The Prairie Traveler: The 1859 Handbook for Westbound Pioneers, by Randolph B. Marcy

[rachelmanija]

Exactly what it says on the tin: a breakdown of how to get to California if you’re a pioneer in 1859, written by a US Army captain who draws heavily on his own experience. Lively, readable, a fascinating insight into the attitudes and the often-wrong science of the time, and an excellent resource if you’re thinking of writing something set in the Old West or in a world with similar geography and technology. He covers everything: what kind of food won’t spoil, what to wear, how to get mules across a river, how to prevent your horses from stampeding, how to ride a cow, and what sort of gun will stop a grizzly bear.

Note that this is written by a white man in 1859 America, and he has typical white man in 1859 America attitudes. He calls Indians bloodthirsty, stupid, possibly not even human… and then swings right into an anecdote about an Indian he knows, one of the bravest men he’s ever met and generally awesome all-round. People have a remarkable ability to compartmentalize.

I was especially interested by the chapter on medicine, and the bits where he goes into great detail on theories of how disease is caused and spreads, and how to avoid it, often getting the right idea for the wrong reasons. Yes, it’s a bad idea to have a lot of people camping for ages in the same area, but not because of “exhalations” or the noxious effects of moisture in the air.

A little blue mass, quinine, opium, and some cathartic medicine, put up in doses for adults, will suffice for the medicine chest. Blue mass is mostly mercury. YIKES.

The Prairie Traveler: The 1859 Handbook for Westbound Pioneers (Dover Value Editions) (The free Kindle edition lacks maps and illustrations.)

Comments

[movingfinger]

This sounds WONDERFUL.

[rachelmanija]

Supposedly he wrote it because an earlier handbook written by someone else was used as a guide for the Donner Party, and we all know how that turned out.

[tool_of_satan.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall that the guide the Donner Party used was written by someone who had never actually traveled in the area, just heard about it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Fascinating--what a great resource!

I wonder what elements of our current medical treatment will have people going "yikes" in 150 years...

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I do too! I could definitely see, say, chemotherapy: "Yikes! Look at the horrific side effects people put up with to try to treat cancer!"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Chemotherapy was exactly what jumped to mind. That and our pharmacopeia for mental illness. I know it's the best we've got, but it still strikes me as sledgehammer blunt, and with some pretty bad side effects.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Do you suppose "cathartic medicine" = "laxative"? (My guess is yes, because apparently opium can induce a need for it.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yep, here's an example of a "candy cathartic" from the 1890s, with an active ingredient that had been prescribed since at least the 1870s; here's an 1870s ad for a different cathartic patent medicine that makes it clear it's a laxative.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

I was going to say it's ipecac, for catharsis the other way. But that's just a guess based on how old ipecac is; I don't know how well people recognized or dealt with ingested poisons in those days.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ipecac's an emetic -- it was definitely in use at the same period, but judging by this 1839 medical journal, there was a clear distinction being made between emetics like ipecac or tartaric acid and "cathartic" laxatives.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Aha, that makes sense. I did know that American diets tended to be wicked monotonous and constipating in those days, being often bereft of the kind of vegetation that renders "cathartics" unnecessary.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

So so true about compartmentalization.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall Gore Vidal's writing in lincoln that Lincoln used blue mass.

[jennifergale.livejournal.com]

The blue mass...wow.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Ah ha ha this is awesome because I was totally convinced I'm the only person who's ever heard of the book. (I have a copy unread; actually, last I checked it was in my car.)

The funny part is how many people followed these books -- including several way less reputable, or by people with absolutely no stated qualifications -- religiously. The Army at least had wont to know; after the Donner Party, they set out patrols in the eastern Sierras to rescue the travelers who had just barely survived the desert crossing, and would die in the mountains. (Whether or not the mountains were impassable from snow; I've got a diary at home that details a woman whose party crossed the desert well before winter, but just ran out of luck, energy, and food.)

Quite a lot of people who went west seemed to have no idea how hard it would be to get there. Even educated, thoughtful people: the 1850s books are rife with stories of beloved pieces of furniture and gewgaws left behind halfway along the road, and farm girls hoping to marry a millionaire in California arriving gaunt and gray and wearing burlap.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Supposedly this one was written because an earlier handbook, written by someone who had only heard about the areas rather than personally checking them out, was used by the Donner Party.

Marcy talks about people packing impractically and having to ditch furniture, treasures, even food.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

The Donner Party did indeed get some bad advice in promotional book form, although they were also just unlucky. Their chief bad advice was the route they took, which turned out not to be a route at all, just a vague direction and a lot of tall sedge to hack through.

(I can't imagine that any guidebook on earth could have convinced them to leave behind the double-decker wagon with installed stove with which they began the trip. Creature comforts, all the way! Or at least up till too many of the oxen died to keep pulling it.)

[larryhammer]

This is indeed a wonderful first-hand resource. It inspired several plotbunnies, none of which I've had the time to trap and put to good use.

---L.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...did you get your Kindle version directly from Amazon? Project Gutenberg has free ebook versions in Kindle and ePub formats, both with or without images: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23066

Folks who just want to skim without downloading or buying hardcopy can also see the whole text and illustrations online here: http://www.kancoll.org/books/marcy/marcyilu.htm

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yep, straight outta Amazon. Thanks!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I knew mercury was used a lot in ancient and medieval medicine (the alchemist Paracelsus, aka Theophrastus von Hohenheim, used to smear it on people to attempt to cure various illnesses, and he was not alone), but I didn't know it was still being used so late. Interesting!

I am intrigued by the "how to ride a cow" reference.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

As a nurse in the American Civil War, Louisa May Alcott was treated with mercury for illness. No one is sure whether her long-term later chronic health problems were directly related to mercury poisoning, but it certainly didn't do her any good.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Karen Dinesen was also treated with mercury tablets, mercury OINTMENT, and intravenous arsenic for syphilis, and that was from about 1915-1919. //shudders

[neery.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'll have to read that immediately. One of my favorite books ever is about people trying to travel to California during that time, it'll be great to get some extra background.