Custom Sensor Solutions, Inc.Custom Sensor Solutions, Inc.[In 1828, Agatha, her husband, and daughter Sarah, emigrated from Ireland. Finding conditions in New York no better, or worse, than in Ireland, her husband convinces her to join a band of other Irish immigrants in a plan to travel to California. But almost as soon as the trip begins, her husband dies of pneumonia. Agatha, having nothing to go back to, decides to press on with her daughter. They complete the trip through the Erie Canal, travel by boat to the shanty town of Chicago, and begin the trip overland.]
On the fourth day, it began to rain. The ground was becoming slippery under foot, and this slowed their progress slightly. By the fifth day, the ground was getting very muddy, and wagon wheels were mired. A few of the men cut down some small trees from a grove and used poles shaped from their trunks to pry the wheels out of the muck. They worked slowly, the sticky clay pulling at their boots, and hindering their movements. The weather had become unseasonably cold, and rain pelted them mercilessly as they struggled with the wagons. At one point, they had to seek shelter by a grove of trees as the rain turned to large hailstones that pummeled the ground and panicked the animals.
To add to their troubles, many people had taken sick, much like Agatha's husband, and, worst of all, one baby had died. There was no settlement nearby. Nothing could be done but to bury the body by the side of the trail, and move on after a few brief prayers were said over the grave.
Although they struggled to increase the distance they were traveling each day, nothing seemed to be working in their favor. Several wagons lost wheels and the men had to work out in the cold and the rain to fix them, a chore that took a long time since they weren't used to it. As some of these men became ill, the women had to take over their chores. For her part, Agatha learned to select the dry lower branches of the trees for firewood. She already knew how to pitch her own tent.
After traveling for 10 days, Robert Colins estimated that they'd only gone 40 miles. The trail had dwindled down to little better than a footpath, leaving them to cope with waist-high prairie grass, or overhanging branches and partially exposed roots in the wooded areas. The weather had improved, but so many people were sick that Robert Colins decided to set up camp in a wooded area to wait out the illness.
Current May 26, 1998
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