The Sagers Go West, part 5

Naomi Sager, now without a husband and provider since Henry had died and had been buried back along the Green River, surely was thankful when one day a young man came riding along the trail. He was seeking a job and Mrs. Sager hired him to drive their wagon. Everything seemed to be going better now except the company was running low on food. But the solution to that situation was soon to be solved as they pulled into Fort Bridger. There they found a stream filled with fish. Some of the men took wagon sheets and, using them like nets, brought in numerous amounts of fish. Soon everyone was busy cleaning and smoking fish.

To add to the fish, the new driver Naomi had hired suggested that if he could use Mr. Sager's gun he could try to get a deer. The though of fresh meat may have hastened Mrs. Sager's decision. She agreed to loan the man her husband's gun. It was the last any of them saw of the man or of Henry Sager's prized gun. After that incident Naomi seemed to lose heart, and once again Dr. Dagon was back struggling to drive the Sager wagon.

Though Naomi had made one bad decision, that of loaning her husband's gun, now she made another important and serious decision. Their next major stopping place would be Fort Hall, in present-day Idaho. Naomi decided that, once at Fort Hall, they would trade their wagon and stock for horses. From there, for the remainder of the journey, they would travel by horseback until they reached the Whitman Mission in Oregon Country. Though her son John protested, declaring that it was some five hundred miles from Fort Hall to the Whitman Mission, Naomi stood by her decision. Her reasoning was that the jolting of the wagon was killing her. She hoped that once they reached the mission that she would get well.

At last they reached the Rocky Mountains and started across. The nights were cold and most of the Sagers' blankets went to Dr. Dagon and the Sager boys while Naomi huddled inside the wagon with her girls. But the hope of Naomi getting well once they reached the Whitman Mission did not stave any illness. Soon Naomi was racked with coughing, just the way her husband had been. And she was becoming weaker. Although Catherine's broken leg was on the mend Dr. Dagon still insisted the eight-year-old girl stay still in the wagon. Now much of Naomi's help with the little ones fell to her second oldest daughter, six-year-old Elizabeth.

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