Beth's Journey

By Peggy Williamson

Beths Journey is a tale of courage and strength of the human spirit. In a writing style that is clean, simple, and beautifully authentic, author Peggy Williamsons narrator is Beth herself. Beth is a teen age girl who lives on the family homestead in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She and her brother were orphaned when she was sixteen, and they join a wagon train headed to Oregon.
Beth and Newitt were taught well by their parents, and are up to the challenges of the rugged trail westward. Williamson provides the readers with vividly depicted details of the rigors and dangers faced by pioneers who traversed the Oregon Trail. Heat, storms, mountains, rivers, exhaustion, and illness plague them, but it is the brutal Indian attack that ultimately tests Beth to the limits of her endurance.
Beths Journey is a tribute to our heritage, and a researched, but fictional view of our American experience during the period of time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477292587

Peggy Williamson

Peggy Williamson was born in Mississippi. She is a retired school principal, guidance counselor and teacher. She has an AAA in Administration, Guidance Counseling and Teaching. She spent 30 years in the field of education. This is her fourth book. She also wrote a sequel to this book entitled "An Ominous Journey" and "An Angel With Me” plus a children's book entitled "Who Was Here First?" Peggy Williamson has a love of children and education. She loves painting and writing. The book is written for young adults but can be enjoyed by older people as well.

Book preview

THE BEGINNING

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T HIS STORY BEGINS with Ruford and Deliah Thomas way back before I was born. They were my grandparents on my dad’s side of the family. Ruford and Deliah lived on a small farm outside of Boston with their two sons, Robert and Howard. Ruford was a skilled carpenter besides being a farmer, and Deliah was a dedicated wife and mother. Robert was the oldest, and was never interested in anything to do with carving or cutting wood instead his interests leaned more toward working the land and caring for animals. Howard was always interested in watching and helping his dad build something with wood, and he helped him throughout his growing-up years becoming quite skilled in carpentry. By the time Robert and Howard were grown boys their dad and mom decided on a move to Virginia. Robert loved the little farm, and decided to stay behind and farm the family land. Howard was offered a job in Boston, and moved there to be close to his work. Ruford and Deliah were disappointed that their sons would not be going with them, but understood they were grown boys now needing a life of their own, but it was still a sad day to be leaving them behind. Once the wagon was rolling toward Virginia there was no turning back, but they thought about the boys every day. They found the beginning of each day to be difficult starting with the task of getting things they had used the night before packed back into the wagon, and the end of the day found them tired and anxious for the evening meal so they could retire for the night.

They were not exactly sure where they were going, but they were certain they would know when they found the right place. After reaching Virginia they traveled on to the Blue Ridge Mountains. They were weary from their traveling, and they stopped early one afternoon to allow the animals to rest and graze for a while. As they were resting a deer ran through the woods some distance from them, and Ruford took his rifle and set out on foot after him thinking fresh venison would make a tasty meal. As soon as he was out of sight Deliah climbed down from the wagon seat thinking they had traveled forever, and she needed to put some distance between her and the wagon seat. She felt as though it had grown to her body. Looking at the sun she estimated the time to be early afternoon, but she didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t go ahead and make preparations for them to camp as she thought they had traveled enough for one day. Gathering firewood for the evening meal gave her an opportunity to stretch her legs, but she stopped as she heard the sound of trickling water. The sound was close as she continued to follow it to the top of the hill where she found a stream of water with a beautiful waterfall that gently dropped from the rocks. The water spilled over the rocks into a clear pool of water that was about seven feet deep, eight feet wide, and at least fifteen feet long. The water was so clear that she could see the sand bottom, and fish swimming everywhere. She bent over to drink from the pool, and as she put her hand into the water she found it to be so cold. She could see the spring where the water began to fall over the rocks, and she knew there had to be others to keep the water so cold.

The hill overlooked a little valley with a background of taller mountains, and it was just the most beautiful place that she had ever seen in her life. She was lost in her thoughts of the beautiful valley when Ruford’s gun interrupted the serenity of the moment. When he returned with the deer she began to share the news of her discovery, and neglected to tell him how pleased she was of his efforts to get fresh meat for them. They moved the wagon up the hill to the place she had found earlier, and Ruford agreed with her that it was a beautiful place that would be the perfect sight for their cabin. They camped by the creek that night enjoying the tranquility of the waterfall, the fresh venison, and lost themselves in pleasant thoughts of their new home site. The place had been found by accident, but somehow they thought they might have had a helping hand that guided to this place.

