The diary of C. W. Cooke, a member of the same wagon train as the Fulkerson family, describes early experiences along the Trail in 1847:

Apr. 28- left St. Joseph (Missouri) in the evening. Came to Cameron’s Ferry 4 & ½ miles up the river, encamped on the eastern bank.

Apr. 29- crossed the (Missouri) river, arose the bluff, and encamped on the western hill, with a fine view of the river on the East, and the Indian Territory spread out like an immense map on the west. The weather was fine, the air pure, and the prospect truly delightful. [The ferry took them across to northeast Kansas, where they would cover 130 miles in the next 13 days.]

Apr. 30- this morning when we arose about half our cattle were gone owing to the carelessness of some of the company who thought it useless to stand guard. Twas late when we got off and we travelled 3 miles and encamped on Mistletoe creek....here an old dead Indian warrior wrapped in his rug, and sitting high up in an oak tree was a striking example of the peculiar mode of interment, as well as character of these singular people.

May 1- Travelled 10 miles, 5 to Wolf River and 5 to Indian Agency where we encamped.

May 2- travelled 10 miles. Camped on a little stream to the left of the road, wood and water.

May 3- travelled 3 miles to another little stream, wood and water.

May 4- travelled 8 miles over beautiful prairie to a little stream, wood and water.

May 5- We have had but eleven wagons previously, today Curl and Miller overtook us with 31 more and 200 cattle, the prairie level as a sea far as your eye can reach. Travelled 12 miles and encamped. This evening we organized and elected James Curl Captain or genl…Superintendent with powers and prerogatives subject to the direction of a Board of trustees, or committee of 3, the train having started from the 3 different counties, each division appointed a Commissioner. Those from Nodaway chose James Fulkerson and Richard Miller, those from Holt, Judge Kimsey, those from Buchanan, C. W. Cooke. [The group calling itself "The Plains Baptist Church" was co-captained by James Fulkerson and the Reverend Richard Miller, who was Mary Fulkerson's brother and the husband of Nancy Leeper Fulkerson, a sister of James Fulkerson. James' 16-year-old daughter Margaret would later marry Caleb Curl.]

May 6- Council met and after taking the strength of the company and finding it to be 48 men capable of bearing arms, divided them off in the companies of six with a sergeant at the head of each...Divided the night into 4 watches of 2-1/2 hours each...4 watches each night...8 sergeant companies…makes a man stand 2-1/2 hours every second night...traveled 12 miles today...passed 2 companies, hundreds of Oregon migrants. Encamped on the Nimahaw.

May 7- travelled 12 miles the cattle wandering so much evening and morning, after the guard comes off and before they go on have caused us to lose more cattle than any other difficulty…There being some 4 old men and 12 or 15 boys in camp the former unoccupied and the latter in mischief and indolence…The council met and appointed the old men captains over the Boys to guard the stock of evenings...From the time we stop till night and of mornings from the time the regular guards come off till we start...the old men to manage the boys alternately...Resolved also that the last sergeant at daylight in the morning have a trumpet sounded when every cow must be milked and every ox yoked before the guard is released or the cattle turned out to graze.

May 8- travelled 25 miles and encamped to the left of the road, good wood and fine water.

May 9- travelled 6 miles, crossed the east Branch of the Blue Earth river and encamped on its western Bank...joined today by 17 wagons from Illinois.

May 10- travelled 15 miles, encamped the night off the road, wood and water...we struck the Independence trail today. [The trail from Independence, Missouri met the trail from St. Joseph near Hanover, Kansas.]

May 11- travelled 20 miles over broken prairie.. encamped to the right of road, without wood. [By day's end they had crossed into Nebraska, southeast of Fairbury.]

May 13- travelled 12 miles and encamped on the north bank of the Little Blue Earth river...Buffalo sign today the first we have seen one large dead one being by the road side…met 2 Delaware Indians...first and only Indians since we left Wolf River 20 miles from the states. [The last comment is striking - they really felt they were leaving American soil and civilization behind.]

May l4- last night had a kind of disturbance in our organization. Saturday it rained all day. We had a sick lady and could not travel.

May l6- travelled 10 miles up the Blue River and encamped on its bank. Blew up the old arrangement and organized anew this morning. [Interestingly, an 1846 emigrant had warned that, "When you start over these wide plains, let no one leave dependent on his best friend for anything; for if your do, you will certainly have a blow-out before you get far."]

May 17- rested again waiting for our sick lady.

May 18- traveled up Blue and left it - distance 20. [The Trail left the Little Blue River near Hastings, Nebraska.]

