The Three Main Causes of Death on the Trail

What were the four main causes of death on the trail?

a.      Indian attacks, Cholera, Weather, Wagon accidents

b.      Buffalo Stampedes, Indian attacks, Gunshot wounds, Drowning's

c.       Cholera, Drowning’s, Gunshot wounds, Indian attacks

d.      Weather, Cholera, Buffalo stampedes, Wagon accidents

Yesterday’s answer:

a.        To let her son join the Mormon Battalion

Sergeant William Hyde, who left a wife and two small children with aged relatives said, “When we were to meet with them again, God only knew. Nevertheless, we did not feel to murmur.” For Drusilla Hendricks it was difficult to let her husband and son join the Battalion. Her husband had been wounded at the Battle of Crooked River in Missouri and so did not feel that her son, William, should join until she received a spiritual confirmation stating that all would be right if he did join. Drusilla could not accompany her husband to the drum call of the Battalion being worried and heartsick at what could happen to him. Instead she went to milk the cow and while milking prayed to her Heavenly Father. She wrote, “The voice . . . answered me saying, it shall be done unto you as it was unto Abraham when he offered Isaac on the altar. I don’t know whether I milked or not for I felt the Lord had spoken to me.”

Marguerte H. Allen, comp., Henry Hendricks Genealogy (Salt Lake City: Hendricks Family Organization, 1963), 26-27.