TRAVEL TO MONTANA

Timeline & Routes of Travel

1. Conrad Kohrs: 1862: Place of departure for Montana was Davenport, Iowa. Route-across the plains. 1

Quoting from Conrad Kohrs : an autobiography. by Conrad Kohrs. Publisher C.K. Warren, ©1977.:

"On April 8th, 1882, we started from Davenport. Through Iowa found the road almost impassable as the result of the copious rains. The river was crossed at Omaha, where we loaded up with grain for the horses. provision for ourselves, and a large quantity of alcohol, which Mr. Sickles sold to traders along the road. For about 160 miles the roads were very muddy. However. after leaving Grand Island we commenced to get into a good grass country and better roads. Our horses began gaining and traveling was much less of a hardship than it had been. We went up the north side of the Platte and up the Sweetwater. Did not see an Indian nor a buffalo the entire trip and had no trouble whatever until we reached the Big Sandy. Owing to the winter of 1881 and 1862 having been a very hard one and a great deal of snow having fallen in the mountains, the mountain streams were very high."

"There were probably one hundred teams waiting to cross this river, many of them ox teams freighting from there to Salt Lake. After several days delay. we managed to get a rope and by means of it and a raft made out of dried logs with the wagon box beds on top, constructed a kind of ferry. The horses swam across and wagons were put over on this improvised ferry".....1

2. John Bielenberg: 1864: Place of departure for Montana was Davenport, Iowa; route traveled via Grinnell, Iowa; end of railroad, Omaha, Nebraska, overland trail, North Platte, Bridger, Laramie, Soda Springs, Sweetwater route, Bear River and Snake River; arrived in Virginia City, July 7, 1864. 2

3. Charles Bielenberg: 1865 Place of departure for Montana was Davenport, Iowa; In the spring of 1865 be came to Fort Benton, Montana and walked to Helena, having no money to pay expenses. Charles arrives Fort Benton the later part of June 1865. 3

4. Nicholas Bielenberg: 1865: Place of departure for Montana was Davenport, Iowa. From Davenport the young Bielenberg took a river boat to St. Louis, where he stopped for a few days, after which he took passage on "The Bertrant" up the Missouri river en route to Fort Benton, Montana. About thirty miles above Omaha the boat sank, and although no lives were lost all had to submit to the inconvenience of camping twenty days on the bank of the river while waiting for another boat of the same line. Continuing the voyage neither boat nor passengers met with difficulties until interrupted by a herd of buffalo crossing the stream. This necessitated their waiting for eighteen hours. Their next mishap was occasioned when, having reached a point below the Dry Fork of the Missouri, they struck a sand bar, and in the process of extricating the vessel a spar was broken. The delay thus occasioned was fraught with the most serious circumstance of the entire trip. The party was attacked by Indians, who, in the encounter killed one man, wounded another and carried away two, of whose lives they disposed in the most horrible manner. In sight of the stranded passengers of the Bertrant watching from the deck in desperate helplessness, the Indian squaws carried dry wood, with which they surrounded the captives, held in durance by the male savages. With the victims securely bound in the center, the wood was set aflame and the other voyagers saw them thus pitilessly destroyed. It is hardly to be wondered at that Mr. Bielenberg has ever since had an insuperable aversion for the Indian race. The Bertrant was presently started on her way once more and on June 18, 1865, arrived at Fort Benton, having taken a number of deer and elk on the route and having heard of the close of the war when passing one of the river forts. 4

5. Augusta Kohrs: 1868: She was united in marriage with Conrad Kohrs at Davenport, February 23, 1868. As a bride of 19, Mrs. Kohrs came up the Missouri river by steamboat from Omaha to Fort Benton in the same year. The trip took 48 days. The bridal couple was met at Fort Benton by a Kohrs conveyance which took them to the 30, 000 acre home ranch at Deer Lodge, where they lived until coming to Helena in 1899. 5

References

1. Conrad Kohrs : an autobiography. by Conrad Kohrs. Publisher C.K. Warren, ©1977.

2. Anonymous Society of Montana Pioneers : constitution, members and officers, with portraits and maps
Montana: The Society, 1899, 296 pgs.

3.

4. A History of Montana. Volume 2. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co., 1913.

5. Helena Independent Record, Helena, Montana 01 November 1945