Sometimes I think I would have like to traveled across the country in a covered wagon and helped settle the West. I know I am romanticizing the time period. It was hard and difficult and lots of people who started out never made it to their destination. It was especially hard on woman I think.
But the idea of selling what you don’t need and loading up a wagon filled with what you think you’ll need and heading across the plains appeals to me. My mother’s family did help settle Oklahoma. I’m not sure of the details but I’ve been told that her grandfather participated in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1893. But I don’t know this for a fact. Its on my list of things to research on Ancestry.com. I do know if he did he would have been 23 years old.
My great-grandfather and his brother came here from Sweden as young boys. I’ve been told 14, 15, maybe 16. They traveled from their home in Sweden together to come to America. They originally were indentured servants in Michigan or somewhere to work off the cost of their passage to America. The story I heard was the family they worked for was mean and they didn’t feel like they would ever work off their debt. So they ran away.
I love my modern conveniences. The refrigerator, the freezer, cold air conditioning, the electric stove, microwave, the grocery stores filled with a wide variety of foods. I can get most fruit any time of the year. But I think there is something to be said for living a life of self sufficiency. Building your house from what you find on your land, raising farm animals, planting crops, and hunting. Of course there was also hard winters, droughts, threats from indians, and sickness with no cure. It was a hard life, but I believe a satisfying life.