Recently my friend Candace suggested I read The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. It’s really good, she said. She remembered a column I wrote a few weeks ago. It was based on an old diary about my great-great Grandfather John Wesley Cooper and his brother William who traveled west during the Gold Rush. In 1850 it …
Old diary offers glimpse of wagon train life
Every once in a while a dream comes true. One such occasion was last month, when I opened my email and there it was: a complete transcription of a diary written by a young man on a wagon train in 1850. But not just any wagon train; this one involved my great-great grandfather and his brother on the adventure of …