A Day With The Cow Column In 1843.

APPLEGATE, JESSE A. [OREGON PIONEER OF 1843]

Publication: Printed for the Caxton Club by R R Donnelley & Sons Company, 1934, Chicago

First edition. 12mo. Limited to 300 copies. Pictured. cloth, xvii [blank], 207 pp., "Introduction," notes and edited by Joseph Schafer, appendix, index, designed by Wm. A. Kittredge and printed by The Lakeside Press for the Caxton Club in an edition of 300 copies.

A classic account of account of cattle-driving on the Oregon Trail. As recounted in the Oregon Encyclopedia, "in spring 1843, Jesse Applegate, his brothers Charles and Lindsay, and their families began an overland journey to Oregon. They and other relatives joined a large wagon train of about a thousand people assembled near Independence, Missouri. The train, the first sizable group to travel the Oregon Trail, was later known as the Great Migration.” "The emigrants first organized and attempted to travel in one body, but it was soon found that no progress could be made with a body so cumbersome. At the crossing of the 'Big Blue,' it divided into two columns, which traveled in supporting distance of each other as far as Independence Rock, on the Sweet Water. From this point, all danger from Indians being over, the emigrants separated into small parties better suited to the narrow mountain paths and small pastures in their front. Some of the emigrants had only their teams, while others had large herds. Those emigrants not encumbered with or having but few loose cattle attached themselves to the light column; those having more than four or five cows had to join the heavy or “cow column.” Hence the cow column, being much larger than the other and encumbered with its large herds, had to use greater exertion and observe a more rigid discipline to keep pace with the more agile consort." This narrative takes the reader through one full day in the "cow column" .. the slower-moving section of the emigrant party that drove livestock, beginning at 4:00 a.m. when the sentinels fire rifles as the wake-up signal and herders spread out among the livestock to check for strays or theft and finishing at dusk, when the wagons are repositioned in a defensive circle, teams are unyoked and moved to pasture, campfires are made, and guard duty is set for the night. Howes A294 says "Embraces account of the great Oregon migration of 1843. Applegate established the southern route to Oregon." Details an 1843 overland trip from Missouri to Oregon by way of the Oregon Trail. Fine, bright and tight copy without dust jacket, as issued.