3. Children Like the Sagers Were Often Left Alone on the Oregon Trail If Their Parents Died
Sometimes children were left alone on the Oregon Trail due to the death of their parents. If this unfortunate event occurred, children were often adopted or taken in by another family along the trail, such as the case of the Sager children. In 1844 Henry and Naomi Sager and their six children would become seven while on the Oregon Trail, were left alone after both their parents died. Missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman then adopted them.
However, tragedy would strike the Sager children again when the Whitman family and the two oldest Sager children were murdered in what is now known as the Whitman massacre, which occurred in November of 1847. It was the oldest Sager girl, Catherine, who wrote her account of traveling the Oregon Trail. The book is called Across the Plains in 1844. Today it is known as one of the best reports of the Oregon Trail.