Jacob's Oregon Trail Adventure: Letters Through Time

By Ellen Anthony

14-year-old Jacob Harding is traveling the Oregon Trail in 1850. Read his letters as he tells about why they're going, what they hope to find, and what he wants. Follow along as the Harding family faces disease, treacherous river crossings, and Indians. Share Jacob's secrets about his girl friend, a runaway slave, and his sister's birthday surprise. These fictional letters are historically accurate and reflect the living conditions, slang, and attitudes of the 1850s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wings ePress, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781590881095

Book preview

What They Are Saying About Jacob’s Oregon Trail Adventure

The Letters Through Time series is a wonderful way to read this unique story. Every chapter is a letter sent back east by a boy of 14 as he travels with his family along the Oregon Trail. Jacob Harding lives in a time when the west was wild and untamed, and it was big enough to find your destiny, and chase your dreams.

Traveling by covered wagon, the Harding’s journey is hard and long, but there's still room for laughter and danger both. The Oregon Trail was a fascinating time in history and it's even better when shared with a friend who is making the journey.

—David Harned,

Denver, Colorado

Ellen Anthony has done it again, giving young readers an excellent view of a boy's life on the Oregon Trail. The details of everyday life are fascinating and accurate. More importantly, Ms. Anthony hasn't stopped with the ordeals of the trail, but included the songs, books, and politics of the time.

Jacob is just 14, but he has a man's view of what he wants out of this trip: land of his own. With his parents, uncle, and sisters, he sets out on the great American dream. Encounters with Indians, hunting for food, and some hard river crossings are only a few of the hazards the Harding family faces. When his father is bitten by a rattlesnake, Jacob faces the very real possibility that he could be the man of the family. How he deals with it and the death of his girl friend shows unusual maturity.

Jacob Harding is a boy well worth meeting. The book itself is an easy read for young people. With a proper study guide, it should make a good teaching tool as well.

—Verwin Stevens,

New York City

Jacob’s Oregon Trail Adventure

Letters Through Time

Ellen Anthony

A Wings ePress, Inc.

Middle Reader Novel

Edited by: Anita York

Copy Edited by: Robbin Major

Senior Editor: Robbin Major

Executive Editor: Lorraine Stephens

Cover Artist: Pam Ripling

All rights reserved

NAMES, CHARACTERS AND incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Copyright © 2002 by Ellen Anthony

ISBN 1-59088-109-5

Published In the United States Of America

Wings ePress Inc.

3000 N. Rock Road

Newton, KS  67114

Dedication

For Kelsey, Joni, Garrett and Alyssa.

For children everywhere

who like reading about the Oregon Trail.

One

March 1, 1850

Near Greenfield, Tennessee

Dear John,

My name is Jacob Abraham Harding. I’m fourteen years old and a farmer. I hope you like letters because Ma thinks I should write to you. She says I need to practice my penmanship. Pa says a man who can read and write well goes further in the world than one who can’t. I reckon he’s right.

Pa got your name from a lady in Martin who got it from a friend in Chicago. He thought you might like to hear from someone in Tennessee. Maybe her friend was your mother?

We won’t be in Tennessee much longer. Pa sold the farm this week and we are bound for Oregon. In the next week or so, we’ll be packed and on our way to Independence over in Missouri. We’ll buy most of our supplies there and join a wagon train.

This is a big move for us. Our family has been in Tennessee for over seventy years. Grandpa came here in 1780 with his father and brothers. Now we are moving on. We are leaving a lot of family behind. Most we’ll probably never see again.

I know Pa is planning on leaving my youngest sister here. Rachel is just six and a pretty little six-year-old. She’s a runt. Pa said she was born too soon and I think he’s right. Not that Rachel isn’t smart. She just doesn’t have any size to her.

Aunt Bet is staying, too. Uncle Jim wants her to stay put because she’s in a family way. Her baby is due next fall and he doesn’t want it born on the trail. He’ll come back next year and get Aunt Bet and Rachel. I may come with him. We’ll have to spend another winter in Tennessee, though, and Pa might not be able to spare me that long.

Ma and Lura will go with us. Lura is ten years old. She’s silly sometimes, but she does her chores without much prodding. She’ll be a help on the trail.

We’re going to Oregon for land. Our farm here is small—just a third of what Grandpa left. Going to Oregon means we can have a big farm with room to grow. It don’t matter much to me because I’m the only son, but it matters to Pa. He wants me to marry someday and have lots of children.

I reckon I will marry, but not here in Tennessee. I know all the girls here and there’s none I like well enough to settle with. No, I think girls in Oregon must be prettier.

Do you have a sweetheart? Or are you just looking? There’s nothing wrong with just looking. Pa says a man has to be real choosy about his wife. He was twenty-five when he met Ma and it took him nearly a year to court her. Uncle Jim was even older. I figure I got time to just look.

Besides, there is the trail before us and nothing left here in Tennessee. I’m looking forward to the trail, hard as it is supposed to be.

Your friend,

Jacob Harding

Two

March 25, 1850

Independence, Missouri

Dear John,

We are in Independence finally! It took us nearly three weeks to