This is the first of two columns about Lake County pioneer, Nancy Kelsey.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Nancy Kelsey’s story, as it was recorded by her daughter in 1896, illustrates the quintessential California pioneer story.
Mrs. Kelsey, wife of Lake County pioneer Benjamin Kelsey and sister-in-law of Andrew Kelsey, remarked in her interview compiled by Roy M. Sylar, “So it is my history you want? Well it would make a book. The remarkable adventures of my life are as clear as if they happened yesterday.”
Nancy Kelsey was born in Kentucky in August of 1823, and later moved with her parents to Missouri where she married Benjamin Kelsey at age 16 in 1839.
A mere two years later saw the young couple and their baby begin an overland journey to California.
When asked why they decided to make the arduous crossing so long before gold was discovered in California Mrs. Kelsey explained, “Well, it is because of Mr. Kelsey’s health and adventurous disposition.”
So, as so many pioneers did before and after them, the Kelseys sold their belongings and formed a company to journey across the prairies to the mountains, west to California.
The team was to be led by Captain “Brokenhand” Fitzpatrick, who relied upon the incomplete map obtained from Dr. John Marsh, which left out important geographical landforms such as the desert and mountains they were to travel.
At about this time there was a 20-year-old school teacher named John Bidwell who organized the Western Emigration Society.
Around 500 excited adventure-seekers listened to his call for moving “wagons west.” Various reports of adversity and hardship surfaced however, which discouraged many from joining – that, along with the factor of Bidwell’s young age.
In the end, Bidwell attracted 60 people to join, including the Kelsey family.
Among the hearty group was John Bartleson, who vied for the title of “wagonmaster.” In fact, if he wasn’t granted this key position, he promised to pull out his assemblage of armed and able men.
Bidwell took him at his word, and then the “Bartleson Party” was formed. Others in the group included Joseph B. Chiles, Grover C. Cook, Nicholas “Bear” Dawson, Charles Hooper and V.M. Dawson.
The party crossed the Kansas River in picturesque style, via buffalo-skin boats provided by the Pawnee Indians on their third day of travel. Their oxen labored across the river with the wagons in tow.
They witnessed the scenic beauty of nature along the way, as well as her fury when a cyclone struck within a mile of their party.
The storm hit with a vengeance, uprooting trees and other vegetation, and tossing them about like a salad.
They dined on buffalo at the Platte River, but at a steep price, barely escaping with their lives in a buffalo stampede.
They then spent a few days at Independence Rock, Nebraska to dry some buffalo meat for their “meals-on-wheels.”
Here they inscribed their names on the rock face, as did so many pioneers after them.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.