Three Weeks in a Wagon: 52 Ancestors 2021 Prompt “Transportation”

 

Grueling Trip by Wagon in 1899

Lucius Ernest Smith: 1878-1944
Willis Eugene Smith: 1888-1973

In the 1890s, Bruce’s great-grandfather, Rev. Willis Smith, was living in Owensboro, Kentucky with his first wife, Margaret Underwood Benton, and their family of eleven children. Rev. Smith worked as a Presbyterian minister, and also was a major landowner in the area. Sadly, Margaret Smith contracted “consumption”, which we now call tuberculosis, and at some point in the late 1890s, she traveled to Asheville, North Carolina in the hopes that the mountain air would help her illness. The town had become renowned as a health resort. It is unclear whether any of the children accompanied her or what arrangements were made in North Carolina for her care.

Rev. Willis Smith and first wife Margaret Benton Smith. Son Ernest at right? Circa 1883?

            All that we know for certain comes from a brief newspaper article from the November 12, 1897 edition of the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer, which states:

“Rev. Willis Smith, who has been prominently connected with real estate and other business enterprises of Owensboro for several years, will sell all his property as soon as possible and remove to Asheville, N.C., for the benefit of his wife’s health. She has been there for several months and is so much improved that Mr. Smith thinks she will recover if she remains there.”

The article was followed by several weeks of advertisements offering Rev. Smith’s  numerous properties for sale. Another article dated March 8, 1898 stated that Rev. Smith preached his final sermon at Mt. Zion Presbyterian, and he and all his family were moving the following week.

Sadly, Margaret Smith’s health improvement was illusory. She died in October, 1898, just seven months after her husband and children moved to Asheville. The newspaper noted, “She was in very bad health long prior to her death…For a while she appeared to improve, but recently she began to grow weaker, and she gradually sank until the end came.” She was buried in North Carolina.

Perhaps Asheville held too many bad memories, or perhaps the family didn’t find the community hospitable. For whatever reason, they decided to decamp back to Owensboro just months later.

There are no details about how the family traveled to Asheville in the first place, but I presume they went by rail. While there wasn’t a direct route between Owensboro and Asheville, both communities were on rail lines. Rev. Smith and most of his children probably returned to Kentucky the same way. However, two of his sons, Ernest and the Reverend’s namesake, Willis Eugene Smith, took what the local newspaper called “The Overland Route”. It was apparently an unusual enough mode of travel that the newspaper published an article when the two boys arrived by wagon in early March 1899. The article said:

“Messrs. Ernest and Willis Smith Jr., sons of Rev Willis Smith, arrived in the city Friday night from Asheville, N. C., to make this place their home. They came all the way in a wagon. It took them three weeks and two days to make the trip. Rev. Smith and the rest of his family have also returned to Owensboro to reside.”

So what made this wagon trip so newsworthy? In the first place, the distance: on modern day highways, the trip is around 425 miles. In 1899, there were no direct interstate highways through the Great Smoky and Cumberland Mountains; the trip would have been longer as a result.

Wagons in main square in Asheville N.C. in late 1880s

Secondly, they were traveling in winter, through the mountains. If the trip took three weeks and two days, and the March 5 newspaper reported their arrival, the latest date they left Asheville would have been February 10.

            In present day, following a century of global warming, the average temperatures for the Great Smoky Mountains in February are in the 30s during the day and down near 20 degrees Fahrenheit at night. Even down in the valleys and flat lands of North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky, the average highs only reach 50 and the lows are in the 30s. There are frequent rainstorms and the occasional snow storm. This was a miserable time of year to travel, exposed to the elements in a wooden wagon. The brothers would have had to prepare their own food as they travelled, for there are few towns in the mountain areas. They also had to provide feed and water for their horses or mules. They faced long, grueling, exhausting days. This was a dangerous undertaking.

Wagons in Cumberland Mountains 1890s

            To top it all off, Willis was only eleven years old! Ernest at least was an adult at twenty-one, but his little brother was probably more of a responsibility for him than a help. I have to question Rev. Smith’s common sense. He seems to have been rather negligent as a parent. He is fortunate both sons arrived in one piece.

            The photos of wagons maneuvering through the Cumberland Gap area in the 1890s show how rugged and difficult the journey would have been. Given that Ernest and Willis covered about 450 miles in 23 days, they averaged over nineteen miles per day. Considering the difficulties of the trip, that’s a pretty good pace. Imagine jouncing over rough roads and fording rocky streams for hours and hours while seated on a hard wooden seat! For over three weeks! Hardly luxury transportation!

Wagons crossing stream area in Kentucky 1896

Why did they make this trip? Perhaps the boys were given the task of moving the family’s household goods in the wagon as some sort of cost-saving measure. I wonder how many animals pulled the wagon? I am guessing two—that seems the usual number in photos from the era. Had Rev. Smith purchased horses or mules specifically for the boys’ journey, or had the family purchased them after arriving in Asheville in 1897?    

This was quite the trip using a rather primitive mode of transportation. I’m sure Ernest and young Willis had some amazing tales to tell by the time they reached Owensboro.  

 

Sources:

Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer. Editions: November 12, 1897; March 5, 1899; March 8, 1898; Oct. 1898. Newspapers.com.

Photo of mule team wagons fording stream in Cumberland Mountains, Kentucky 1896. https://www.themountaineagle.com/articles/pioneers-traveled-through-scuttle-hole-gap/