Learn more about significant figures of the Oregon National Historic Trail.
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Oregon National Historic Trail
Article 1: Matilda and Elizabeth Sager, the Oregon Trail
Elizabeth and Matilda Sager experienced a harrowing journey on the Oregon Trail that fractured their family; afterward, they faced unimaginable trauma at Waiilatpu. Their recorded memories provide a unique insight into the journey of a single emigrant family from the perspectives of two children. Read more
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Oregon National Historic Trail
Article 2: Tabitha Brown, the Oregon Trail
Not wanting to be left behind, Tabitha—by then sixty-five years old—concluded that family ties were stronger than her own fear of the long journey; assisted by her nephew Charles Fullerton, she packed all her belongings into a wagon and prepared to head west toward the Oregon Territory. Read more
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Oregon National Historic Trail
Article 3: Amanda Gardener Johnson, the Oregon Trail
Amanda Gardener was born in Liberty, Missouri, in 1833 and became a wedding present to her owner’s daughter, Nancy Wilhite. When she was seven years old, she was given to Wilhite’s daughter, Lydia, who had recently married Anderson Deckard. Gardener left for Oregon with the Deckard Family in March 1853 and arrived there six months later. She married a blacksmith and lived in Albany, where she remained close to the Deckards throughout her life. Read more
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Oregon National Historic Trail
Article 4: George Washington Bush, the Oregon Trail
George Washington Bush, a free Black Missourian who had become wealthy in the region’s cattle trade, loaded his white wife and their five children onto a wagon at Savannah Landing in the spring of 1844; they joined a train of eighty-four wagons headed towards Oregon Country and the Columbia River Valley led by Michael T. Simmons, an Irish immigrant. Read more
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Oregon National Historic Trail
Article 5: Robin and Polly Holmes, the Oregon Trail
Robin and Polly Holmes (along with their three-year-old daughter Mary Jane) arrived to Oregon Country after a long journey on the emigrant trail from Missouri in 1844. Brought there by their owner, Nathaniel Ford, the Holmes family had landed on “free soil”—meaning slavery was not legal there. Yet this law was not enforced, and the Holmes’ long journey was only the beginning of their ordeal. Read more