Our ancestor’s mode of travel

Now-a-days when we want to go somewhere we just jump into our cars and take off. Won’t that way in past generations no-sir re. When man first came to this country, his feet took him everywhere he went.

Before Europeans came to our country by ship, the Native Americans had followed the paths of animals by foot. In the late 1400s, Spanish conquistadors brought European horses to North America. These horses quickly adapted to their new home and spread across our nation.

The first breed of horses brought over were smaller horses because of the constraints of the smaller ships. As time went on much larger horses such as draft horses were imported.

These draft horses, and oxen alike, were used in agriculture applications, lumber operations and to pull freight along rough roads and trails.

Still in the 1700s and early 1800s most common folks still used the most common and cheapest mode of travel and that was by walking. Why folks would walk extraordinary distances to get supplies or visit friends and family. Back in that day and time the infantry soldiers had to walk for miles just to be at the next battle.

As time went on, richer folks used horses and carriages or buggies while common folks would take trips by horseback or wagon.

In the early 1800s people and freight moved long distances up and down our great rivers by steamboat and rafts while barges were pulled up and down canals by horses on the bank.

Another mode of travel for the general public was by stagecoach. It was the fastest way to travel except by horseback. This mode of travel carried paying passengers, luggage, light packages, mail and sometime strongboxes filled with money. Even though the coaches had springs and were enclosed for the passengers it was a miserable way to travel. Beside the heat, cold, dust and bad roads there were other dangers including wheels falling off, brakes failing, robbers, run-away horses and an occasional Indian attack. Seems even when the iron horse came along, folks still rode the stage because railroads had not yet been built to every town or community in our great country.

As our country grew and folks headed westward, larger wagons were built to carry whole families and freight to Oregon and California. These wagons were first built in Lancaster Co. Pennsylvania along the Conestoga River region. Thus, the name for the large, covered wagon became known as the Conestoga. This wagon’s curves shape and high back doors helped with shifting cargo toward the center and prevented a lot of tip-overs along mountain passes. Although some of these large wagons were used to make the long journey westward, they would plum wear out a team of horses or oxen. Smaller covered wagons took their place.

Back in the late 1700s when my great-great and so on grandpa, Isaac Ewing Sr., moved his family from Maryland down the Great Wagon Road to N.C. He sold everything he had to buy three oxen, a wagon and supplies to make the trip south. So too did most of the families that made their way from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon and California. The cost for the long overland trip could easily run over $1,000 for a family of four. This price included four to six animals that would be used to pull the wagon through steep mountain passes and the dry prairies. Oxen were cheaper at $25.00 per head, but they were slower. Good horses and mules sold from $75 to $100 each but Indians were more apt to steal this type of animal.

To make the journey westward not only did you need animals, harness and a wagon, but you also needed to join a wagon train, buy guns, ammo, food, cooking equipment, water kegs, extra wheels, buckets of grease for the wheels and other supplies for the long journey.

To keep their animals from wearing out, most settlers walked along side their wagons and the driver might ride on one of the animals, instead of the wagon. The distance traveled each day mostly depended on the terrain or breakdowns along the trail. It might take as much as six months to reach California. During the journey disease, accidents and Indian attacks killed as many as six to ten percent of all settlers.

By the late 1860s transcontinental railroads were in place and only took about two weeks to cross the country but wagon trains still made the long and dangerous journey for several more years.

After the Civil War travel in the south was done by boat, walking, or riding a worn-out mule or horse. As times got better, new railroads track had been laid, and folks slowly pulled their lives back together. It was about this time, and for about the next hundred years, folks left behind farm life and moved to the towns and mill villages to earn a living. They still had to walk to work but the distance was much shorter.

One mode of travel I almost for forgot was in the late 1800s. Folks in the cities got around by bicycle. With better streets and roads, a nice bicycle ride was the sociable thing to do. Even in my generation and even today, bicycles play some role in our transportation.

By the early 1900s cars, trucks, buses and air travel started to arrive on the scene. Although at the time most people couldn’t afford this type of transportation. This new mode of transportation has forever changed our lives and made it much easier to get where we are going.

Now-a-days we complain about prices of gas, fuel oil and airfare but to be truthful how many of us would like to walk, ride a horse or endure one of those bumpy wagons to get to our destinations like our forefathers did.