Chapter 2 Summary and Analysis

The first major landmark to reach was Independence, Missouri, about three hundred miles west of Springfield. Independence was a bustling trading post and town that acted as a jumping-off point for many settlers heading out into the frontier.

The trip to Independence was largely uneventful. The party camped each night by the Missouri River or its tributaries. There was plenty of work to do for everyone over five years of age. Women cooked, laundered, mended, and tended to children. Men tended the animals and hunted.

Breakfast consisted of cornmeal mush, grits, salt pork, and/or bacon. Lunch was bread (baked on the campfire) and beef jerky. Dried fruit was eaten to ward off scurvy. At nighttime, children would relax by playing ball and tag, and settlers would sing familiar songs around the campfire, such as "The Cumberland Gap".

May 1946 brought thunderous...