Week 43: Transportation #52Ancestors

I’ve talked a lot about “transportation” in this blog: from the many railroad-men in my husband’s side of the family to the ship Louis Philippe that took some of my German ancestors to America.

Most of the Glacy side the family stayed put when they arrived in the U.S., never venturing too far from New York City. On the other hand, all of my husband’s family made their way to Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and the territories of Nebraska and Kansas by the mid-to-late 1800’s. But how, exactly, did they do that? It’s not like they had Uber or anything.

I mentioned last week the “pull” factor that the opening of the American West had for immigration. This was true not only for immigrants from overseas but also Americans who had originally settled in the colonies and the Mississippi Valley.[1] The book I’ve just footnoted, Westward Expansion, opened my eyes to how quickly and efficiently the Great Plains were settled. Steamship companies, land-grant railroads, and state “Bureaus of Immigration” all entered into massive advertising campaigns in the East Coast of the U.S. and in Europe.[2] The Burlington and Union Pacific railroads spent a combined $1 million on advertising.[3]

None of our ancestors left letters or diaries describing their travels, so I’ve had to presume that they came West via certain popular routs. As near as I can figure out, some of our ancestors who wound up in Illinois from Ireland, likely landed in New Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi by steamship. Our British ancestors landed in the East Coast (New York, Boston, and maybe Canada) and probably made their way to Nebraska via the railroad. Revolutionary War veterans like my husband’s 4th great-grandfather, Samuel Pickerill, moved West in the late 1700’s because he received 100-acres in present-day Kentucky as bounty land for his three-years of military service.[4] Samuel’s family continued their westward migration to Ohio, then to Illinois, then to Missouri and lastly to Kansas.

How would a family pack up and make the move west? What to bring? What to leave behind? An 1870 guide to emigrants and settlers to Kansas advised that it would be cheaper for new immigrants to sell their household furniture and farming equipment and buy new once they arrived, especially if they went by railroad.[5] “Good feather beds and bedding may profitably be brought along,” but farm animals were cheaper in Kansas than the cost to transport them.[6]

In about 1871, my husband’s 2nd great-grandfather, Richard McCormick, his wife Bridget, and six of their children migrated from Will County, Illinois (just south-west of Chicago) to Labette County, Kansas (on the Oklahoma border, west of the Missouri state line), a trip of about 590 miles.[7] Now-a-days, we’d hire a moving van, pack up our shizzle, and drive the nine hours. Not so for the McCormicks. First, if Richard and Bridget had taken the above advice for migrants, they would have sold their sixty-acres of land, farm implements and machinery (valued at thirty dollars), and livestock worth about $657 (nine cows, four horses, and four pigs).[8]

To get to Labette from Will, family would have likely taken the railroad from Joliet to East Saint Louis, a trip of 243 miles.[9]From there, they probably took the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway (the Katy) from St. Louis to Sedalia, Missouri and then from Sedalia to Parsons, the largest city in Labette County.[10] If you remember back to Week 35, this family included many of the railroad workers in our family who eventually went to work for the Katy Railroad in Parsons. 

I can’t image how long this entire took trip nor what struggles they encountered along the way. Could they have pre-booked their passage on the railroad? Did they travel the ten miles or so from their farm to Joliet by wagon, on foot, or a combination? When they got to East St. Louis, how did they get from that train station to the one in St. Louis proper? Was the trip to Parsons a “non-stop” or did they have to change trains in Sedalia? When they got to Parsons, who was there to help them? Where did they stay before they bought the farm they settled on?

Whatever the mode of transportation or the problems they may have faced, it all appears to have paid off: less than ten-years later, Richard and Bridget had 160-acre farm with $113 of farm equipment and machinery, and livestock worth $976, including fifty-eight cows, twelve pigs, and 100 chickens.[11] They were also growing Indian corn, oats, wheat, Irish potatoes, apples, and peaches. I’d say the trip was worth it.

[1] Ray Allen Billington & Martin Ridge, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, 6th ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001), 358.

[2] Ibid., 358-359.

[3] Ibid., 360.

[4] Land-Office Military Warrant, No. 1369, 12 July 1783, Samuel Pickrel (sic); digital image, Kentucky Secretary of State, Revolutionary War Warrants, (http://landofficeimages.sos.ky.gov/landofficeimages/images/LG35/IMAGES/00000004/00000006/41e2bbc1.tif : accessed 4 Feb 2017).

[5] Kansas Publishing Company, Some General Practical Information in Regard to the “Great State of Kansas,” 2nd ed., (Lawrence, Kansas: The Kansas Pub. Co., 1870), 60; digital image, Kansas Memory (https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/212552 : accessed 22 October 2019). 

[6] Ibid., 61.

[7] “Direction from Channahon, Will County, Illinois to Walton, Labette County, Kansas,” Google (https://www.google.com/maps : accessed 22 October 2019).

[8] 1870 U.S. census, Will County, Illinois, agricultural schedule, Channahon, p. 5-6, Richard McCormick; citing NARA microfilm pub. T1133, roll 23.

[9] Henry Poor, Manual of the Railroads of the United States for 1873-74 (New York: J.J. Little & Co., 1873), 221; digital images, Google Books (http://books.Google.com : accessed 22 October 2019)

[10] Maps showing the Route and Land Grant of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, 1871; digital images, Kansas Memory (https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/213912 : accessed 22 October 2019). 

[11] 1880 U.S. census, Labette County, Kansas, agricultural schedule, Walton, p. 1, Richard McCormick; citing NARA microfilm pub. T1130, roll 22.

Kansas Pacific Railway Company, Emigrants’ Guide to the Kansas Pacific Railway Lands: Best and Cheapest Farming and Grazing Lands in America (Lawrence, Kansas : Kansas Pacific Railway Co., 1871) digital image, Kansas Memory (https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/1238/page/1 : accessed 22 October 2019).

“Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Shops, Parsons, Kansas,” 1870-1890, photographer unknown; digital image, I (https://www.kansasmemory.org/item/210447/page/1 : accessed 22 October 2019).

Richard Dillon and Bridget (Conroy) McCormick, date unknown; digital image privately held.