by Robin Flinchum
The inside of a pioneer wagon, or ‘prairie schooner’ as they were often called, was designed first for utility and then for comfort. Enough supplies to last the occupants for up to six months had to be packed into an area usually ten feet long and four feet wide (about the same amount of room as the inside of a VW van).
The labor involved in preparing for a journey west was generally divided equally between women and men. The men built the wagons and prepared the livestock, while the women prepared and stocked food and clothing for the journey, as well as decided what household essentials to pack. Keturah and George Belknap, who traveled overland from Iowa to Oregon in 1848, outfitted their wagon with a minimum of space and maximum storage in mind.
George put together a sturdy traveling wagon, making by hand the bent wood bows, probably four or five, to support the top cover. The cover was made by Keturah, who spun the linen for it in the long winter evenings leading up to the trip. Most likely she treated the material with linseed oil to make it waterproof. Next, George built a box at the front on which he would sit while driving the wagon, and in which Keturah stored bacon, salt and other staples. The top of the box was made with holes in each corner so that it could be lifted off and used as a table when sharpened sticks were inserted into the holes for legs.
Keturah filled an old chest with clothing and other items for use along the way. “Will start with some old clothes on and when we can’t wear them any longer will leave them on the road,” she wrote in her diary. Before the journey began, she washed and packed everything suitable the Belknaps owned, and also spent most of the winter cutting and sewing several new suits of clothes for them to use when they arrived in Oregon. (Some women recorded cutting material beforehand to save room in packing, others carried bolts of uncut cloth in order to be prepared to meet whatever need arose).
The clothing chest was packed in behind the food storage box, and to keep it from slipping around in transit, George fastened a system of cleats to the bottom of the wagon bed. Then Keturah put in a chair to ride in, leaving a small space on the floor for her son to occupy while he played. After that another trunk was put in containing dishes (most likely china) and household goods set aside for use when they reached Oregon. A washtub and a basket containing the dishes she planned to use on the trip (most likely tin) were stowed in a corner. Then George loaded four 125 lb. sacks of flour and one of corn meal, then bags of dried apples and peaches, beans, rice, sugar and coffee.
“The wagon looks so nice,” Keturah wrote. “The nice white cover drawn down tight to the side boards with a good ridge to keep from sagging. It’s high enough for me to stand straight under the roof with a curtain to put down in front and one at the back end…I have made 4 nice little table cloths so am going to live just like I was at home.”
Her iron ware was stashed in a box that hung outside the wagon, and her butter churn was put in by the washtub. When all was packed and ready, she added a feather mattress and pillows, which would be laid on top of the boxes and over a side of shoe leather at night, with two comforters on top “and we have a good enough bed for anyone to sleep on”.
Keturah spent the last few days before their departure from Iowa in her kitchen, making provisions to get them through the first week of travel–baking bread, frying doughnuts, stewing dried fruit and cooking a chicken and a ham.
Keturah Belknap’s preparations for the journey were typical of most travelers. Large amounts of staple food like flour, corn meal, and bacon, were the foundation of any wagon outfit. “Put nothing in your wagon except provisions and clothing and such articles as are indispensably necessary on the road,” cautioned Louisiana Strentzel, after surviving a harrowing overland journey in 1849. Many travelers who packed luxury items would end up throwing them overboard along the way to lighten the burden of the overworked oxen or horses.
Wagons were typically arranged in a similar fashion to the Belknaps’, with boxes or trunks filling the floor space and providing a flat surface on which to make up a bed for sleeping at night. Margaret Frink, who traveled west with her husband, searching for gold in 1849, could afford to spruce up her wagon a little. “The wagon was lined with green cloth, to make it pleasant and soft for the eye, with three or four large pockets on each side, to hold many little conveniences–looking glasses, combs, brushes, and so on.”
One other important item mentioned in most diaries of the overland westward journeys is the ‘India rubber water bottle’ (somewhat similar to a very large hot water bottle). Margaret Frink carried two, each with five gallon capacity, in her wagon. She also carried an India rubber mattress, which could be filled with water, providing convenient storage and a comfortable sleeping pad. Louisiana Strentzel recommended that a wagon be able to store about fifty gallons of water. She, too, preferred the India rubber bottles.
Because women were often responsible for the growing, storing and preparing of food at home, families relied heavily on their knowledge and experience when calculating how much and what kind of supplies they would need on the trail. A well-stocked, wisely packed wagon made all the difference on a long journey where travelers were likely to find themselves without food, water, or shelter if they had not planned carefully beforehand.