Page 88 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

heavierarticles. BeforereachingtheGilajunction with the Colorado on October 15, 1849, they learned ofex-PresidentJamesPolk’sdeath. Hehadbeen dead for five months, but it took that long for the news to reach the wagon train.
Louisiana commented that the first emigrants had reached the Colorado about the middle of August and had formed a continuous stream since. The Strentzels were still waiting to cross when Captain Thorn was drowned in the boating accident, and they finally crossed the river on October 19. Despite the hardships suffered by the Strentzels and the other emigrants on the southern route, Louisiana recorded that the parties who came “the other [over- land] route” suffered even more.147
The Strentzels eventually settled in Canada del Hambre, or Hungry Valley (so named by starving Spanish soldiers, led by Ygnacio Martinez, who were pursuing Indians), in northern California, but Louisiana did not like the name and changed it to Alhambra Valley. Here they established John’s practice and became the first to grow oranges suc- cessfully so far north in California. Little John died when he was nine, but Louisa grew to maturity and
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later married John Muir, the naturalist.
Cornelius C. Cox was another emigrant who went west by the southern route across Texas in 1849 to El Paso del Norte where his “Equal Rights” com- pany dissolved. This was not uncommon, and many caravans reformed here for the balance of the trip west with remnants of other companies. Although he did not admit further contact, Cox reported seeing Sarah Bowman, “The Great Western.” Sarah had used her nest-egg, accumulated from following the military campaign in Mexico, to establish a hotel
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near Coons’ Rancho.
Considering the date, July 12, on which Cox’s new
company departed El Paso del Norte, he must have been a day ahead of the Strenzels who, however, would pass his company enroute to the river cross- ing. On July 19, when Cox reached the Rio Grande crossing about 20 miles above Dona Ana, the river was swollen to 150 yards wide.
The Cox party completed crossing the Rio Grande on July 23, 1849, and continued 12 miles up the river to camp. Here another reorganization took place incorporating portions of other companies. Be- cause of the slowness of the oxen, companions from Austin, who desired to travel faster, left Cox and the others. This act was not at all unusual. Charles
EdwardPancoast,ayoungQuaker,andhisfriend
were separated from the mam party because of their
refusal to travel on Sunday. A Howard party was
dropped because the pregnant wife could not travel
fast enough. Others, such as the tragic Oatman
family, simply wished to proceed when the majority
had decided to camp for a period because of stock
conditions, supply problems, or inclement 150
weather.
The new company numbered about 60 men and
was under a Mr. Shackelford as Captain and L. B. Harris as Orderly Sergeant and tarried seven days to let their stock forage. Cox had no objection. However, he did object to a request that he shave, made by Mrs. Wayland (nee Cox), who was denying any relationship to him unless he complied. And, on the last day before leaving the Rio Grande, he bragged about dining on roast venison, turtle soup, and rolled dumplings, followed the next morning by
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a breakfast of milk toast.
The new Cox party reached Cooke’s Spring on
August 4. Cox described the Spring as “quite a different looking place” than he had imagined “con-
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Civilian Use of the Southern Route
74
was situated in a low marshy place and that the water was bad. As many others had, he noted the lack of wood
and complained about the grass being indifferent. He did volunteer, however, that the road from the Rio Grande to Cooke’s Spring was the finest he had seen.
Again Cooke’s Spring was the site of a tragedy for one of the emigrants. While traveling north from El Paso del Norte, one of the mess groups, consisting of seven men, had been attacked during the night by a wolf that had bitten all but one before they managed to kill it. Naturally it was suspected of being mad, but the outcome of the incident was not reported. In the immediately subsequent reor- ganization, two of the men had joined the same party as Cox. One of the men, a young Englishman identified only as Lockett, sustained a fever for three days and on the morning of August 4, at Cooke’s Spring, was displaying symptoms of hydrophobia. At midafternoon, two days later, he remained beside the trail beneath a simple cross as Cox and the rest moved on. 154
During the spring and summer of 1849, many groups formed in the east to seek passage to the Californiagoldfields. Onesuchgroupformedin New York was called the Fremont Association and
sidering its notoriety.”
He recorded that it