Rose–Baley Party
The Rose–Baley Party was the first European American emigrant wagon train to traverse the 35th parallel route known as Beale's Wagon Road, established by Edward Fitzgerald Beale, from Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico to the Colorado River near present-day Needles, California.
In 1858, a wealthy businessman from Keosauqua, Iowa, Leonard John Rose, formed the party after hearing stories from gold miners returning from California. He subsequently financed a well-equipped wagon train that included twenty horses and two hundred head of purebred red Durham cattle. He also acquired four large covered wagons and three yoke of oxen to pull each wagon. The Rose company left Iowa in early April, and in mid-May they were joined by the Baley company, led by a forty-four-year-old veteran of the Black Hawk War, Gillum Baley. Their combined outfits numbered twenty wagons, forty men, fifty to sixty women and children, and nearly five hundred head of cattle. John Udell, a 62-year-old Baptist minister kept a daily journal of the party's travels, recording the locations of their campsites, documenting their progress, and noting the availability of resources.
On August 30, 1858, after having traveled more than in four months, the Rose–Baley Party were attacked as they prepared to cross the Colorado River near present-day Needles, California. Eight members of the party were killed, including five children, and thirteen wounded. The emigrants killed several of the attackers, and decided to backtrack more than to Albuquerque, New Mexico, instead of continuing on to their intended destination in southern California.
Sourcing
According to Charles W. Baley, great-grandnephew of Baley company leader, Gillum Baley, and the author of Disaster at the Colorado: Beale's Wagon Road and the First Emigrant Party, little has been written about Beale's Wagon Road because the negative experiences of the first wagon trains to attempt the passage effectively "discouraged its use". Baley's great-grandparents joined his great-great uncle in forming the company in 1858, which merged with one led by Leonard John Rose to make the Rose–Baley Party.Baley's account drew heavily from the only known journal kept by a member of the group. John Udell, a 62-year-old Baptist minister who had left his home in Missouri with his wife, Emily, kept a daily record of the party's travels, recording the locations of their campsites and their estimated distance from Missouri, the weather and road conditions, and the availability of grass, water, and wood. Baley described Udell's journal as the "basic framework" of his research. The only other source of firsthand information is Rose, whose account was printed in the Missouri Republican in 1859, and later reprinted as an appendix in Dr. Robert Glass Cleland's work, The Cattle on a Thousand Hills: Southern California, 1850–1880.
E.F. Beale expedition
In October 1857, an expedition led by Edward Fitzgerald Beale was tasked with establishing a trade route along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles, California. The wagon road began at Fort Smith and continued through Fort Defiance, Arizona before crossing the Colorado River near present-day Needles, California. The location where Beale crossed the river, en route to California, became known as Beale's Crossing. Beale described the route, "It is the shortest from our western frontier by, being nearly directly west. It is the most level: our wagons only double-teaming once in the entire distance, and that at a short hill, and over a surface heretofore unbroken by wheels or trail on any kind. It is well-watered: our greatest distance without water at any time being. It is well-timbered, and in many places the growth is far beyond that of any part of the world I have ever seen. It is temperate in climate, passing for the most part over an elevated region. It is salubrious: not one of our party requiring the slightest medical attendance from the time of our leaving to our arrival ... It crosses the great desert at its narrowest point."Formation
During the summer of 1858, a large emigrant wagon train became the first to traverse Beale's 35th parallel route to Mohave country. A wealthy businessman from Keosauqua, Iowa, Leonard John Rose, known as L.J. Rose, formed a company with his family of seven, his foreman, Alpha Brown, and his family, and seventeen grubstakers, workers who were not paid a salary, but given food and board in exchange for their labor. Rose was born in Rottenburg, Germany in 1827; at the age of eight, he immigrated to the United States. In 1892, writing in The Californian, he identified what motivated him to leave Iowa, where he had built several successful businesses:To finance the venture, Rose sold the majority of his assets, and after paying off his debts was left with $30,000, then a considerable amount of money. These funds enabled him to finance an especially well-equipped wagon train that included twenty horses, including two Morgan fillies and a Morgan stallion named Black Morrill; their combined value exceeded $3,000. He also purchased two hundred head of red Durham cattle, which he planned to resell in California for profit. To complete the train, Rose acquired four large ox-drawn prairie schooner style covered wagons, each required three yokes to pull each wagon. Three wagons were loaded with supplies, and the fourth was used by Alpha Brown and his family. Rose's family traveled in a small wagon that had once been used as an ambulance, which was pulled by a pair of mules.
