We got the Oregon fever, and de- 

 termined to start, as soon as my school closed in the spring, 

 on the overland journey to Oregon. About the middle of 

 April, 1852, we were ready. Our outfit consisted of a pony, 

 valued at $30.00, our clothing, a rifle apiece, two or three 

 pairs of blankets, a little tent just big enough for two to 

 sleep under, a pack saddle, a big pair of canvas saddle bags, 

 each side holding about a bushel, and between us a hundred 

 dollars in money. My cousin had saved up fifty-five dol- 

 lars at his trade, and when my school was out I received 

 a district order for my whole wages, for forty-eight dollars 

 for the four months work. There was no money on hand 

 in the district and I sold the order for forty-five dollars in 

 cash. 



Packing our clothing and a few small articles in the 

 saddle bags, and placing this and all our other equipage 

 on the back of the pony, we started for the Great West, 

 on foot, leading the horse by the bridle. We were young, 

 strong, well and happy. I would like to do it again. 



Going in a southwest direction we passed through such 

 towns as Ann Arbor, Coldwater, Burr Oak and Sturgi<=;. 

 Mich., Elkhart, South Bend and Michigan City, Ind., and 

 Joliet and Ottawa, 111., leaving Chicago about thirty miles 

 to the north of our course, and arriving early in May at 



