Six Wagons to Laramie, a Western

By Burr Cook

This story is a fast moving western. A New York family named Hansom moves west by wagon train. The wagon master turns out to be a gunfighter who falls in love with Carla Hansom. They have many adventures along the way including an encounter with an outlaw sheriff known as Big Steve Long. This is the first of a saga of four stories. Second is "Bart of the Badlands". Third is "Lawmen of Laramie" and fourth is "Cowboy Cattle Call Songs".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312523746

Book preview

Six Wagons to Laramie, a Western

Six Wagons to Laramie, a Western

Copyright 2014 Burr Cook

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-312-52374-6

Preface

This novelette is almost entirely fictitious although there are some historical figures mentioned herein. The facts surrounding these figures are true to the best of my ability. The names of these folks are as follows: General Sherman Civil War veteran; Kit Carson Indian scout; N. K. Boswell rancher and Sheriff of Albany county, Wyoming Territory; Rollie Hard Luck Harrison, prospector, Big Steve Long, Outlaw Marshal of Laramie City and his two half brothers Ace and Con Moyer; William Pitt for whom the city of Pittsburg was named; George Donner who led the Donner party on a disastrous journey over the Sierras. Also, historically significant was the Zane family including the famous Elizabeth Betty Zane, Ebenezer Zane, their parents and siblings; The Wetzel family including the man known as Wetzel who loved Betty Zane.

The descriptions of the Overland trails and points of interest along the route are somewhat real.

All other names are strictly fictitious as well as the incidents surrounding them.

The westward trails such as the Oregon/California, The Mormon Trail and The Overland Trail were well traveled by the end of the Civil War. The Oregon Trail actually began at Kansas City or more correctly Independence Missouri, a suburb. The gold rush of 1849 was when the routes really took shape. 

Prolog

--Jimmy Kennedy

The Hansom family lived in New York City throughout the Civil War. The parents William and Marilyn lived with their two children, a son Jack and a daughter Carla. Jack had recently returned from the war. He served under General Sherman as a ranking officer and was awarded medals. The daughter Carla was barely twenty years of age and had worked as a nurse in an army hospital.

Just why they had decided to leave New York and go west was something they couldn’t tell you but they had made the decision and were pretty much prepared to leave. It was early spring of 1867.

The family was not extremely wealthy but they were considered to be fairly well to do and were more than able to purchase a couple wagons, with canvas covering to keep out the weather, and to buy horses. Their plan was to make those purchases at Kansas City. They did not know that in a couple more years there would be a railroad completed all the way to the west coast. 

Their journey began with a train ride to Philadelphia. They were leaving in early spring so as to avoid the mistakes made by those who went their own way such as the Donner Party in 1846, which took far too long getting over the mountains. Many of them perished as they were caught in the Sierra winter. It was much wiser to get off to an early start and to stick with the known routes.

The Hansom family detrained at the station in Philadelphia where they stayed at an Inn for two nights while sight seeing and making arrangements and some purchases for the next leg of their journey. At one time this had been the nation’s capitol and among the many sights to see was the liberty bell with its crack. They learned that the Greek meaning of the city’s name, Philadelphia, is "The City of Brotherly Love".

From this famous city they found themselves on a train headed for Pittsburgh over tracks with more ups and downs. This railway followed the path of an old highway that was first used to any great extent during the French and Indian War and also was very useful during the Revolution. They past the famous battle field at Gettysburg where so many perished on both sides in the Civil War. The latter portion of the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was a little more mountainous than the straight path through New Jersey and the three hundred plus miles of Pennsylvania took them over a winding route in order for the railroad to avoid climbing Appellation Mountains. There were even a couple of tunnels to pass through.

At Pittsburgh they encountered