This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BBB.2ACI/136.164 Message Board Post: I forgot to mention that the wagon trains were at first government soponsored about 1783 and the contract was given to a family of TEMPLETON and PILES or PYLES families to bring emmigrants from Vinginia and Pennsylvania to North Carolina and then later after 1799 to Missouri and the west Coast.. The cnglomerate of Families, operated their trains from 1783 t0 1880. The largest was under A BROTHER IN LAW (in 1816) To Thomas Piles named Ezekiel Rideout (over 3000 souls in total, most went to Ohio and Missouri. From St Louis , Mo Rideout transported back commodities for the US Army (Lead, Iron and meats). I am a descent of Rideout and the Templetons and the Pyles.