May 19- traveled 25 miles and encamped at the grand island on the main Platte river. [At this point they were a little north and east of the regular Trail route, which joined the Platte River to the southwest at Lowell, Nebraska.]

May 20- traveled 22 miles up the immense Platte river bottom

May 21- continued up the bottom 20 miles [The Army would establish Fort Kearny in this vicinity during the following year. The 1847 immigrants had virtually no military protection along the Trail.]

May 22- travelled 22 miles roads continue as level as a sea.

May 23- traveled 18 miles about midnight there rose a heavy storm and the cattle and sheep scattered in every direction.

May 24- was spent in getting up the cattle all of them was saved but 4 head of oxen and the loss of 20 head of sheep. Killed a buffalo and some antelope et.

May 25- struck up our line of march to ascend Platte river to the crossing ..traveled 20 miles...

May 26- This morning Captain Curl with 17 wagons left our camp. The remainder traveled 25 miles

May 27- Prairie very rolling for the distance of 8 miles then into the level land again...traveled 25 miles...

May 28- Crossed the south fork of Platte River the distance main and south Platte 158, nearly all one immense vast level plain. [The forks of the Platte meet at North Platte, Nebraska. The emigrants followed the South Platte southwestward to a crossing point at Brule, Nebraska.]

May 29- left south fork and traveled northwest direction over rolling prairie ... in the evening our road led us down in between some of the most crazy hills that this road certainly produced. ...We struck north Platte River in the evening at the 4 miles ...foot of the valley...traveled 20 miles. [They were at Ash Hollow.]

May 30- We started to ascend the river ...Our road led over deep sand. Traveled 10 miles.

May 31- Stop with a sick gentleman (C. W. Cooke) a quantity of Sioux Indians came into camp and our men made a general business of swapping horses with them.

June 1- We struck up our line of march 8 miles brought us up to a large band of Sioux Indians that had spread themselves across the road demanding some presents which was soon complied with and passed on. traveled 20 miles.

June 2- this day travel brought over two beautiful running streams ...distance 22 miles.

June 3- We passed an Indian village of about 25 wigwams. Distance 12 miles. Camped at Chimney Rock. We have now traveled two days in sight of the solitary tower.

June 4- 20 miles today camped at a delicious spring of water in Scott's Bluffs. Wood plenty. [Presumably, because of his own serious illness, Cooke discontinued his diary entries. However, he did survive, made it to Oregon and lived a full life there.]

 

     The emigrants pushed westward from Scott's Bluffs, entering Wyoming near Torrington. They would have passed through Fort Laramie (which was near Guernsey in eastern Wyoming). The route continued west to Casper, Wyoming, where the Mormons had established a ferry to take wagons across the Platte River. The Fulkerson party arrived here about the 22nd of June.

     Frederick Richard Fulkerson, the fourth child and oldest son of James and Mary, was born October 11, 1829. A granddaughter of James and Mary later wrote: "When crossing the Platte River [Frederick] swam the river below the crossing to ford the stock over, as the river was so swift it tended to wash them downstream. He became so chilled and exhausted..." James continued on for four days, with his son lying ill in the wagon, to a place near Devil's Gate called Rattlesnake Pass. Here he and two other families remained for five days to tend to the sick boy. A traveler in 1849 found an inscription on a large granite boulder near their campsite: "J.M. Fulkerson, June 26, '47"

     Young Frederick died in the camp on the July 1, 1847, and was buried at the foot of the boulder. An epitaph was painted on the face of the rock headstone, "FREDERIC RICHARD, SON OF JAMES M. & MARY FULKERSON, DIED JULY 1, 1847, AGED 18 Years"

     Two weeks later, on July 14th, James' wife Mary died of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She was buried atop Names Hill on the Green River crossing of the Sublette Cutoff, 25 miles north of Kemmerer, Wyoming. Later pioneers saw the engraving on a sandstone slab above the grave: "Mary, consort of J.M. Fulkerson, Died July 14, 1847" [The site of Mary Fulkerson's grave became a burial ground for other victims of the trail and eventually developed into a pioneer cemetery. The cemetery was destroyed by a pipeline project in the 1930's.]

      The Fulkerson emigrants pushed on through Wyoming and into the barren southern Idaho plain. At the Emigrant Crossing (Three Island Crossing) on the Snake River, near Glenns Ferry, Idaho, illness took a third victim. James Fulkerson's brother-in-law, William T. Hines, the husband of Elizabeth Fulkerson Hines, died of spotted fever. His death left her with eight children - two of whom were less than ten years old. Their 20-year-old daughter, Margaret, took her father's place as teamster, driving the wagon across Idaho and on to their destination in Oregon and took the body with them [reported in "Sense of Place: American Regional Cultures" by Thomas J. Schlereth, University Press of Kentucky, 1992] to Oregon. Elizabeth remarried to Elijah Dodson (ca. 1787- March 1860) who owned land at Pike, Yamhill County, OR (named after Pike, Missouri). They had one daughter, Leona Ruth Dodson (27 Jun 1849-20 Feb 1856). When Elizabeth died in 1854 she was listed with her first husband William under a single marker in Pike Cemetery ("IOOF"). Whether William was actually buried there may be eternally debated among researchers. 

