I received the following in a packet of information I sent for regarding the family of Amos Cook. The following is one of 2 articles printed in the Oregon Daily Journal (3/21 & 3/22/1925). I am posting them in 2 separate emails FYI: Impressions & Observations of the Journal Man, by Fred Lockley (2/31/25) The story of the migration of the Scott family, destined to attain great distinction and honor in Oregon, is here recorded by Mr. Lockley as told him by a member of the family who recalls vividly the pains and perils of the long journey in 1852. The story will be concluded in this space tomorrow. "We came to Oregon in 1852," said Mrs. Mary Frances Scott Cook, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. F. G. Young. "My father, John Tucker Scott, was born February 18, 1809, 18 miles from where Abraham Lincoln was born and six days prior to his birth. When father was 15 he went with his parents to Illinois. He was 43 when we started to Oregon, in 1852. My Mothers's maiden name was Ann Roelofson. I was born May 19, 1833, not far from Peoria, in Tazewell county, Illinois. I was the second child and the eldest daughter in a family of 15. "My father was captain of our train of 27 wagons. My mother died of cholera on June 20, about two days' travel, by ox-team, this side of Fort Laramie, or about 30 miles. We buried her wrapped in a blanket in a shallow grave by the side of the road. Father and the others heaped stones over the grave so that the coyotes and other animals might not disturb it. My brother Willie died in the Blue mountains in what is now called Baker county. "We came by way of the Barlow road. That statement means a good deal to a pioneer of Oregon, for he know what a rough and difficult road it was. After the death of my mother, I had to serve as the mother of the family. We settled at Lafayette. Father ran a hotel there, owned by Amos Cook, called the Temperance house. Among our boarders I remember best Judge M. P. Deady, Judge Bolse and David Logan. Lafayette was the county seat, and these men came there on legal business. Father ran the hotel till his girls married. Not being able then to get good help, he went out of the hotel business. My sister Jennie was the first married. We always called her Jennie, though her name was Abigail Jane Scott. She married Mr. Duniway, August 1, 1853. I was married two weeks later to Amos Cook, who came to Oregon in 1840. We were married August 16, 1853, by Rev. Neely Johnson. I moved to my husband's farm, which he had taken up in 1841, and lived there 35 years. "My husband came to Oregon in the part with Francis Fletcher. They arrived in the spring of 1840. They procured seed wheat of Dr. McLoughlin; also a barrel of molasses. They used boiled wheat in place of bread, and ate molasses on it. In those days you did not have to leave your place to kill a deer, game was so abundant. My husband put in six months or so working at the Methodist Mission, near Wheatland, while his partner ran both of the places. "They had a pretty hard trip across the plains. We also experienced some hardships crossing. At Fort Hall my shoes had become completely worn out, so I went barefoot. Our cattle were worn and thin. There was a large family of us, so we older children walked. My feet became cracked. It was impossible to walk without occasionally stepping on the spines of the prickly pear, and when they broke off in your feet they had to fester out. By the time we came to Laurel hill our food was exhausted. For two days all any of us had to eat was salal berries. You will find if you try it that salal berries are not very strengthening to walk on or to work on. After our two days' diet of salal berries, we met a man who had some moldy flour. He let us have some of it and we camped right there and baked bread. Some relatives came out from French Prairie to meet us with two yoke of oxen and plenty of flour and meat. I don't have to tell you how glad we were to see them. I carried m! y sister, who was 5 years old, through the Grand Ronde valley. "We had left our home, at Groveland, Ill., early in April, 1852. In our immediate party were my father, John Tucker Scott; my mother, myself, my sisters, Abigail Jane, and Margaret Ann, my brother Harvey, my sisters, Catherine Amanda and Harriet Louise, my brother, John Henry, my sister Sarah Maria and my brother, William Niell." It will be interesting to take a look at the Scott party as they left their home. They started with five wagons. The provision was drawn by five yoke of Oxen. John and Robert Dickson were the drives. The camp equipage wagon was drawn by three yoke of oxen. Levi Caffee and Robert King were the drivers. What was called the family wagon also had three yoke of oxen, with Mitchell and Burns as drivers. What was known as "Mother's Wagon" was drawn by two yoke of oxen. John Tucker Scott, Harvey Scott and John Henry Scott took turns driving it. What was know as the miscellaneous wagon had three yoke of oxen, John Goudy and Fisk serving as drivers. They started from Illinois with 42 oxen, three cows, two horses and one pony. The three cows died on the plains, one of the horses was drowned in Snake river, another wandered off in the Cascades. Only seven of the 42 oxen with which they started survived the trip. Several additional yoke were bough on the way and two yoke wer! e sent by Neill Johnson to Tygh valley to help bring the Scott family through. The distance the Scott family traveled from their Illinois home to French Prairie was 2790 miles. They started from Illinois with abundant stores of bacon, flour, cornmeal, rice, hardtack, coffee and brown sugar. Within a few months they were reduced to eating salal berries and bread made of moldy flour. Let me quote from the diary kept by Abigail Scott (Duniway) while crossing the plains. On Friday, September 24, 1852 she writes: "The road ascends toward the main ridge of the Cascade mountains and is extremely rough and difficult." That day they passed the Big Deadening, Hungry Hollow, the Little Deadening and Devil's Half Acre. They traveled up Barlow creek, the going being very rough. On the next day, Saturday, September 25, they crossed the summit of the Cascades, going down Laurel hill to Zigzag river, where they camped. Laurel hill was two miles in length, nearly perpendicular. They descended by felling heavy trees and tying behind their wagons. The next day,! they made but four miles, as some of their oxen escaped and had to be hunted for, one wagon's kingbolt broke and had to be replaced and a wagon tongue broke and had to be mended. On Thursday, September 30, they traveled eight miles, reaching Oregon City. In her diary, Abigail Scott Duniway says of Oregon City: " We found it to be a long, narrow town, situated in a canyon on the Willamette river. It is half as large as Pekin, Ill, but is a hard-locking place." On Friday, October 1, they finished their long and toilsome journey, reaching the home of Neill Johnson on French Prairie. (end of article, part 1) Be well & God bless, Kate Beaugrand Cook Minnesota List Adm. (for ROELOFSON-L@rootsweb.com) kbcook@cfaith.com or kbcook@mn.rr.com ><> God bless America! <><