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CHAPTER 1
Isaac Lathrop Tobey Two Letters from the California Trail, 1850
ISAAC LATHROP TOBEY was born to John Williams Tobey (1785–1859) and Sybil Lathrop Tobey (1785–1849) on October 2, 1816, in Cummington, Massachusetts. Virtually no records exist to trace his childhood except to indicate that he had one sister, Ann Borodell, and four brothers, Charles Hubbard, Joshua William, Samuel, and John Williams Jr. Isaac graduated from Albany Medical College in the class of 1841, and in all subsequent censuses he listed himself as "physician," even while engaged in other economic enterprises.
On August 10, 1841, twenty-four-year-old Isaac married Lomina Griswold, of nearby Buckland, Massachusetts. Together they had two children: Sybil Adelia (1842–1922), who became a teacher, and Edwin L. (1844–1914). Isaac seemed to have a restless spirit, for by 1846, census records and newspaper articles indicate that he had relocated to Jackson, Michigan. His move westward was not particularly mysterious during that age of great American mobility, but his future relationship with his family was forever determined by that action. He took neither his wife nor children to Michigan; indeed, his wife and daughter remained in Massachusetts throughout the remainder of their lives.
During his three years in Jackson, Isaac worked as a physician while simultaneously engaged in local politics. In 1846 he served as a delegate to the county Democratic convention, and two years later he led the local "radical Democrats" in their effort to defeat the presidential bid of Lewis Cass.
Like so many young midwestern men, Isaac Tobey succumbed to gold fever, and he set out for California on April 9, 1850, without the company of any other family members. The two letters reprinted and edited here were written to the Jackson American Citizen, with the intent that they would be published for circulation among the author's Michigan friends. Their contents prove that Tobey was a keen observer of conditions along the California Trail, and that his aim was not only to describe events in an interesting way but also to provide useful information to other people who might undertake the cross-country trip. This practical advice included what items to take and in what quantities, how to negotiate troublesome river crossings, how to deal with various Indian groups, how to protect and graze livestock, how to handle stampedes, and how to prevent social unrest in a wagon train. He also made a good case for following his chosen route from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City via the Mormon Trail and finishing the journey via the Humboldt and Carson rivers to the town of El Dorado, California, which he reached somewhat late in the season on November 15.
Tobey also gave his readers an honest appraisal of conditions in the goldfields, one that emphasized relentless hard work, deplorable living conditions, high prices demanded for routine supplies, and the difficulties of merely breaking even in the Mother Lode country. He promised a third letter to the editor of the American Citizen, but it was never published. Perhaps Tobey did not write it because he was suffering intermittent health problems or because he had little good news to report. Likely, his medical knowledge helped supplement his income when prospecting failed to provide an adequate financial return.
At some point in the early 1860s, Isaac Tobey left California and relocated to the newly established community of Pinkney City, Washington, soon renamed Fort Colville for the nearby army post. Perhaps he was directed there by the 1855–59 Fort Colville gold strikes, the first northeastern Washington mining boom following the California gold rush. To make ends meet, he continued his medical service, but local records indicated that he also briefly owned a hotel. In 1863 he was elected territorial representative from Stevens County, though he resigned the following year because of the financial burden of office holding. Before his departure, however, he promoted a bill to impose a $1.50 monthly tax on all Chinese residents of the state. The bill passed the legislature during the following year on the questionable premise that it would protect the wages of white workers from cheaper Chinese labor.
Isaac Tobey briefly served as assistant surgeon to troops stationed at Fort Harney, Oregon, during 1867, while military operations commenced against Northern Paiute bands in eastern Oregon. Census records for 1870 indicate that he was living in Clark County, Washington, and two years later his residence was identified as Vancouver, Washington. In both cases his occupation was identified as "physician."
Isaac's son, Edwin, had remained in Massachusetts with his mother and unmarried sister throughout the 1850s, and he had served as a private in the 34th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War. At some point between 1872 and 1880, he moved to California. Like his father, Edwin left his wife (Charlotte Ann Burnham) and two daughters (Celia Lomina and Flora Belle) in Massachusetts and apparently never reunited with them. Edwin died at a veteran's home in Napa County, California, on March 16, 1914.
Isaac Lathrop Tobey died in April 1874 in Shasta County, California. His wife, Lomina Griswold Tobey, had died in Buckland, Massachusetts, four years earlier, separated from her husband all those years by the full span of the North American continent.
