This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Laird Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/4153 Message Board Post: THE FREMONT COUNTY SUN. July 7, 1904. "Forty - Four Years Ago".--While at this office one day last week, Mr.H. R. Laird, president of the First National Bank, recalled the fact that 54 years ago (sic), June 1853, his parents moved to Fremont county from Ohio, making the trip overland with ox teams. One would suppose that such a long tedious ride would have been enough to knock all the enthusiasm out of a young man for a similar trip. But not so with Mr. Laird, who seven years later did what no young man of today will ever have an opportunity to do. The reported discovery of gold at Pike's Peak created a regular stampede to that country about 46 years ago, but it was not until two years later that Mr. Laird got the "fever", when in company with an uncle he fitted up a tourist car consisting of a wagon and two milk cows and a yoke of oxen for motive power, and made the long journey across the plains to Pike's Peak. At this time it was necessary for tourists to go in compact bodies to guard against the Indians, and frequently there would be about 500 teams in a single caravan strung out for miles. The two milk cows were hitched to the wagon tongue and the ox team yoked in front. The cows furnished plenty of milk for Mr. Laird and his uncle during the entire trip. He can relate many interesting incidents of the long ride and scenes about the mines. After working in the mines for a while Mr. Laird concluded that the reports about fortunes being dug out of the ground in a day or two were greatly exaggerated and he decided to "hit the trail" for old Iowa. The return trip was made in the same manner as the trip going. Twenty miles was considered a good day's drive and the trip each way took about four weeks. Mr. Laird has since made two or three trips across the same country by rail, but none have been more enjoyable than the one made 44 years ago.--Tabor Beacon