According to Baley, political and economic factors prompted two Hedgpeth and two Baley families to leave northwestern Missouri for California in early 1858. One factor was the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which admitted Nebraska into the Union as a free territory and granted Kansas the right to decide on the legality of slavery within the state. The resulting tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups fueled conflict near the Missouri state line, affecting its western counties, including Nodaway, where the Baleys and Hedgpeths lived. In Baley's opinion, the financial Panic of 1857 further contributed to instability in the region, driving many mid-westerners to seek a better life in California. The combined Baley-Hedgpeth outfits were led by a 44-year-old veteran of the Black Hawk War, Gillum Baley, and comprising eight Murphy wagons, 62 oxen, 75 head of cattle, and several riding horses. They employed half-a-dozen grubstakers to tend their stock.
Journey
The Rose company left Iowa in April; they traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, then named Westport, which they reached via steamboat across the Missouri River. In mid-May, they were joined by the Baley company while resting at Cottonwood Creek, near present-day Durham, Kansas. In the interests of safety, the groups agreed to an informal merger; their combined outfits numbered 20 wagons, 40 men, 50 to 60 women and children, and nearly 500 head of unbranded cattle.Baley notes that whereas most emigrants who traveled from the Midwestern United States to the West Coast took the Oregon Trail, in 1858 concerns about the Mormon War led many, including the Rose–Baley Party, to avoid Utah by taking the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico Territory, where a viable southern route could then be taken to California. The Santa Fe Trail followed the Arkansas River until it split into two paths near Cimarron, Kansas. The Mountain Branch continued into the mountains of southern Colorado, and the Cimarron Cutoff avoided mountains, but traversed the -wide Cimarron Desert before the paths met near Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Cimarron Cutoff was shorter and easier to navigate with large wagons, but according to Baley it also led its travelers through the territory of the hostile Comanche and Kiowa people. Nonetheless, the Rose–Baley Party chose this path.
The wagon train reached Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 23 and prepared for the journey to the Colorado River by way of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, where, despite Udell's lone dissent, they would become the first emigrant train to venture onto Beale's Wagon Road. Udell, writing in his journal, explained his concern: "I thought it was preposterous to start on so long a journey with so many woman and helpless children, and so many dangers attending the attempt." According to Baley, the emigrants first learned of the recently surveyed road while visiting Albuquerque. Townspeople and army officers, including Benjamin Bonneville, encouraged them to take the new route, which was shorter than the established southern trails by, or approximately 30 days travel. They were also told that there was a reliable supply of food and water along the way, and the area was free of hostile Native Americans. E.F. Beale was in Washington, D.C. at the time, making recommendations to members of Congress and the War Department:
Beale suggested that, in addition to a military fort, the route was also in immediate need of bridges and dams to ensure safe travel and provide a reliable water supply; he requested to fund the improvements. Further complicating the journey, the only pockets of civilization between Albuquerque and San Bernardino, California, a distance of, were the Zuni and Laguna pueblos. According to Baley, U.S. Army officers stationed in Albuquerque insisted the emigrants hire Jose Manuel Savedra, a Mexican guide who had traveled with Beale during his initial survey of the route, and his interpreter, Petro. Unbeknownst to the group, Beale was unhappy with Savedra's scouting abilities, and had demoted him to helping with the animals in the pack train. The Rose–Baley Party paid Savedra's fee of in advance.
Udell recorded that the Rose–Baley Party left Albuquerque on June 26 and began crossing the Rio Grande on a ferry. Three days later, as the last of their outfit crossed, one of Rose's men, Frank Emerdick, drowned in the river. Baley notes that they traveled for the next five days and, because there were no suitable campsites nearby, did not stop to celebrate Independence Day, as would most westbound emigrants. On July 5, they reached the Zuni Mountains, a branch of the Rocky Mountains; two days later they traversed the Continental Divide of the Americas, which, although to feet in elevation, was a relatively easy passage. Udell described the road as "smooth and fine, we traveled it in a day with our ox teams, and no hard labor." On July 7, they camped near El Morro National Monument, then called Inscription Rock, and several members of the party, including Rose and Udell, carved their names into stone a tradition dating back to 1605. Their inscriptions indicated that they were aware of being the first emigrants in the region.
On July 10, the Rose–Baley Party reached Zuni Pueblo, which according to Baley was then home to as many as 2,000 Native Americans. They spent several hours visiting and sightseeing, and the Zuni sold them cornmeal and vegetables, as this was the last such opportunity to purchase supplies until San Bernardino, approximately away. According to Baley, this is most likely the first time the Zuni had encountered European women and children, and the first time the emigrants had ever seen people with albinism, which, although rare, was noticeably present in the Zuni population. They left Zuni Pueblo late that afternoon and entered unfamiliar territory that, until now, had only been traversed by Native Americans, explorers, mountain men, and Spanish missionaries. In Baley's opinion, the Rose–Baley Party had previously enjoyed the benefits of a primitive but well-established trail; however, at this point they became the first emigrant wagon train to venture onto the untested Beale's Wagon Road.