Information on Isaac Tobey's Michigan political and social activities is reprinted in "Michigan vs. Cass," Newbern Advocate (New Bern, N.C.), September 5, 1848, 1. Confirmation of his medical degree appears in Catalogue and Circular of the Albany Medical College, Spring Term, 1855 (Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1855), 6. Brief coverage of his business ventures at Fort Colville is documented in "Colville Items," Daily Mountaineer (Dalles, Ore.), May 29, 1866, 1; and "A Post Office Is Established at Pinkney City," at www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=911 7 (accessed July 5, 2014). His political activities in Washington State are examined more extensively in An Illustrated History of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan Counties, State of Washington (N.p.: Western Historical Publishing, 1904), 166; Thomas W. Prosch, "The Evolution of Spokane and Stevens Counties," Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 5 (March 1904): 29–31; and Nelson Wayne Durham, History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington (Spokane: S. J. Clarke, 1912), 268–74.
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ISAAC LATHROP TOBEY, "LETTER FROM DR. TOBEY," LETTER DATED JUNE 12TH, 1850. THE AMERICAN CITIZEN (JACKSON, MICHIGAN), NOVEMBER 13, 1850 LETTER FROM DR. TOBEY
The following letter has been handed to us with a request that it might be published. We lay it before our readers entire. Dr. Tob[e]y has many warm friends here who will be happy to hear that he is well, as also are those of our citizens who went with him. — ED.
FORT LARAMIE, JUNE 12TH, 1850.
My Dear Sir: Agreeably to my promise, I proceed to give you something of a history of my journey from Jackson [Michigan] to this place, although it will not be as full as I could wish, for I desire to give you all of the information sought before I left home in April last. Our team is back how far I know not. I left it 4 days ago two hundred miles back, and came on here to this military post, making 50 miles per day with but a single blanket and a little provision, sleeping on the ground alone nights, for the sole purpose of writing to my family and yourself. Nothing disturbed me but the howling of wild beasts, from reposing soundly, wrapt up in my blanket, armed with my rifle and a pair of revolvers.
You know that I left home on the evening of the 9th of April last. The weather previous to this time indicated an early Spring, but at or about this time a second winter seemed almost to commence, it being so cold. We passed on travelling through Kalamazoo [Michigan], Constantine [Michigan], Laporte [La Porte, Indiana], and Joliett [Joliet, Illinois], down to Peru [Illinois] without stopping. — Thier Carr [Solomon Thayer Carr] and myself came up with the rest of the company, all in good health and fine spirits. The road over which we passed was most excellent. Many days we drove our horses as far as 40 miles. Owing to the season being so backward, we did not think it best to go by the way of St. Louis to St. Joseph. We therefore left the second day after our arrival at Peru, for Council Bluffs, passing through Cambridge [Illinois] and crossing the Mississippi River at Black Island, distance from Peru, as near as I can recollect (for my journal is back with the waggon,) is about 150 miles. Here we purchased the main part of our supplies, which consisted mostly of flour and smoked meat, rice, sugar, &c. You cannot carry pickled pork through this country; no one takes it. Here we also purchased about 40 bushels of corn for our horses, so that our horses had about all they could draw on our wagons. From Iowa City to the Bluff, or Kanesville, is upwards of 300 miles. The road all of the way from the Mississippi river to the Missouri river is bad, full of deep and many times wide sloughs; with our loads we could not make over 25 miles per day. Wagons would sink many times in crossing these sloughs down to the box. Then we would unload all our corn and provisions and lift our waggons out by the strength and help of men. But we got through without meeting with any serious accident. Owing to the season, vegetation being so backward, we stopped about one week at Trader's Point. Above the Point, about six miles is situated the Mormon recruiting station before leaving for the Salt Lake called Kanesville. Here you can get everything you need on the route to California by paying a very high price for it. I will give you a list of prices of a few articles. Corn $2,50 to $3,00. Oats about from 12s. [cents] to 16s. per bushel; shoeing a pair of horses $5. All kinds of groceries are high; rice 10 to 12 cts; white beans $4 per bushel; flour $12,00 per barrel. Horses, waggons, harnesses, are very high.
