The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 28, July 1924 - April, 1925 Page: 295
344 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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California Emigrant Roads Through Texas
miles north of Austin, on the twenty-fifth of the present month,
fully prepared for the journey." The notice further stated that
the company would then choose officers and start on the first day
of March;5" but the company, which numbered forty men, did
not get started from Austin until the seventeenth of March.36
It went by way of Fredericksburg. There is evidence that other
parties soon followed, and that by the middle of April an aver-
age of two and three parties a week were passing through Austin.31
A San Antonio newspaper carried announcements of the "almost
daily departures of parties from that city."38 A soldier stationed
at Fort Martin Scott, just south of Fredericksburg, wrote under
date of April thirteenth, "Californians arrive every day with their
wagons and mules."39 The earliest of these parties were men
only, who traveled with pack mule trains, but by April first many
men began to migrate to California with their families.
Most of the emigrants over the upper route were from central
and southeastern Texas, but there is casual mention of many
parties from Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Penn-
"Ibid., February 3, 1849.
"New Orleans Weekly Delta, March 28, 1849; The Northern Standard
(Clarksville), April 7, 1849.
""The Texas Democrat (Austin), April 26, 1849, makes the following
notes concerning the emigrants: "A party of some twenty or thirty Cali-
fornians left here on Wednesday last for the gold regions, by way of
Fredericksburg and El Paso. They were for the most part residents of
the coast counties of this State, and among them some of our most sub-
stantial citizens.
"We learn also that Capt. William Thompson's company have begun
to rendevouz at Fredericksburg, where they will all unite, and proceed
thence about the 1st of May.
"Since the foregoing was written, two other parties have arrived, bound
for California . . . from Bastrop County, . . . Galveston, . .
Harris County and Navarro County. As the route from this city may
now be considered as fairly opened, we may expect arrivals and departures
almost daily through the spring and summer."
The same paper in the next issue, April 28, 1849, commented as follows:
"Several companies California bound have arrived since our last issue,
from different parts of the State. They are generally well equipped, well
mounted and provided with baggage wagons. They take the route hence
to Fredericksburg, over a good road." After this issue the paper makes no
further comment upon the emigrants passing through. The Cox party
arrived in Austin May third. The Murchison party from Lagrange, and
Sam Whiting's party must have arrived about the same time. These
parties are mentioned in the Cox diary. See Note 11 above.
"New Orleans Weekly Delta, April 30, 1849. Only a few scattered
numbers of the San Antonio paper for this year have been available to
the writer.
"Western Texian (San Antonio), May 3, 1849.295
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 28, July 1924 - April, 1925, periodical, 1925; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101087/m1/301/?rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.