Page 3
Dr. A. J. Hunter's family converted what they could from their former holdings and made the decision to head west, seeking out a vision of prosperity perhaps--or, at the very least, looking for a fresh start in pioneer country. With six Missouri mules and a wagon, the family (Dr. Hunter, then 49; wife Susannah, 29; daughter Mary, 5; Davis 3; and Lizzie, who was then 1 year old) set out on their western adventure. Susannah’s brother, Commodore Perry (or "CP" Murrary), also came on the trip. The family left Missouri in April, 1864 with the war raging around them. They left Nebraska City and started up the Platte River. After meeting others who had traveled that route, the Hunters were told to exchange their mules for oxen, to discourage Indians from stealing thier draft animals. The six Missouri mules were traded for four oxen, and two milk cows were yoked to drive with them as a team. This changed their travel speed, slowing them down, and limited them to traveling only with other oxen teams. Mule trains and oxen trains usually did not mix because of the difference in rate of travel between the two types of animal.
A farm wagon covered with a canvas sheet over the bows became the Hunter family home. After they met John Bozeman on the Platte River Trail, the Hunters were encouraged to head for the gold fields of Montana, and they decided to travel the Bozeman Trail. In a train composed of thirty-two men, one woman (Susannah), and the three Hunter children, they followed a day or two behind Bozeman’s train along the trail that bears his name. Through Wyoming and into Montana they covered between twelve and sixteen miles a day. Later in life, Susanah told stories about having traveled through sagebrush taller than a man, and being in constant fear for her children.
Susannah Hunter related a story about an occasion when Indians came into their traveling camp and tried to steal young Davis, but were stopped when they were spotted by Davis' sister. When the train camped near present day Springdale, Montana, Dr. Hunter noticed the hot springs in the area. Due to the time he spent in Arkansas, Hunter knew the reputed medical value of hot sulpher water, and he considered coming back one day to stake a claim to the hot springs.
One of the men traveling with the train accidentally shot himself one day and Dr. Hunter (with family) stayed behind to attend to the man's wound while the rest of the train continued to Virginia City. This gunshot victim eventually died and, after his death, the Hunter family pressed on to Virginia City, passing through Bozeman, Montana just as the first building was erected in that town. The Hunters' wagon arrived in Virginia City in August, 1864. Montana became a territory in May of 1864 and the towns of Bannack and Virginia City were the two biggest cities at that time. At an elevation of 5,800 feet, and with a population that swelled from 7,000 (in April, 1864) to 18,000 (in August, 1864) housing was a problem in Virginia City. Homes were crude shelters, often with sod roofs. What lumber there was available was usually used for mining purposes. Staples were scant and the miners suffered many hardships. Few of them had an adequate year-round diet, although most camps usually had plenty of beef, wild game, salt pork and sometimes beans. A year or two later, farmers arrived in Montana and the diet of townspeople in the territory began to improve.
PREVIOUS PAGE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
NEXT PAGE
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Back to MAIN PAGE