     Two other members of the wagon train died at Emigrant Crossing while trying to get their wagons across the river. One of them may have been Hiram Dorris, James Fulkerson's son-in-law, husband of his daughter Elizabeth, who was the fourth member of the family who died during the journey. When they reached the Columbia River, Indians "attempted to rob them" and they had to keep men continually on guard to keep them out of the emigrant's camp. The journey was finally completed when their wagon train arrived in the Willamette Valley of Oregon on the 1st of October, 1847.

 

 

Letter from Mary Allen (Mary Earleen Allen, 1915-1993), Seattle, WA, June 1972

Mother’s (Lois Faye Fulkerson, 1879-1963, daughter of William Holt Fulkerson and Sarah Jane Craven) story continues: 

     Grandfather (James Monroe Fulkerson) came to Oregon with his family. He was well equipped with wagons and riding horses, and oxen for the wagons.

     When crossing the Platte River, his son Frederick, a young man of 18, swam the river below the crossing to ford the stock over, as the river was so swift it tended to wash them downstream. He became so chilled and exhausted that he died two weeks later.

     They had no trouble with Indians, except one tribe were thieves and once Grandfather, who was a good hunter and often went ahead of the train to kill fresh meat for the people, returned to find a band of Indians in camp taking anything they could pick up. At a fire where a man was watching bread baking, an Indian was just stooping over to raise the lid on the oven while the owner sat by with his head in his hands crying. Grandfather brought up a mighty kick on the Indians rear and sent him over the fire at full length. The Indian ran off howling with his hands on his burned stomach. That was the last seen of those Indians.

     At another time a party came into camp to steal and Grandfather put my father, who was about 6 years old, in the end of the wagon with a hatchet and said "Holt, if an Indian puts his hand on the tailgate to climb in, hit him with all your strength." So father stood there with his hatchet raised ready, while the men cleared the camp of Indians, and PaPa didn't get a chance to use his hatchet.

     At another time they had a bad fright as a vast herd of buffalo passed the camp, but they divided and went on either side. The scent and noise was terrible and it took them most of the night to pass, and they killed meat to last for many days, making what they couldn't use fresh into jerkey.

     Grandmother became worn with the hardship of the road and took down with mountain fever and died and was buried in the Sweet-water country. Senator Nesmith, who was a friend of Grandfathers, told him he saw her grave and that there was a large grave yard there. Others who lost dear ones heard of her grave and carried their dead there for burial.

     When they arrived at the Whitman Mission, Grandfather looked at the wonderful grass in the Sherman County country and said "This is enough, I want to take my land here", but an Indian guide said "No, go over the mountains. There will be trouble here," so he took the advice and that year was the Whitman massacre.

     Grandfather came on over the Barlow trail and his oxen were so worn and some dead....

     This is as far as mother got with her story. They did settle in Polk County, where in 1848 James Monroe Fulkerson married Catherine Crowley, a widow, who had come to Oregon by way of the Applegate trail through the southern part of the county. She had a daughter, who died of pneumonia and was buried on the bank of a small creek, near Jacksonville, Oregon. The creek is now called Graves Creek.

     (other notes from Mary Allen: "My mother's family, James M. Fulkerson came west on the Oregon trail in 1847. My great grandmother and great uncle were buried along the trail in Wyoming. James M. and young son, William Holt settled in Polk County in the Eola Hills, where James M. married Aunt Kate Crowley, who had come west by the Applegate trail train through southern Oregon. James M. was one of the 1st trustees at Linnville (McMinnville) college...William Holt, my grandfather, married Sarah Jane Craven, daughter of Soloman and Sarah Craven. Their children were Pearl, Neff, who married Mary L Stanton, who was Marion Co School Supt. for years, and my mother Lois Faye....")

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Mrs. Crowley Tells Story of Early Days

By Ed C. Dunn, The Salem Reporter, Salem Oregon- 1929

It was recently my pleasure to visit with a Polk County woman who will be 91 years old the 30th of next October. She is a frail little lady with a crown of the whitest and silveriest hair I have ever seen. It looks like a halo about her brow and as I visited with her I thought it must surely have been meant for such. This lady is Mrs. S. K. Crowley, the mother of Mrs. Jap Craven. Mrs. Ora Walker, Mrs. George Pewtherer and Holt Crowley near Rickreall.

