The Oregon Trail

FYI - The Oregon State fruit is the Pear!

The historic Oregon Trail (you know, the one that the popular education game is based off of) began as a fur trappers' and traders' trail. It was only passable on foot or on horseback from 1811 to 1840 and spanned from Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Wagon trails soon followed until 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed. But that's not the Oregon trail I'm talking about. 

The Oregon trail I'm talking about is a gossamer strand of the Callaway genealogy which I discovered in the midst of spinning out the genealogy web from Arkansas. Now I've seen strands disappear in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. But Oregon, that's a new one. 

Sometime between 1876 and 1878, Andrew Jackson Callaway, the oldest son of Martha Jane Jones and Jonathan Hosea Callaway, left Arkansas for Oregon. I know it was between 1876 and 1878 because he married S.A. Alston in Ashley Co. Arkansas(1876) and Sarah Steele in Oregon (1878). 

Now after a quick eye-popping "Yeah!", I had ask, "How did he get to Oregon and what was he doing there?" Oregon... late 1870s... what was going on? The Cattle Kingdom!

Here's what I've been able to piece together. In 1870, when Andrew was 19 years old he was living with his sister and brother-in-law, Sarah Caroline and William P. Griffin. William was an Editor and Andrew was a Farmer according to the 1870 census. Then in 1876 Andrew marries S.A. Alston who passes away shortly thereafter, possibly in childbirth. Based on historical events I speculate that perhaps in a desire for change Andrew joined a cattle drive coming up from Texas to the northwest.


He then lived in Oregon until is death on December 11, 1898. 

You'll notice on the tombstone that there's no birth date. However, it does give his age at 48 years, 9 months and 8 days. Using RootsWeb age calculator, it puts Andrew's birth day at March 3, 1850. The Callaway Family Bible puts it at March 25, 1850... that's pretty darn close. So I'm pretty confident that this is the Andrew Jackson Callaway that originally hailed from the Arkansas Callaways. 

Might make an interesting story. What do you think?