Wagon Train West
Notes on
а Таг
Heel family's 1852
migration from their Hawfields home
to early Arkansas.
By ALVIN HI. FOUNTAIN
One of the most interesting of the
many migrations of Carolinians west¬
ward in the middle of the Nineteenth
Century took the family of John M.
Allen from his native Hawfields com¬
munity to the far edge of Arkansas.
Fortunately for the many students of
that movement. Mr. Allen left copious
notes on the journey outward; and
more fortunately, these notes have
been preserved, collected, and pub¬
lished.
A relative of many families in the
Alamance County region, especially of
the Mebane and Scott families, still
prominent in the Hawfields neighbor¬
hood. Mr. Allen decided in the early
fall of 1852 to seek his fortune in the
rapidly developing state of Arkansas.
With a wife and small children,
mobilized by a wagon and a carriage,
they were part of a strange caravan
which grew in numbers during the
journey of two months and a week.
They took essentially nothing ex¬
cept the simplest set of cooking im¬
plements and sleeping clothes. They
depended upon purchasing provisions
on the road; and they seem to have had
no difficulty in providing for them¬
selves and their horses during the en¬
tire journey. Their original equipment,
a blank record book, a box of matches,
a dozen bundles of fodder, two pounds
of butter, a half-gallon of molasses, six
cups and saucers. 21 pounds of beef,
and a gallon of honey, was a fair exam¬
ple of the materials they were to obtain
and use along the way. Travel was
about 16 to twenty miles a day. with
stops along the way for necessary
laundry, or just for a Sunday rest
period.
Total expense of the trip for Mr.
Allen and his family, wagon, carriage,
and all. was just more than SI 70.00. a
large part of which was spent for fer¬
ries. toll roads, and bridges. Prices of
com varied widely, anywhere from 50
cents to S 1 . 1 5 per bushel. But chickens
were firm at 10 cents, all the way to
outer Arkansas.
Diary Gives Details
Mr. Allen's carefully worded diary
and its dated expense account provide
detail not often seen in personal docu¬
ments of the period.
Aside from the major purpose of just
getting along the distance, his daily ac¬
counts have two points of major con¬
cern — the availability of water, and
the general impression of the soil and
timber growth, all the way across the
mountains, the “pararies," and the
mud-and-water of the bayous, or
"bios." as his written account puts it.
Water, of course, was the most im¬
mediate necessity in quantity, since it
must be available in quantity, not only
for cooking and laundry, but also for
the horses in the daily grind of travel. It
was not only the most immediate
necessity, but also was the only one
not capable of being transported. It
had to be used on the spot. Overnight
slops were always governed by the
presence of fresh streams, wells, or
springs.
Hardships, tragedies, and near-
tragedies were accepted as the normal
events to be expected. The party had
not been on the road a whole week
before one of the families lost a child
by death. No details are given: the
child simply died during the night.
Next day. being Sunday, the body
was disposed of by burial in Love's
Churchyard, in Forsyth County.
Whether the grave ever received any
permanent marking is left to the imagi¬
nation. Without further comment, the
journal indicates that on Monday the
group travelled twenty-five miles, and
one of the families bought or traded for
a new horse. The day also marked the
first of the many charges of toll for
privately improved roadways. In later
portions of the travel-journal, these
improved roadways were referred to
as "academized.” the term used in ref¬
erence to the macadamized construc¬
tion then coming into use for the main-
travelled highways.
Groceries and Fodder
Despite the large numbers of travel¬
lers in the group, they seem never to
have had any real difficulty in securing
food and feed necessary to progress.
For Mr. Allen’s own family and
horses, a typical day's purchases were
‘/i gallon molasses. 25 cents; I carriage
whip. 40 cents; I bu. com. 50 cents; I
doz oats. 20 cents (this entry occurs
several times; what each dozen rep¬
resented is unknown); 1 dozfoder(fod-
der) 20 cents; 12 lbs mutton. 30 cents; 3
lbs loaf shugar (sugar). 50 cents; next
day’s supply was similar, with the ad¬
dition of Vi gal honey. 50 cents, a curry
comb. 25 cents. 40 lbs flour $ 1 .00; third
day’s buying was limited to I pint of
peach brandy. 70 cents.
References to fodder by the dozen
any
difficult trovel
no prepared rood!
Little Bock
Nov 1114
к
I V
V
Washington
Nov. 20
^plaee names not
established
region of earlier settlers
ARK
22