E-text prepared by Karin Praetorius and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 38351-h.htm or 38351-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38351/pg38351-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38351/38351-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/triptocalifornia00bail Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Errors listed in the Errata have been corrected. The original spelling and inconsistencies have been retained except as listed at the end of the book. The table of contents was generated for the reader's convenience. The original does not contain a table of contents. CONTENTS Brief Biography Of The Author CHAPTER I, Uncle Joshua's Visit And Our Preparations For The West CHAPTER II, On The Western Plains--Some Of Our Experiences CHAPTER III, Among The Foot Hills And Troublesome Indians CHAPTER IV, Over The Mountains Into California CHAPTER V, Prospecting For Gold--Some Hard Experiences ERRATA APPENDIX [Illustration: WASHINGTON BAILEY] A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA IN 1853 by WASHINGTON BAILEY Recollections of a gold seeking trip by ox train across the plains and mountains by an old Illinois pioneer LeRoy Journal Printing Company 1915 _Mr. Bailey was induced by some of his friends to put in writing his recollections of an overland trip made by "prairie schooner" to California, over sixty years ago. These recollections were published in the LeRoy Journal in series, and later collected and reprinted herewith in book form on the solicitation of his friends who desired a permanent record._ BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR Washington Bailey, the author of this narrative of a trip to California in 1853, was born October, 1831, in Adams County, Ohio. Afterwards he, with his parents, came to Fountain County, Indiana, from which place he went to California, returning in 1856 to Cheney's Grove, now Saybrook, Illinois.