Among those who kept the lead was Thomas D. Kaiser, who[1] was among the first to arrive at Green River, and the first also to leave it for Fort Hall. Another impatient to reach his destination was J. B. McClane.[2]
A party was formed of these and others, with Dr Whitman, who had joined the emigration on the Platte River, also anxious to reach his home, and "to get news of his family and affairs at the fort, where he was likely to meet Cayuses and Nez Perces. At Green River they learned that the Jesuits, De Vos and Hoecken, had, by means of their Flathead pilot, discovered a pass through the mountains to Soda Springs, by way of Fort Bridger, on the Black branch of Green River, a cut-off which saved considerable distance, information of which Whitman communi- cated to the companies by a letter left at Green River. That the road in the rear was, for a natural one, ex- cellent, is evidenced by the fact that the ox-teams made an average of thirteen miles a day for the whole distance from the Sweetwater to Fort Hall, where the rear arrived the last of August, the advance hav- ing waited for them to come up. At this place died Daniel Richardson; and here also was found Lovejoy, who had come across from Bent Fort during the sum-
- ↑ From Kaiser's Narrative, a valuable manuscript, penned by himself, I obtain the main biographical facts of himself and his family, with their immigration to Oregon. Mr Kaiser seems to have been a representative western man; vigorous, courageous, frank, and independent. He was born in Bunker County, North Carolina, where he married Miss Mary Girley, by whom he had 10 children, 5 sons and 5 daughters. In 1828 he removed to Giles County, Tennessee, and in 1833 to Van Buren County, Arkansas, where he remained until 1842, when he started with his family for Oregon; but arriving too late to join White's emigration, he renewed the attempt with success the following year. He died in June 1871, aged 78 years. The narrative contains also some account of the Oregon rangers and other colonial matters. Another manuscript, by his son, P. C. Kaiser, entitled The Emigrant Road, deals more with recollections of the journey to Oregon, and supplies several facts omitted by the father.
- ↑ John Burch McClane left Philadelphia in 1842, and 'went west.' In the following spring he determined to go to the limit of western territory. Like Kaiser, he was ambitious to be in the lead, and disputes with him the honor of ' breaking the first sage-brush west of Fort Hall.' His manuscript, called First Wagon Train, deals chiefly with the immigration, and adventures in California, after the gold discovery, with some remarks upon missionary monopoly.