The next day they did not get up at dawn as they had been doing for so long on the trip from Boston, and allowed the sun to come peeking through a pink sky before they opened their eyes to begin a new day. It was not only a new day, but a new start for them as began to put up a more permanent camp after having a hearty breakfast. It would take some time to build a cabin, and the wagon would be home until they could get a real roof over their heads. They selected trees for cutting from a spot they intended to clear for farming. The first four trees were cut, measured, notched, and put in place with the help of their oxen which laid out the size of their cabin. It was a back breaking, slow process, but Ruford took careful measurements of each tree chopping the notches precisely where the timbers would fit together. They had only started with the cabin when a man came riding by at a distance, and he waved at them saying he would be back the next day. He did come back the next day, and brought two men with him. My name is Darby, and we want to welcome you to the settlement of Cold Creek, he said. Ruford laughed when Darby told him that the creek had the coldest water he would ever try to bathe in, and he would be better off just jumping in all at once instead of trying to wade off into the water. Darby continued to tell them about the settlement, and it seems the people living there never got around to giving the place a real name so they all just say they are from Cold Creek. The creek begins in the hills surrounding the settlement, and makes twists and turns down into the valley. There are natural springs in the hills and along the path of the creek which allows each of the settlers living along the creek to have their own special pool of drinking water, and water for other purposes as well. Springs feed the creek from the hills down to the flatlands, and there are little tributaries that break off allowing the main stream to keep running all the way to the James River.

The cabin went up much faster with help, and it soon had a roof before the other settlers had to return to their own cabins and chores which they had left undone. The doors and windows had to be built and installed as well as the fireplace and chimney, and they wanted to get it finished as soon as possible so they could get started with the clearing, plowing, and planting. The little valley close to the cabin was almost without trees so it was plowed and planted first, and the garden was planted in another clearing. Then they started working on getting a field ready which would provide hay for the animals. Cold Creek was like a blessing from heaven on hot summer days, and a body could never just wade into it slowly. They took Darby’s advice and plunged into the depths of the water shocking their whole body at once. It was not only cold, but crystal clear, and the big trout would try to hide away when they came up to the pool to fish unless they couldn’t resist a wiggly worm dangling in front of them. The perch would sometimes nibble on their toes when they chose to go into the water for a swim. There wasn’t much spare time with all the work that had to be done, but there was always a little time each day to take a quick splash in that wonderful pool of refreshing water especially on those days when the hard work and the hot sun had worn them out for the day.

The men that had helped them before came back, and brought their wives, children, food, and three other settlers to help them build a barn for the animals that had purchased from two of the other settlers. It took three days to get the barn up, and it was a three day barn raising party. The men worked hard at cutting and putting the timbers in place, and the ladies kept them fed and did a lot of gossiping. There was music and dancing at night even though the men were tired from their labors of the day. The men camped outside, and the ladies had the luxury of a roof over their head inside the cabin. They appreciated the help of such nice people, and it was nice to know they had some good neighbors.

Ruford and Deliah found living to be hard especially without the help of their boys, but Robert had married their neighbor’s daughter with a commitment to stay in Boston. After working in Boston for a while Howard met a girl named Celia, and her dad was a doctor in Boston. Celia’s mother had dedicated most of her life to helping children learn their reading, writing, and ciphering. Celia followed her dad wherever he went from the time she was old enough to take her first steps. She loved her mother, but she was fascinated with her dad’s work as a doctor, and she paid close attention to everything that he said and did as he worked with his patients. She was smart with her book learning, and blessed with a musical talent although her first love was medicine. She grew up with a wealth of medical knowledge, and her dad loved to have her working with him as his nurse and was so happy about her interest in medicine.

Robert and Howard along with their wives made the trip to Virginia once a year to visit their parents, and their visits lasted for three weeks during the month of July. Ruford and Deliah managed to get help from them during the morning hours of the day, but their afternoons were spent enjoying the creek. Howard did spend some time helping his dad with making a cabinet, and Robert took