Why did people like the Skinners and Mr. Bristow leave their homes in the eastern and central states in 1843 and later to come west to settle? Free land wasn't the only reason that made them brave the dangers of hostile Indians, storms, and diseases on the long slow tiresome journey.

The Skinners came for a change of climate which they hoped would benefit Mr. Skinner's health. Mr. Skinner, a New Yorker (born in Essex Co., 1809) was never physically strong. As a young man he studied law for a while and held some political offices. By the time he was thirty-six years old he had a wife and three daughters, and was living on a farm in Illinois. The daughters all died there while very young. In 1845 Mr. and Mrs. Skinner decided to leave Illinois and go out to the new frontier, the Oregon Country.

Elijah Bristow was a frontiersman from Virginia. Like Daniel Boone, he liked to see the new country and to be a pioneer. The fact that there was free land to be had in Oregon appealed to him, too.

Some emigrants came for adventure and some were curious to see the country. Some of them probably realized that they were giving the United States a stronger claim to the country by settling here. Farmers in the Midwestern states had just been through a period of hard times, a depression. Many of them had hopes of making fresh starts in the new country. They wanted to be able to raise crops and to have ocean ports from which to ship their crops to markets.

For reasons like these there was a strong feeling of "On-to-Oregon" in the air. It was spoken of also as "Oregon Fever." Once a man got that fever he was likely to head for the Missouri River, join a covered wagon train at some river port, and start out the two-thousand trip westward over the prairies, deserts and mountains.

The route by which the emigrants came west was called the Oregon Trail. It first started from the little frontier village of Independence, Missouri, located on the south side of the Missouri River. It followed rivers and creeks wherever possible , the main streams being the Platte River and the North Platte, the Sweetwater, Green River, Bear River, the Snake and the Columbia. The two main mountain ranges that stood in the way were the Rockies, which were crossed at South Pass (in Wyoming) and the Blue Mountains (in Oregon).

The journey by ox-team took about six months. The diaries kept by the emigrants told of the interesting sights or landmarks along the way , such places as Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff along the North Platte; Independence Rock, Devil's Gate and Ice Slough along the Sweetwater; South Pass and Pacific Spring in the Rockies; Soda Springs along the Bear River; Massacre Rocks and Thousand Springs along the Snake; and the Dalles (Celilo Falls) in the Columbia.

There were five forts or trading posts along the trail. These were the only places where supplies could be obtained after leaving the Missouri. They were Fort Kearney, on the Platte (Nebraska); Fort Laramie on the North Platte (Wyoming); Fort Bridger on the Blacks Fork of Green River (Wyoming); Fort Hall on the Snake (Idaho) and Fort Boise on the Snake (Idaho).

The emigrants bound for Oregon and the Forty Niners and others bound for California traveled about the same route to Fort Hall in Idaho. After leaving the fort, the trail to California went southwest while the one to Oregon kept on toward the west.

When the wagon train in which the Skinners and Mr. Bristow were traveling reached Fort Hall it was met by an old Mountain Man named Caleb Greenwood. He had been sent there as a guide by Captain Sutter, a man who was trying to start a wheat raising colony in California. Captain Sutter wanted settlers to go to California instead of to Oregon. He hoped to make a fortune by trading wheat for furs with the Russians in Alaska. He told Greenwood to tell the emigrants that each family would be given food supplies and six square miles of land if they would join his colony. Greenwood gave the weary emigrants this message. He also told them that the trail to Oregon was very dangerous, that the climate there was bad, and that the Indians were unfriendly. He promised to guide the wagon train to Sutter's fort near Sacramento.

It didn't make much difference to some of the travelers whether they went to Oregon or to California, as long as they got free land. Sutter's offer sounded good to them. Several of them decided to go with Greenwood. The Skinners and Mr. Bristow were among those who went. They planned to spend the winter in California, at least, to see how they liked it. They arrived at Sutter's Fort September, 1845, and were welcomed by the Captain.

California belonged to Mexico then. When large numbers of American settlers began moving into the country, the Mexican government said they would have to become Mexican citizens if they wished to stay in California. Since few Americans were willing to do so, most of them went on to Oregon in the Spring of 1846.

Captain Sutter traded the emigrants horses to ride in exchange for their wagons and oxen, there being no wagon road in (Oregon at that time.

Thus, the Skinner-Bristow party arrived in Oregon from the south, by way of the old trail used by traders and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company. The trail led over the Siskiyou Mountains and across the Rogue River Valley. It went over steep ridges and down narrow rocky canyons to the Umpqua River. Crossing the Calapooia Mountains, it entered the Willamette Valley and went north along the foothills of the Coast Range Mountains on the West. In the Vicinity of Eugene, it was several miles to the west.

The emigrants went north to Rickreall and Independence where the friends from whom they had parted at Fort Hall had settled. After resting and talking things over with their friends for a few days. Mr. Skinner and Mr. Bristow, with two companions came back up the valley and chose their home sites.