Describe the life of a pioneer family during the 1850's.?

Answer 1

Isolated from others. Usually families lived in a fort-like encampment to help keep out indians and wild animals. Planted small kitchen gardens but staples had to be brought in from long distances. Didn't have much in the way of sugar so they used honey they found in trees for sweetening (if they were lucky enough to find any). Had to live by running water because they had no electricity, no inside plumbing and had to build their houses out of whatever was available at the site. The men went out in groups to hunt for meat. The others stayed behind to stay safe.

They got all the men together to form a company of soldiers to join in the fighting in the Civil War.

Answer 2

No Internet. No computers. No TV or radio. You ride in an open wagon behind your horse and he farts. Worse yet when he goes, you get the full view.

When you have to go in the winter you run through the snow and cold and blowing freezing wind to the outhouse only to find, it occupied.

You want chicken for dinner you go out to the barn and kill one.

You need to worry about Indians being pissed at you for taking their land.

No thermostats. You want heat you start the fire.

There were no vacations.

This new thing called the rail road had a train on it that could reach 41 miles per hour.

I'll take 2007 thank you.

Answer 3

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/events/1850_1860.htm
http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE52&NewItemID=True

For this last link you need access to
FACTS ON FILE -- AMERICAN HISTORY ONLINE. You can access through your public library database (or college library database). The last link looks especially good. It even has essays during this time period that you are looking for:

"Before 1841, most American settlers arrived in California by sea; in the 1840s most followed the overland route. Settlers attracted to California by handbills and promoters after 1841 differed considerably from those who had arrived earlier. The overland travelers came mainly from the Mississippi Valley. They were attracted to the interior valleys rather than the coastal areas, and were interested in agriculture rather than commerce."

The first overland group consisted of 54 men, five women and 10 children. They had 14 sturdy wagons and a sizable herd of horses, mules and oxen. Not one of the entire group knew which way to travel, except westward. Fortunately, during the early stages of their trip, they fell in with Thomas Fitzpatrick, the well-known trapper, who was guiding Father De Smet on his expedition to establish a mission for the Flathead Indians in Montana's Bitterroot Valley.

The party followed the route taken by fur trappers to the Platte River, Fort Laramie, Independence Rock and the Sweetwater River to the Rockies, through the South Pass, and the Green River Valley to Soda Springs near present-day Pocatello, Idaho. Fitzpatrick was unfamiliar with the Mexican province, and preferred to take the known route to the Columbia rather than the unknown trail to California. The parties separated where the north-flowing Bear River drops south toward the Great Salt Lake. Fitzpatrick and De Smet followed the trail toward Oregon with 32 emigrants, while John Bidwell led the others, including one woman and her baby, on toward their original destination, the California valleys.

"When the emigrants reached the desert that Jedediah Smith and Joseph Walker had once crossed, they plunged into the unknown, abandoning their wagons in favor of pack animals to gain time. On September 23, 1841, they arrived at the Humboldt River, which they followed to the Sink. A month later they came to the Walker River, where some members proposed a return to Fort Hall before the winter snows began, but the question was put to a vote and the majority favored pressing on. Near the end of October, with their supply of beef exhausted and surrounded by impassable mountains, the emigrants despaired of ever reaching California. But they soon discovered a westward-flowing river, the Stanislaus, which they followed to the Sonora Pass. When the weary emigrants arrived in the San Joaquin Valley, some thought California must still be 500 miles away. However, with the aid of an Indian guide they arrived at the ranch of Dr. John Marsh, near Mount Diablo, on November 4, 1841. After a journey of six months, the first overland migration to California was achieved."

Answer 4

Well, they're NOT on the internet...