NoahWagoner

[Broderbund WFT Vol. 9, Ed. 1, Tree #2432]

NOAH AND SUZANNE (KILLINGSWORTH) WAGONER On April 8, 1883, Noah and Suzanne Killingsworth Wagoner (my parents) were married at Osceola, St. Clair Co., MO. Father was 19 years old and Mother was 22. Soon after their marriage they left for Wyoming with Grandpa Wagoners (Andrew and Mary Wagoner) Uncle Andy Wagoner, Sam Wagoner and Uncle Abel Killingsworth who went with them but didn't stay very long. Phillip Wagoner was in MO when they bought the cattle and Uncle John Wagoner looked after taking the cattle to Wyoming. There were ten covered wagons and two hundred forty head of cattle. It took them all summer to make the trip. The cattles' feet got so sore from walking they had to shoe some of them with leather. The women helped drive the wagons. They would hang the cream up in the top of the wagon and the motion of the wagon would churn it into butter. When they arrived in Wyoming they put out timber to prove their land. My Father had one hundred sixty acres of land. Ten acres of the timber is still standing. They put their brand on their cattle and horses and put them out on the range, out in the mountains and the valley. My Father's brand was E--Z--2. Once a year the men that owned cattle and horses would round them up and put them in a corral and brand them, then turn them back out again. Some of the horses would get so wild, they had to lasso them and break them before they could ride them or hitch them to their wagons. There were very few church members. Grandpa Wagoners, Uncle Tom Murreys, Uncle Sammy Yosts are among the few I remember. We never had a church house. They held their regular meetings in the school house, but when they had communion they held that in my folks home, by candle light. Issac Bashor was our minister, also Uncle Sammy Yost while he lived there. He left three years before my folks. On July 3, 1884, Uncle Sammy Yosts had a little girl three years old to be washed off their wagon and drown as they were fording a swift stream. Her body was found a few hours later. She was buried out on the plains where no one else was buried. Later her body was taken up and buried at Spring Creek, Wyoming. My sister, Elda, passed away in 1901 at the age of seventeen. She had what they called brain fever. The doctor had to come by horseback for many miles. She was buried at Encampment, Wyoming. My Father and Uncle Dave Killingsworth again took up the body of Sammy Yosts little girl and buried her beside my sister at Encampment. Once a year my folks took butter, eggs, strawberries and vegetables to Rawlins, which was forty-five miles away. They'd get a supply of groceries, such as flour, sugar, salt, a barrel of crackers and coffee to grind. They would take eggs, butter etc. to Saratoga more often, which was twenty miles away. They also did banking at Saretoga, but had money in the house until they could get to the bank. One Sunday morning while we were at church someone broke down the door and stole two hundred dollars from a dresser drawer. Wyoming was noted for its high quality grass. They also produced the finest quality butter, so therefore got a high price for it. Cold water was not needed to keep butter or milk. They could keep meat without salt by putting a pole in the ground and with a pulley and rope they would put the meat to the top of it for storage, then lower it when they wanted to use it. It would keep all year, as the air is so pure and dry. The principle meats used were wild, such as antelope, deer, mountain sheep, and elk. Fish was plentiful and very good. Many were caught in irrigating ditches. There was a ditch put through my Father's land bringing water down from the mountains for irrigating. It was called the Wagoner Pitch. There was also one right beside it called the Parr ditch. They can both be seen today. Wages for herding cattle were thirty-five to forty dollars a month. On September 1, 1903, we left Wyoming for Overbrook, KS. I was nine years old. We brought two covered wagons and five head of horses. It took until the latter part of October to get there, about two months. Father bought three-hundred-twenty acres of land there. We lived there twelve years before moving to IN. My folks lived in Wyoming 20 years. I had three sisters. Elda, Nettie, who died in KS at the age of twenty, and Sarah. One Brother Abel. I was the youngest child. This is what I remember about Wyoming and our trip by covered wagon when we moved to KS, seventy-five years ago. Rosa Wagoner Miller
Broderbund WFT Vol. 9, Ed. 1, Tree #2432
Broderbund WFT Vol. 9, Ed. 1, Tree #2432
Rootsweb GEDCOM.