Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2021
Helen McCann White in the book Ho! For the Gold Fields: Northern Overland Wagon Trains of the 1860s mentioned the first African American arrived back when Helena, Montana was still the Last Chance gold camp. Joseph Allen, a hack driver from Saratoga Springs, New York, arrived there with the Holmes wagon train in 1864.
Pre-dating Uber drivers by about 160 years, the hackmen used to provide transportation to locals and visitors alike. Hackmen used to rule the streets of the city, taking people wherever they wanted to go. Joseph Allen was a hackman from Saratoga Springs when he, along with several other people, headed to Shakopee, Minnesota in 1864 to join the Holmes wagon train to the gold fields out west.
The Shakopee Argus, on April 30, 1864, announced that Thomas A. Holmes would again go west. On May 7, 1864, Holmes called a meeting with prospective travelers at the National Hotel in Shakopee.
“By the middle of May, Shakopee’s main street was thronged with emigrants and cluttered with their wagons. Most of the group came from towns and farms in southern Minnesota.” Others who joined the Holmes train came from Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The emigrants left Shakopee on May 19, 1864, and they straggled up the Minnesota River Valley.
The size of the train can only be approximated, but a guess would range from 113 to 175 wagons, and 200 to 300 people. Fourteen women also joined the train.
Less than half of the emigrants are known today. A few of the members included John Brounworth (farmer), James Hair, Trume Henry, John H. Jurgens (blacksmith, merchant, and miner), and Frank Kennedy (livery business) of Shakopee. John C. Sommerville and his wife, Sophronia along with Trume Strait (farmer), John H Tibbetts (jeweler), George W. White (bricklayer and miner), Paul Weydert (wagonmaker, farmer, and rancher), his wife, Mary A. Geyermann Weydert, and their baby, Peter also headed out. And Joseph Allen, a hack driver who was African American, also joined the train.
In Shakopee, merchants were thrilled to be supplying many of the emigrants’ supplies.
The wagon trains included food supplies, which were stowed near the front, within easy reach. It took about three or four months to get to the gold fields, though the emigrants were advised to take enough provisions for a year. “Flour, dry beans and peas, corn meal, oatmeal, hominy, rice, and other cereals were commonly included in the food stocks, as were crackers, zwieback, sugar, salt, pepper, saleratus (baking soda), lard tea, and coffee. Bacon ham, salt pork, and cheese were popular,” wrote McCann White.
A few emigrants took chickens and a few pigs to butcher on the trail. Root vegetables like onions, potatoes, turnips, as well as dried apples, peaches, raisins, pumpkins, and sweet corn were also added. Some jars of preserved fruits and vegetables were put into barrels of flour to keep them from breaking.
Besides food, the family wagon contained furnishings for life on the trail and in their new homes at the mines, wrote McCann White. Lanterns, candles, frying pans, a Dutch oven, a wash tub, and a clothesline, along with a ten-gallon pail or barrel for water, and a bucket of tar to grease the wagon wheels were added. Picks, shovels, pans, and mining implements were also added to the wagon, and a tent, trunks of clothes and bedding, along with tobacco, ammunition, or boots were included. Medicine, soap, herbs, and whiskey would be tucked away in odd corners of the wagon.
Most accounts of the African American men and women, free and slave, who came by overland routes were members of companies organized by whites. The African American generally remained nameless or known only by their first names. The common relationships of the African Americans were servant, laborer, or enslaved person. However, at least three men of African ancestry were guides for overland parties, including James Beckwourth, a black scout, fur trapper, Indian chief, and guide, and an unnamed Black interpreter who spoke several Indian languages, and well as French.
Sometimes the diaries had occasional commentary who observed African Americans in companies nearby or passing through. Those who did write about the African Americans in their diaries used the designations Negro, black, or colored interchangeable. They did not distinguish between enslaved people from free men or women.
In 1864, Chinese Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Jewish people were living in Helena.
Joseph Allen arrived in September of 1864, but according to Ellen Baumler, moved on afterwards. No more information about Joseph Allen has been found.
Bibliography
Shakopee Argus, 30 April 1864.
McCann White, Helen. Ho! For the Gold Fields: Northern Overland Wagon Trains of the 1860s. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2004.