It Happened on the Oregon Trail by Tricia Martineau Wagner

Author:Tricia Martineau Wagner [Wagner, Tricia Martineau]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493011223
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Published: 2015-01-29T06:00:00+00:00

A KINDNESS RETURNED

William F. Alexander, Trail Doctor

•1852•

Dr. William F. Alexander, looking rather disheveled, left the livery carrying a cumbersome canvas sack of sawdust on his shoulder. He headed down the street and opened the door of his apothecary shop, oblivious to the fact that those around him noticed he was peppered in sawdust. Stepping inside, he let the sack fall heavily to the floor. Then he sat down in the corner, packing his stock of medical supplies in the old but sturdy trunk he had recently purchased. There were vials of morphine for pain, hartshorn for snakebite, citric acid for scurvy, and quinine for malaria. He lined up a tincture of camphor, castor oil, laudanum, calomel, a box of physicking pills, and peppermint essence. Then he checked the amounts of rum, brandy, rattlewood tea, mustard, and opium. He added extra whiskey, which would serve as a general cure-all. After shaking the last bit of sawdust from the sack into the well-packed trunk, the doctor closed the lid tightly and locked it. Placing the key in his vest pocket, he felt his heart beating fast. All that he was worth was now packed in that trunk, along with his dreams and aspirations. He had spent his life’s savings outfitting himself for the overland journey on which he was about to embark.

It was the spring of 1852 and the optimistic, and rather naive, Dr. Alexander was heading west over the Oregon Trail. He had heard that the fertile Willamette Valley was starting to fill up with settlers from the East, and that spoke to the young man who had spent several years serving as a country doctor. Settlers would need medical attention in their new towns, and Dr. Alexander hoped to fill that need. A mere two-thousand-mile journey across the continent, and he could set up his own practice. What Dr. Alexander did not anticipate, however, was that his skills would be called upon long before he reached Oregon.

Dr. Alexander was not particular about which wagon train he hooked up with. He soon discovered he had his choice, as any caravan willingly accepted a doctor among its number. As his chosen caravan proceeded, they found that the first third of the Oregon Trail was geographically the easiest section, with the flat plains offering a manageable terrain. Though monotonous at times, it was also very scenic: gently rolling plains with head-high waving grass and abundant wildflowers. The slow-moving but sometimes deceiving Platte River was a reliable pathway from Nebraska to Wyoming. All the overlanders came to use it—which was precisely the problem.

The year 1852 just happened to be the peak year of travel on the Oregon Trail. That year alone, about seventy thousand emigrants journeyed through the same area. Though the emigrants wouldn’t have known it at the time, sanitation and health were directly related. Thus the first section of the Oregon Trail also held the distinction of being the most disease-ridden. Campsites there were overused, and contact with polluted water and soil was inevitable.

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