1843 Wagon Train Pioneers

"The following list contains the names of every male member of that great train over the age of sixteen years. It was prepared by J W NESMITH when the train was organized, and preserved among his papers for a third of a century before given for publication.

(Publication was in TOPA [Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association] 1876, The Occasional Address of Hon J W NESMITH with this list appearing on pp 49-51.)

JWN = James W NESMITH list
JAA = Jesse A APPLEGATE list
OGS = Oregon Genealogical Society, Pioneer Certificate Project Springfield/Eugene.

Jump to A-through-M names

N - through - Z names:

• Thomas NAYLOR
• J W NESMITH

  at Independence Rock: "Had the pleasure of waiting on five or six young ladies to pay a visit to Independence Rock. I had the satisfaction of putting the names of Miss Mary Zachary and Miss Jane Mills on the southeast point of the rocks."

  NESMITH wrote: "Capt. Grant, then in charge of the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Hall, endeavored to dissuade us from proceeding further with our wagons, and showed us the wagons that the emigrants of the preceding year had abandoned, as evidence of the impractibility of our determination. "

• W T NEWBY
• Noah NEWMAN
• Hugh D O'BRIEN [JAA: Hugh D BRYANT]
• Humphrey O'BRIEN [JAA: Humphrey BRYANT]
• Bennett O'NEIL
• A OLINGER
• Neil OSBORN
• E W OTIE

  [JAA: E W OTEY]. Edwin Walter OTEY, from Virginia, married Martha Jane BENTON, per OGS Pioneer Certificate.

• M B OTIE [JAA: M B OTEY]
• Thomas OWEN [JAA: Thomas OWENS]
• Thomas A OWEN [JAA: Thomas A OWENS]
• Clayborn PAINE [Died on the route] [JAA: at Sweetwater River]
• Jesse PARKER
• William PARKER

  " William Parker was Jesse Applegate's brother-in-law (his wife Cynthia's brother). He was born in 1822. He could swim very well and saved himself in a fall in the Columbia River in 1843. After The South Road Expedition (The Applegate Trail"), he moved to Southern Oregon and by the 1860's was operating a Stagecoach stop between Ashland and Klamath Falls called Parkers Station. He married the daughter of an old mountain man, Capt. Soloman Tetherow." - from his thumbnail biography from the Douglas Co OR Museum.

• A F PARMELEE [JAA list only]
• J R PATTERSON [JAA: I R PATTERSON]
• Samuel PAYNTER [JAA: Samuel PENTER]
• J B PENNINGTON

  [JAA: John B PENNINGTON]. John Barton PENNINGTON, of Dade Co MO, married Sarah Elizabeth HEMBREE, per OGS Pioneer Certificate.

• Charles E PICKETT
• Henry PILE [JAA list only]
• R H POE [JAA: R A POE]
• Frederick PRIGG
• Leo PRUDHOMME [JAA list only]
• P B READING [Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California]

  "There is quite a bit more to the Pierson B READING story. He received a land grant in what is now Shasta Co CA and established several towns there including "old Shasta". The town of Redding may have been named for him with the spelling subsequently changed by the vice-president of the railroad. There is a Shasta Historical Society in Redding, with info about Pierson Barton READING. He is often mentioned in California History Quarterly Index [NOT WORKING LINK 1/1/2001], including a 7-page chronology of his life in Vol 22." 27 Feb 98 from Grant6666@ao.com
  "Also among the the noted arrivals [in California] in 1843 was Pierson B. READING, an accomplished gentlemen, the proprietor of Reading's ranch in Shasta County, and from whom Fort Reading took its name. Samuel J HENSLEY was also one of the same party [which arrived in 1843 in CA]." - from The Century Magazine (Dec 1890) - Life in California Before the Gold Discovery
  More information about him is at Cottonwood CA Historical notes.

• Jacob REID [JAA: Jacob READ]
• G W RICE
• Daniel RICHARDSON [Died on the route] [JAA: "at Fort Hall"]
• John RICHARDSON
• John RICORD

  "John RECORD is mentioned in missionary Gustavus HINES' 1889 book Wild Life in Oregon... HINES left Oregon and was in the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii], where he came across John RECORD, now a minister in the government of the King of Hawaii. HINES states that he is the same John RECORD who crossed the plains to Oregon in 1843." -- Don RIVARA

• Thomas RIVERS [JAA: Thomas REEVES]
• Emseley ROBERTS [JAA: Emsley ROBERTS]
• James ROBERTS
• Solomon ROBERTS
• G W RODGERS [JAA: G W ROGERS]
• S P RODGERS [JAA: S P ROGERS]
• John ROE
• Joseph ROSSIN [JAA: John ROSSIN]
• Philip RUBY [JAA: Philip RUBEY]
• William RUSSELL
• Henry SEWELL
• C SHARP
• William SHELDON
• Samuel SHIRLY
• John M SHIVELY see a quote by him in 1846 at Oregon National Historic Trail website.
• Ahi SMITH
• Anderson SMITH
• Eli SMITH
• Isaac W SMITH
• Nathan SMITH [JAA list only]
• Robert SMITH

  Two years after the 1846 exploration of the South Road (or " The Applegate Trail") in 1848, Robert Smith went to California to try his luck in the gold fields. He returned in 1849 and took a Donation Land Claim in Douglas County. In 1850, he married Charles Applegate's daughter Susan, and was a successful farmer until his death in 1888.

