Into the Western Winds: Pioneer Boys Traveling the Overland Trails

Rating:
Summary: Spirited stories of young westward emigrants
Review: Heartfelt renderings of life along the Oregon/California Trails through the eyes of boys and adolescent young men. Mary Barmeyer O'Brien selects nine different diaries and memoirs of pioneering young men and paraphrases these diary excerpts with her own style of writing. Wonderfully done!
We read of seven year old Jesse Applegate and their Oregon bound wagon train of 1843 with their many hardships and misfortunes, including the drowning of his brother in the Columbia River.
Then there is seventeen year old Moses Schallenberger's wagon party of 1844, where due to circumstances of deep snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and being left behind to guard the wagons, he oftentimes was referred to as "Robinson Crusoe of the Sierra Nevada" because of his solitary existence in a make-shift log cabin for months.
The courageous fourteen year old Octavius Pringle in 1844 riding solo to get provisions back to his stranded family on the Applegate Cutoff.
Eleven year old Elisha Brooks in 1852 traveling hundreds of miles with only his mother and five siblings to California.
These young boys, along with their families, exemplify the strong, rugged, Herculean efforts these pioneers had to endure in order to reach the land of their dreams.
As seen through the eyes of youth, this is a different, but at the same time admirable way, to look at westward emigration.

Rating:
Summary: Spirited stories of young westward emigrants
Review: Heartfelt renderings of life along the Oregon/California Trails through the eyes of boys and adolescent young men. Mary Barmeyer O'Brien selects nine different diaries and memoirs of pioneering young men and paraphrases these diary excerpts with her own style of writing. Wonderfully done!
We read of seven year old Jesse Applegate and their Oregon bound wagon train of 1843 with their many hardships and misfortunes, including the drowning of his brother in the Columbia River.
Then there is seventeen year old Moses Schallenberger's wagon party of 1844, where due to circumstances of deep snows in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and being left behind to guard the wagons, he oftentimes was referred to as "Robinson Crusoe of the Sierra Nevada" because of his solitary existence in a make-shift log cabin for months.
The courageous fourteen year old Octavius Pringle in 1844 riding solo to get provisions back to his stranded family on the Applegate Cutoff.
Eleven year old Elisha Brooks in 1852 traveling hundreds of miles with only his mother and five siblings to California.
These young boys, along with their families, exemplify the strong, rugged, Herculean efforts these pioneers had to endure in order to reach the land of their dreams.
As seen through the eyes of youth, this is a different, but at the same time admirable way, to look at westward emigration.