What to Take on a Wagon Train...

The following was extracted from pages 499-500 of Wayne Co, Kentucky
Marriages and Vital Records, Vo. 2. The list is what each person was allowed
to take with them in the early wagon train migrations (c. 1845)

Per Person:
150 lbs flour or hard bread
25 lbs bacon
10 lbs rice
15 lbs coffee
2 lbs tea
25 lbs sugar
1/2 bushel dried peas
1/2 bushel dried fruit
2 lbs soleratus (baking soda)
10 lbs salt
1/2 bushel corn meal
1/2 bushel corn
small keg vinegar
pepper

Miscellaneous per family:
rifle,ball, powder
8-10 gallon keg for water
1 axe
1 hatchet
1 spade
2 or 3 augers
1 hand saw
1 whip or cross cut saw
1 plow mold
at least 2 ropes
mallet for driving picket pins
matches carried in bottles, corked

Clothing per person:
Men: 2 wool shirts, 2 wool undershirts
Women: 2 wool dresses
Both: 2 pair drawers, 4 pair wool socks, 2 pair cotton socks, 4 colored
handkerchiefs, 1 pair boots and shoes, poncho, brimmed hat

Sewing supplies placed in buckskin or stout cloth bag:
stout linen thread, large needles, thimble, bit of bee's wax, few buttons,
buckskin for patching, paper of pins

Personal items:
1 comb and brush, 2 toothbrushes, 1 lb castile soap, 1 belt knife, 1 flint
stone per man

Cooking:
Baking pan-used for baking and for roasting coffee; mess pan-wrought iron or
tin; 2 churns-one for sweet, one for sour milk; 1 coffee pot--tin cup with
handle, 1 tin plate, knives; 1 coffee mill (forks, spoons per person); 1
camp kettle, fry pan, and wooden bucket for water.

Bedding per person: 1 canvas, 2 blankets, 1 pillow, one tent per family.

Medical supplies: iron rust, rum and cognac (both for dysentary), calomel,
quinine for ague, epsom salts for fever, castor oil capsules.