• --- SMITH [JAA list only]
• Thomas H SMITH
• Thomas SMITH
• Chancey SPENCER [JAA: Chauncey SPENCER]
• George STERLING [JAA: George STIRLING]
• --- STEVENSON [JAA: Edward STEVENSON, died on Sandy River]
• P G STEWART [see notes at F C CASON, above]
• C STIMMERMAN [JAA: C STOMMERMAN]
• James STORY
• Alex STOUGHTON
• Henry STOUT
• --- STOUT
• Hiram STRAIT [JAA: Hiram STRAIGHT]
• C W STRINGER [Died on the route, possibly at Three Island Crossing, where Mr AYRES also died, as reported by Samuel HANCOCK.]
• Cornelius STRINGER [JAA: "drowned at The Dalles"]
• George SUMMERS
• M SUMMERS [JAA list only]
• W C SUMMERS
• Dr Nathan'l SUTTON [JAA: Nathan SITTON]

  "Nathan Koontz "Doc" Sitton was 16 when he traveled with the wagon train of 1843." --David KUKENDALL, Independence MO.

• --- SWIFT
• Stephen TARBOX
• Jeremiah TELLER [JAA: Jeremiah TULLER]
• Lindsey THARP [JAA: Lindsey THORP]
• John THOMPSON
• D TRAINOR [JAA: D TRAINER]
• John UMNICKER [JAA: John UMICKER]
• Samuel VANCE
• William VAUGHN

  "My great-grandfather, William H VAUGHAN, was a member of the 1843 wagon train. NESMITH misspelled his name. Please add the middle initial "H" and spell the last name "VAUGHAN."
  "VAUGHAN was a 21-year-old bachelor from Tennessee, and he nearly drowned while crossing the Kansas River early in the Oregon Trail journey. After arriving in Oregon City, he worked for Dr. John McLOUGHLIN and the Hudson's Bay Company. VAUGHAN helped clear brush and trees to make a path for Main Street, and helped build some cabins and McLOUGHLIN's sawmill. With the help of his oxen, VAUGHAN was the first person ever to hoist a wagon over the bluff at Oregon City. In 1844, he became the first non-Indian permanent settler in what is now south Clackamas County. He married Susan Mary OFFICER in 1847 and was known as "Uncle Billy" and the "Sage of Molalla." He died in 1906." -- Champ C VAUGHAN, President, Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers, 28Mar98

• George VERNON
• John WAGONER [JAA: John WAGGONER]
• J W WAIR
• Daniel WALDO

  "Part of his family included his slaves, one of whom was the mother of his daughter, America. They settled in the hills outside of Salem [the Waldo Hills]. They built a separate building for slave quarters. Daniel Waldo was a member of the Legislative Committee of 1844, and voted in favor of the Black exclusion law passed in June 1844. America WALDO later married Richard BOGLE (see photo and extensive information on the BOGLE family)." --from the Black Pioneers of the Oregon Country web-page

• David WALDO
• William WALDO
• T B WARD [JAA: T B WOOD]
• James WATERS
• Jno (Betty) WATSON
• H WHEELER [JAA: N WHEELER]
• James WHITE

  "James WHITE was my ggg grandfather. He was accompanied by his wife Rhoda KINZE, his children (that I know of) Leonard, Methotemy, Sarah, and Sophia and also by their year old child Elizabeth Jane. She later married Samual C TOMLINSON, an overlander of 1853. James and Rhoda WHITE settled in Polk Co on DLC #22. I would like to share information with anyone connected to this family." --Marilyn DANIELS, 17 Mar 1998

• Benjamin WILLIAMS
• David WILLIAMS
• Edward WILLIAMS
• Isaac WILLIAMS [JWN only: Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California]
• James WILLIAMS [JWN only: Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California]
• John WILLIAMS [Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California]
• Squire WILLIAMS [JWN only: Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California]
• James WILMONT [JAA: Joseph WILMONT]
• Wm H WILSON

  "My great great grandfather came to Oregon on the Jesse Applegate wagon train in 1843. He was a proud Oregonian and was a credit to both his family and state which he served well.
  We had the first Wilson reunion in 50 years in Drain Oregon on 23 August 1997 in the Civic Center. All Wilson descendants were encouraged to come and meet their cousins."
  Diana (from CA) [unknown, and did not put her email address in this message taken from an OR-ROOTS posting 6/8/97]
  William Hunt WILSON's Great Granddaughter
  also see the similar listing at Wm H WILSON in the missionary list.

• Wm WILSON
• Archibald WINKLE [JAA: Archibald WINKLER]

  "In the Centennial History of Oregon I read it as printed --Archibald WILKE. This is my relation and our history is based on it, a land claim was taken up under this and other WILKE/WILKES names about this time period." --from Norma FRISCH, 27 Oct 1998.

• Wm WINTER [JAA: "with Overton JOHNSON, returned to the East and published a book about the emigration of 1843"]
• Alexander ZACHARY
• John ZACHARY

  Miss Mary ZACHARY is mentioned by Capt James NESMITH at Independence Rock

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your comments and additions welcome! Mike RANSOM, page maintainer.

Accessed times since 19 Feb 1998

updated: 26 May 2003