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The Sagers Go West, part 4

© Mary Trotter Kion

After Catherine Sager's terrible fall from the wagon, the worst was expected as her father lifted her into his arms. Catherine's left leg dangled oddly. The leg was broken. That she did not suffer worse injuries was surely a miracle. There was a doctor in the next company and a man was sent to fetch him. But before Dr. Dagon arrived, Catherine's father had the broken bones reset and bandaged in splints.

Naomi Sager, Catherine's mother, hoped the wagon train could rest for the remainder of the day but their leader, Captain Shaw, deemed that because they were behind schedule and only a few hours from Fort Laramie they should continue on . The jostling of the lumbering wagon surely was trying on Catherine and the though that she might never walk again was probably a major though in her parents' minds.

Dr. Dagon elected to stay with the Sagers to look after Catherine. It was well that he did for Henry Sager was not well. Though he protested that he wasn't sick, one morning he was too weak to get up. His two sons, also, were unwell by now. Dr. Dagon deemed that the three had camp fever.

Now, with Catherine and her broken leg, riding constantly within the wagon, her father and brothers joined her. The covered wagon had become a virtual hospital on wheels with Naomi Sager and Dr. Dagon caring for them.

The company was becoming near desperate for fresh meat. And, in spite of Mr. Sager's illness, when someone shouted the sight of buffalo, Henry Sager rose from his sick bed. Against the wishes and warnings of his wife and the doctor, Henry grabbed his gun, jumped from the wagon and left for the hunt.

Hours later, Henry Sager returned to the wagon train. He was exhausted and covered with sweat. Soon he was burning up with fever. None of the doctor's remedies did any good this time. At last, Henry Sager had to admit to Captain Shaw that he was dieing. Henry asked Shaw, if he did not make it, to take his wife and children to the mission that Doctor Marcus Whitman and his wife had begun in Oregon Country. Of course, Captain Shaw gave Henry his promise.

All night Naomi Sager stayed beside her husband. When Catherine woke in the early hours of morning her mother was pulling a sheet over her father's face. Henry Sager, who had so strongly desired to make a new life for his family out west, was dead.

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