     She is making her home with Mrs. Craven and remembers much about the Pioneer life of Oregon. Her father, J. M Fulkerson, with his family crossed the plains by ox team in 1847. He lost his wife and oldest son by death on the trip. Of the family there was the father and five children when they settled in what they called the Applegate settlement on the Rickreall River west of the present town of Dallas, where they spent their first winter in Oregon.

     Mrs. Crowley says their train had very little trouble with Indians because of the fact that they employed an Indian by the name of Bathose for a guide. James Curl was captain of the train. When they crossed the Sandy River all the food they had left was a little flour and a few potatoes. Had it not been for an abundance of game when they settled in the Applegate settlement their lot would have been very hard indeed.

     When asked what incidents of the trip stood out most clearly in her memory she replied that one was when the ox teams became frightened and all ran away. She and a little brother (William Holt Fulkerson, age six) were alone in one wagon and managed to hang on by holding to the bows until the oxen became exhausted and were caught. Another was when living above Dallas and an Indian woman came to the settlement and wanted to stay, saying she had run away from her man somewhere in eastern Oregon because he was mean to her. She stayed until a band of eastern Oregon Indians came after her. The white people hated to give her back to them, but were afraid not to do so. However, she begged so hard to stay that the Indians finally agreed to let her stay if she would first run through a fire which they built. She agreed and ran through the fire with but little damage to herself, and those who had come after her left.

     Mrs. Crowley's father, J. M. Fulkerson, was appointed by the territorial government to travel among the settlements in Oregon and make up requisitions for supplies for those who enlisted to go and fight against the Indians in Yakima Valley. In this work he had to make trips to Eugene and Portland and many other points, and the only way he had of traveling was to walk. Many times he waded in water up to his shoulders as there were no bridges between these places at that time.

     Mr. Fulkerson finally settled near Crowley Station and most of the roads in that section of the country, as well as the land for the present station and buildings and

the cemetery, were donated by him or his heirs. Near Crowley Station stands one

of the oldest churches in Polk County. It was built in 1865 on land donated by Mr. Fulkerson. The framing timbers were hand-hewn, but the lumber was hauled from a mill then located at Buell on Mill Creek. Some of the men whom she can remember as helping build the church were Mr. Fulkerson, Joshua McDaniel and S. K. Crowley, her husband. She says her father gladly acted as host to all the families who came to attend church there. Sometimes there would be as many as 30 families and their teams to take care of at a time, but he always managed to do it and never thought of charging anyone for his

trouble.

     She remarked that when he was through serving the government, all he received as pay for his services was an Indian pony.

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Those of the Fulkerson/Miller family group who went on the trail in 1847

James Monroe FULKERSON, age 43

Mary Ramsey (Miller) FULKERSON, about 43 (Died on the trail; buried at Names Hill,

          Wyoming.)

Virginia Ann FULKERSON, age 19

Frederick Richard FULKERSON, age 18 (Died on the trail in July 1847 near Devil’s

          Gate, Wyoming.)

Margaret Emmeline FULKERSON, age 16

Hannah Rebecca FULKERSON, age 14

Robert FULKERSON, age 7

William Holt FULKERSON, age 6
Elizabeth (Fulkerson) DORRIS, age 23
Hiram Casey DORRIS, age 29 (Died on the trail, August 1847, in the Cascade Range on

          the Barlow Road and buried in Lane County, OR.)

James Josiah DORRIS, age 4

Richard N. MILLER, age 49 (Husband to Nancy Leeper Fulkerson and brother of Mary

          Ramsey Fulkerson)

Nancy Leeper (Fulkerson) MILLER, age 46 (James Monroe Fulkerson’s sister)

Alexis Newton MILLER, age 23

Andrew Monroe MILLER, age 19

William Thomas MILLER, age 18

Elizabeth Jane MILLER, age 16

John Washington MILLER, age about 12

Richard Jackson MILLER, age about 11

James MILLER Age 10

William Tolbert HINES, age 44 (Died on the trail, August 1847 in Idaho)

Elizabeth Garretson (Fulkerson) HINES, age 41 (James Monroe Fulkerson’s sister)

Margaret Jane HINES, age 20

Sarah Catherine HINES, age 18

Nancy Ann HINES, age 16

John Wesley HINES, age 15

Martha Ann. HINES, age 12

Mary Elizabeth HINES, age 11

William James HINES, age 7

Elizabeth Fulkerson HINES, age 2

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