I just ran across an article from the Summer 1975 "Ansearchin' News," a quarterly published by the Tennessee Genealogical Society. an article by Mrs. Woodrow Wilburn of Texarkana, Texas describes a wagon train that left Bell Buckle (Bedfrod County), Tennessee on april 8, 1812. The wagon train was led by a Captain John Baker and included 28 wagons and 90 people (39 men, 19 women, 42 children). They were headed for what is now Washington on the Brazos. The wagon train went to Fort Smith, Arkansas and then crossed the Red River east of Spanish Peak. It took199 days to get to the Big Bend of the Red River (10 miles north of Hook, Texas), and another 100 days to reach their destination. According to the article, Captain Baker made two more trips in 1814 and 1816. The article gives a log of the trip, with names of the men and the number of wagons and children with them. Some of the names include BAKER, MCDANIEL, ELLIOT, SMITH, WALKER, COOPER, ALLMAN. The wagon train had about 15 rules that set standards for the trip. Some of them were: 1. Allow 5 days each 100 miles. Bad days, what you can make, or stay in camp if agreed by all. Real good days, and group, makes it easy pulling 25 to 30 miles per day, if camp sites come right. 3. Recommeded -- shave your head -- Indians have no interest in bald heads. 8. Keep you politics and preaching to yourself. Let the preacher do the preaching. 12. Be courteous and help pthers 13. Do not be noisy, even with your musical instruments I found this kost interesting and would love to hear about other wagon trains from those early days. I got a copy of the article from the Tennessee Archives people, but I assume that interlibrary loan would work as well. The article was rewritten in the Bedford County Historical Quarterly (Volume I, Number 4, 1975). William Woodward, Chapel Hill, NC

Thank you! That was so interesting. I'm curious as to whether the women shaved their heads. I'm sure I would. ---- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Woodward" <wwoodward@nc.rr.com> To: <TNBEDFOR-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2002 3:08 PM Subject: [TNBEDFOR] 1812 Wagon Train > I just ran across an article from the Summer 1975 "Ansearchin' News," a quarterly published by the Tennessee Genealogical Society. an article by Mrs. Woodrow Wilburn of Texarkana, Texas describes a wagon train that left Bell Buckle (Bedfrod County), Tennessee on april 8, 1812. The wagon train was led by a Captain John Baker and included 28 wagons and 90 people (39 men, 19 women, 42 children). They were headed for what is now Washington on the Brazos. > > The wagon train went to Fort Smith, Arkansas and then crossed the Red River east of Spanish Peak. It took199 days to get to the Big Bend of the Red River (10 miles north of Hook, Texas), and another 100 days to reach their destination. According to the article, Captain Baker made two more trips in 1814 and 1816. > > The article gives a log of the trip, with names of the men and the number of wagons and children with them. Some of the names include BAKER, MCDANIEL, ELLIOT, SMITH, WALKER, COOPER, ALLMAN. > > The wagon train had about 15 rules that set standards for the trip. Some of them were: > 1. Allow 5 days each 100 miles. Bad days, what you can make, or stay in camp if agreed by all. Real good days, and group, makes it easy pulling 25 to 30 miles per day, if camp sites come right. > 3. Recommeded -- shave your head -- Indians have no interest in bald heads. > 8. Keep you politics and preaching to yourself. Let the preacher do the preaching. > 12. Be courteous and help pthers > 13. Do not be noisy, even with your musical instruments > > I found this kost interesting and would love to hear about other wagon trains from those early days. I got a copy of the article from the Tennessee Archives people, but I assume that interlibrary loan would work as well. The article was rewritten in the Bedford County Historical Quarterly (Volume I, Number 4, 1975). > > William Woodward, > Chapel Hill, NC > > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >