by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. 1949, won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950
Lije Evans, his wife, Becky, and son, Brownie, decide to go to Oregon with a wagon train. 1840’s, I think. Lije convinces Dick Summers to be the pilot. They leave Independence, MO with about 12 other families in wagons. At first, a cruel, greedy, arrogant, impatient man named Tadlock is the captain. One of his first orders is to kill all the dogs. Evans refuses to let that happen to his beloved dog, Rock. Only one dog is actually killed.
Eventually, Tadlock is removed as captain and Evans is voted in as captain. Tadlock wanted to continue-rush-on – while his hired man is dying of camp fever. So the men voted Evans as captain – big, strong, good man – didn’t think he had it in him to lead a wagon train to Oregon – but his wife (big, strong Becky) knew it all along, and with the piloting of Dick Summers – wise old mountain man (not really that old) who knew the way and kept them out of dangers, they make it!
Brownie, 17 yr old son of Lije and Becky, falls in love with Mercy McBee, beautiful quiet 16 yr old daughter of the McBee’s – family of poor white uneducated.
Mack, a man whose wife, Amanda, is frigid, drives him crazy so one night when Mercy is dancing at camp, he takes her away and has his way with her. Mercy falls in love with Mack but keeps silent about it. Mack learns how to deal with Amanda and when Mercy is pregnant and tells him, he can’t help her. He says isn’t there someone you could marry?
Brownie loves her and marries her – she told him what happened and he marries her anyway. He tells no one but Dick Summers.
Dick and Brownie develop a strong bond. While hunting buffalo together, Brownie saves Dick – thrown from a horse and about to get charged by a buffalo – Brownie shoots the buffalo dead in the nick of time. Dick saves Brownie’s life when he decides to hang back so he could carve his name and Mercy’s name on Chimney Rock and gets attacked by Indians. Dick rides up and convinces the Indians not to scalp him.
Charles and Judie Fairman – little son Tod always sick with fever – going to Oregon where there will be no more fever but little Tod, who just wants to play, runs off chasing a grasshopper, gets bit by a rattlesnake and dies.
Buffalo stampede on a stormy night. Evans in the midst of it – shooting to steer them away from camp – worried Brownie is crushed, but he’s okay. Camp is spared.
Crossing the Snake River – all the wagons make it except the Byrd’s – Evans saves Mrs. Byrd from drowning, but she is 6 months pregnant and loses the baby that night.
Tadlock and a few others decide to go to California instead of Oregon. When they hear how dangerous it will be getting to Oregon, the last 800 miles.
Brother Weatherby, old Methodist preacher, who comes along because God has called him to Oregon. Devout, judgmental, but performs admirably throughout – funerals, sermons, prayers – Mercy and Brownie’s wedding.
They finally make it to the Columbia River. Dick Summers disappears in the night despite Evans trying to convince him to stay on to Willamette.
Last 2 paragraphs: “He let himself look around and saw the Byrds’ and Fairmans’ boats lapping close behind and, on his own, Brownie idle with his sweep and Becky with the home gleam in her eye and Mercy sitting by her. Mercy who, Rebecca said, was going to have a child. Sweet Mercy who would bring a baby to the house. Blood of his blood, Evans thought. Blood of his blood once removed.
“He winked at his women and spoke loud about the tremble in his throat. “Becky,” he said, “Hurray for Oregon!”
Another book by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. is “These Thousand Hills” about the world of cattle ranchers in the 1880s. Published in 1956.
Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. lived most of his life in Montana. He wrote the screenplay for Shane, died in 1991.