Page 85 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

constantly shuttling between Santa Fe and Missouri or formed their own parties. Once in Santa Fe, some chose to veer off on the Old Spanish Trail that turned northwest from Santa Fe before making nearly a square turn to the southwest near present-day Silina, Utah, toward California.
Most (about 8,000 in 1849), however, chose to follow the Rio Grande south and then pursue either
Hayes received word of the White party massacre and the fate of White’s wife and child. He was quite taken aback because he had been introduced to the Santa Fe trader shortly before leaving Inde- pendence, and it had been recommended to Hayes that he accompany the Whites. He felt most for- tunate that he had not.
About the middle of November, just below San
Antonio, New Mexico, Hayes’ party disagreed on on
whichroutetofollow,Kearny’sorCooke’s. The
majority chose Cooke’s and selected H. M. Cooper
as their captain. Hayes must have been appointed
to make a record of the division, because he
recorded the names of 73 men (and “two colored
men”) in his group and 35 (plus “one colored”) in
134 the other.
Hayes also recorded that, following the separation, their mode of travel was to have breakfast before daylight and for each family or mess to pull out
135
individually when ready.
dle of the afternoon without unsaddling or unhitch- ing and then stopped and set up camp for the night. Hayes questioned the prudence of fragmenting into small parties, not resting during the heat of the day,
136 and finishing the day’s journey so early.
Before leaving the Rio Grande on November 20, 1849, Hayes noted that wagon tracks seemed to lead off at several points. These were probably the result of earlier groups’ efforts to cut off a few miles to Cooke’s Spring. Hayes group arrived at Cooke’s Spring on November 21, 1849, nearly three years to the day after the Mormon Battalion. He called it a swampy hole with many wells of good water in the neighborhood. 138
During the night, at Cooke’s Spring, John Chaffin died. He had been ill since leaving Soccoro but always “rode the days journey.” Hayes recorded:
We are now in camp waitingfor the grave to be finished. The morning is very cold, with a piercing wind from the southwest; a few drops
ofrain fell at an earlier hour; a genuine Novem - ber day. . . . The grave was dug near the road- side; cedar logs were procured on the hills half amilefromthecamp. Therewerenomaterials tomakeacoffin. Hewaswrappedinablanket, then laid in his overcoat, as if the more to protecthimfromthechillsod. Cedarlogswere laid above and filled with sprigs of cedar; then a layer of earth and . . . large rocks above to
Cooke’s or Kearny’s route 127 west (Figure 25).
The forty-ninersandotheremigrantsusedEmory’s1848
notes and/or Cooke’s 1849 journal as guidebooks for
128
the way west from the Rio
Some of these Argonauts were well prepared. Others were not. Benjamin Ignatius Hayes was one of those who used the Santa Fe Trail west from Missouri and then followed the Rio
connect with Cooke’s route to southern California. Hayes would become a prominent and respected
129
his money would have to last because,
thrown from his mule a second time the first day on the road, he paid $5 to spend the night at the nearest house. Hayes may have been very close to death without realizing it, for while guiding him to the main road the next morning, his host casually remarked, “How easy I could kill you now, and nobody would
130
ever know it.”
and noted that his “bread had held out admirably. I still have left a few of your biscuit.” He also later recorded that he was reading Cooke’s journal.
From Santa Fe, the party Hayes was traveling with headed south on October 23, 1849. Instead of fol- lowing the Rio Grande, they passed behind the San- dia and Manzano Mountains east of Albuquerque and by the deserted Indian missions of Quarai and Abo before crossing the river to stop at Soccoro. Here the company rested and prepared for the more strenuous part of the journey and to wait for the numerous other fragments that would compose the total company. Most of his group tried to outfit for 50 days, which required about 60 pounds of flour and 25 pounds of bacon each. They intended to go by pack mule, and Hayes figured his mule was carding
1
only about 80 pounds, so it was lightly loaded. While still at Soccoro in early November 1849,
Judge in southern California.
The reasonably prepared Hayes
They rode until the mid-
departed Inde- pendence, Missouri, on September 10, 1849, leaving his wife and slave-holding family behind and headed for “El Dorado.” He apparently had little idea of the value of services in the outside world or how long
Grande to California.
Ten days later Hayes wrote his wife
Grande south to
after being
Chapter 3
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