The Mormons who settled Utah and the Sager family who left Missouri to find cheap, fertile land in Oregon are are two examples of pioneer groups who used cooperation to overcome hardship.
The Mormons were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Joseph Smith had founded this church in upstate New York in 1830. The Mormons lived in close communities, worked hard, shared their goods, and prospered.
In 1847, about 1,600 Mormons followed part of the Oregon Trail to Utah. There they built a new settlement by the Great Salt Lake. Because Utah has little rainfall, the Mormons had to work together to build dams and canals. These structures captured water in the hills and carried it to the farms in the valleys below. Through teamwork, they made their desert homeland bloom.
The Sagers, on the other hand, show how difficult the Oregon Trail could be. The trail was dangerous, so pioneers joined wagon trains. They knew their survival would depend on cooperation.
Before setting out, the wagon train members agreed on rules and elected leaders to enforce them. Even so, life on the trail was full of hardship. The Sagers had barely begun the trip when Mrs. Sager gave birth to her seventh child.
Two months later, nine-year-old Catherine fell under a moving wagon, which crushed her left leg. Later, “camp fever” killed both of the Sager parents. Even though the Sager parents had died, the other families in the train cooperated to help the Sager orphans make it to Oregon.
For further reading, refer to this study information leaflet: Trails West.
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