John Udell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Udell
|
|
|---|---|
Udell's portrait from his 1856 diary, Incidents of Travel to California Across the Great Plains
|
|
| Born | 22 June 1795 |
| Died | 30 June 1874 (aged 79) |
| Resting place | Paskenta, California |
| Known for | Diarist of the American Frontier |
John Udell (born June 22, 1795 – died June 30, 1874) was an American farmer and a Baptist preacher. He is best known for the two detailed diaries he wrote about his trips to California across the Great Plains in the United States. He traveled this long route four times between 1850 and 1859. For his first three trips, he returned by sea. After his fourth and final trip, he stayed in California. He settled first in Solano County and later in Sonoma County. His first diary, Incidents of Travel to California Across the Great Plains, was published in 1856. His second diary, Journal of John Udell, Kept During a Trip Across the Plains, came out in 1859. It tells the story of his last journey to California with the Rose-Baley Party.
Contents
John Udell's Early Life and Family
We know about John Udell's early life from a short story he wrote about himself. This story was published in 1856 in his first diary.
John Udell was born in New York City. He was the oldest of 13 children. His family had a long history. His great-grandfather was a doctor and innkeeper in England. He moved to the United States in the late 1600s. John's grandfather had a shipping business. But after his death, partners took the money. This left John's father with many debts. For a while, his father worked on a boat on the Hudson River. Young John Udell worked as the cook and cabin-boy on this boat.
In 1810, John's father moved the family to the wild lands of northeastern Pennsylvania. There, they started farming. It was in Pennsylvania that John Udell became a Baptist. He was a very religious man his whole life. He often preached to small groups. He even married a couple during one of his wagon train journeys. However, he was never officially trained as a minister.
The Udell family found it hard to make a living from their farm in Pennsylvania. In 1816, John Udell went to Ohio to find a new home for his parents. They settled in New Lyme. In December 1816, John married Emily Merrill there. She was from Connecticut, like many early settlers in the town.
John and Emily Udell moved many times over the years. John tried farming and other businesses in different places in Ohio and Missouri. He had a big family to support. He and Emily had four sons and four daughters. John often worked as a traveling salesman or a day-laborer to earn extra money.
Even before his trips across the country, John Udell loved to travel. In 1818, after his first child was born, he walked 500 miles. He went from Ohio to upstate New York to find better-paying work. This trip was not successful. He even had to sell his clothes to buy food for his walk back to Ohio. He walked 40 miles a day to get home.
Adventures to California
John Udell made his first trip to California in 1850. He hoped to get rich in the California Gold Rush. His sons, Oliver and Henry, who were young men, went with him. John Udell did not find any gold. He returned to Ohio, but his sons stayed in California. They settled in Allendale in Solano County.
For his first three trips, John traveled to California on the California Trail. He came back part of the way by sea. His second and third trips to California were in 1852 and 1854. These trips were also not financially successful. He had to work odd jobs to support himself. In 1856, he published his first diary. It was called Incidents of Travel to California Across the Great Plains. This book described his journeys in 1850, 1852, and 1854.
Udell took his last trip to California in 1858. This time, his wife Emily traveled with him. They were both in their mid-60s. They planned to stay in California forever. They wanted to live near their sons, Oliver and Henry. They started their journey in Missouri. They traveled on the Santa Fe Trail.
They joined a group called the Rose-Baley Party. This group was the first to try to reach California using Beale's Wagon Road. At that time, it was just a rough trail. In July, the group camped near Inscription Rock in New Mexico. Today, this place is called El Morro National Monument. Several people from the group, including John Udell, carved their names into the stone. You can still see their names there today.
On August 30, as the travelers were getting ready to cross the Colorado River, they faced a terrible event. Mojave Indians attacked the first wagons. Eight people died, including five children. Twelve others were hurt. The group lost most of their animals. Fearing more attacks, they decided to walk 500 miles back to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Life in California
John and Emily Udell safely reached Albuquerque in November 1858. This was despite the very difficult walk back. John found a job taking care of the U.S. Army's animals. The next spring, he and his wife set out for California again. This time, they traveled with Edward Beale's road construction group.
The couple finally arrived in Los Angeles in June 1859. They took a boat to San Francisco. Then they went to Solano County to join their sons. Later that year, a local newspaper published John Udell's diary. It told the story of his journey with the Rose-Baley Party and what happened afterward.
Emily Udell died in 1868. She is buried in Dixon Cemetery in Solano County. John remarried in 1871. His new wife was Clarinda Anderson. They moved to Healdsburg in Sonoma County. John died three years later, at age 79. He is buried in Paskenta Cemetery in Tehama County, California. One of his daughters lived there when he died.
A Book About a Pioneer Girl
John Udell appears as a character in a children's novel from 1995. The book is called Sallie Fox: The Story of a Pioneer Girl. This book is partly based on Udell's second diary. It tells the story of Sallie Fox, who was twelve years old. She traveled with the Rose-Baley Party. Sallie survived the Mojave attack, which killed her stepfather. She also survived the hard walk back to Albuquerque, where her half-brother died. Like John and Emily Udell, Sallie and her remaining family finally reached California in 1859.