We crossed the Missouri river the 17th of May. It is a bad river to cross, it being so very rapid; passed the Elk Horn the next day by ferrying just as the sun went down. Distance 28 miles. This river is filled with Cat-fish; we caught some very nice ones in the evening. The next important river that we passed, was the Loup Fork of the Platte; we also passed this river by ferrying. It is a bad and dangerous river to cross. Got our horses across by swimming, all safely. — In ferrying our wagons we had to stand in the water for hours up to our waists, dragging and hauling the boat from one shore to another. — The road from the Point or Bluff to this place is the smoothest and best that I ever saw, with the exception of one or two spots. One of them is about 15 or 16 miles from the Missouri river. — At this place we had to lock the wheels and hitch a cable to the hind axletree of the wagons, in order to let them down safely. The next night after passing the Loup Fork of the Platte River we witnessed the most severe thunder storm that I ever saw. Hail stones fell nearly as large as hen's eggs. The wind was so strong that it took our tent down and tore the canvass completely off of many of our wagons. The rain fell in perfect torrents. The thunder and lightning was most awful. Many horses broke loose, but were secured in the morning. We pass on the south side of the Loup about 50 miles, and then turn south over a ridge or bluff of barren sand hills, to the main Platte. The distance of the Loup Fork from the Missouri river is 86 miles. In passing up the south side of the Loup Fork the road is most splendid; equal nearly to any MacAdamized [a special paving process using small stones and tar] in the United States. The distance over the sand hills to the main Platte is 16 miles, and no water usually fit for man or beast. These hills are hard on teams. The sand on the hills is filled with lizards and Prairie Rattlesnakes. — (The prairie rattlesnake is about 15 or 16 inches long.) These sand hills continue west to the Rocky Mountains. Between there are ravines where grass grows plentifully. On these hills there are thousands of Antelope, Deer, Elk, Buffalo, and other game. I have traveled on them, on foot and horseback, a distance of more than 200 miles. I have killed buffalo, antelope and deer enough to furnish a family with meat for 2 years. I killed one buffalo which would weigh, I should think, when dressed, 2,000 lbs. The road by the main Platte for the first 200 miles is good, better in my opinion than any road in the United States of an equal distance. The last 200 miles, or nearly so, before reaching this post [Fort Laramie], the road is not quite as good; owing to the crossing in spots of sand hills, where they run close to the river. The bottom land, as we usually call it, is covered with all kinds of grass, with the exception of Herd's [herd's-grass is especially valuable for haying and pasturing of livestock] and Clover. It extends in width from the banks of the river from one to 12 miles, and looks like an old meadow never grazed by cattle, and kept exclusively to be mown by the scythe. As for timber along the line of the road for the last 500 miles I may in truth say there is none. For 200 miles there is just one lone and solitary tree. Not even a shrub on this side of the Platte can be seen. For fuel we use in our train "Buffalo chips." Here at this military post [Fort Laramie], we cross the Main Platte. Government placed a ferry boat here for the benefit of emigrants; but night before last it broke away and is lost. The river there is very rapid; it is too high to ford. It is surely the most dangerous stream to pass that I have yet seen. A number of men have lost their lives within a few days. Last year, I am informed by the officers of the Fort, 37 men were drowned here in getting across upon the south side. The only way left us is to cross by making boats of wagon boxes. Many have crossed their provisions and things in this way to-day. Now whilst I am writing within the sound of my voice, at 11 o'clock in the night, a boat made of wagon boxes has sunk in the middle of the river, and one man has gone to his long home. The river is rapid. Below this point there are many natural curiosities. — Chimney Rock and Chimney Bluff [Scott's Bluff] are both great natural curiosities, but I have not time to even give you a general idea of them. Many of these bluffs looked more like some old and ancient castles than anything else. From this Post the Rocky Mountains are in sight, or rather some of the peaks which belong to them. Snow may be seen upon them 80 miles distant. Here too, you begin to see the Black Hills, so named, I suppose, from their general appearance. One thing back upon the plains which I have passed over is worthy of notice, which I never have seen mentioned by any writer. It is the vast amount of Potash upon the top of the ground. The earth in spots is encrusted with it to the depth of nearly an inch. I think it is the Nitrate of Potash mixed with something else. I have nothing with me to ascertain what it is. — The water in these places has a very sweet taste, and vomit and purge severely, having all the effect upon the system, that the Nitrate of Potash has. Good water is scarce along the Platte upon the north side, and I presume it is about the same upon the south. You can generally find water to give to horses at short distances. It is no easy task to perform a journey to California by the overland route. Many start from home with the expectation that it is but a pleasure trip, not requiring labor to perform it. The result is, men become sour and morose in their disposition toward one another. Broils [quarrels], and strife and contention, in short even brutal murder has occurred in more than one instance along the line of the road. In less than one mile from where I am now writing, is a new made grave where one brother killed another, and as I am informed, an only brother. Men have started from home in companies of 8, 10, or more, and such kind of partnerships cannot go on long in peace and quietude. We have all got along like a band of brothers, with the exception of Gammel. We have all seen much trouble with him. The property which Carr and myself had of him to pay us for taking him through here, he has at various times threatened to take out and have as his own. Now you will know that he had not property enough to one-half pay us for our trouble. — We have however laid down rules to him which all of us make him live up to. He is such a consummate liar that we never know whether he tells the truth or not.
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