Too impatient to wait for the “new” Beale’s Wagon Road to be completed, two wagon trains of emigrants left Santa Fe in 1858 to try it out, one headed by L. R. Rose, and following it another led by Gillum Baley. One member of the Baley train, John Udell, who had had previous experience traveling in the west, opposed the choice of route, but was overruled. (see more)
THE OATMAN MASSACRE
A wagon train led by John Brewster, a Mormon who rejected the leadership of the church in Utah, along with approximately 90 followers, known as Brewsterites, left Independence Missouri on August 5, 1850 in search of the “intended place of gathering” for the Mormons in California. Royce and Mary Ann Oatman and their seven children were amongst the followers. (see more)
