General Notes

According to Aunt Mate's book "James Hayes' ancesters were fromTennessee.  He married in 1833 in Indiana and had four children there inShelbyville, In.  In 1840 Wanderlust started and the family rafted downthe Ohio river, up the Mississippi to the Missouri, Up the Missouri toLinden or Rockport.  Five more children born.  Then James went to Califin 1850 expecting the rest to follow soon.  No word for seven years andpresumed dead so Elizabeth remarried.  He came back, found her married towent back to Calif to live with his newly-found Daughter, Ellidor and hedied in Heraldsburg, California."
     notes from Aunt Mate "A few months before my mother was born (1850),my  Grandfather James left for California.  His brother, Jack,  wasjoining an emigrant train that was taking provisions to the greatcountry.  He had two wagons and took my grandfather to drive one.  Theyanticipated great profits form their sale of these provisions.  Little isknown about their trip, but in studying the travels of the wagon trainsduring that time, I know this trip to California was not easy.  Theydrove the oxen and mules mostly because the Indians were not asinterested in them as they would have liked horses.  They drove theircows with them to help provide food along the way.  One writer tells thatthey put the morning milk in covered pails, hung them under the wagonsand by evening the jar and jolts of the wagon had churned sweet butterfor their supper.  The evening milk was used to drink.  Their greatestdifficulties were crossing streams and rivers.  Very few streams hadferries to aid them in crossing and this would often cause long hours ofdelay for there were from twenty-five to one hundred wagons in a train,and each had to cross in turn.  Many times it was necessary to take thewheels off the wagons and take them over separately because of the frailconstruction of the ferries.  When the river banks were steep, ropes wereused to lower the wagons into the water.  The stock was driven into theriver to swim across.  Often a wagon would hit a rock in the river and beoverturned, therefore, causing loss and damage to much precious cargoeither by water or floating down stream.
     Eight to twenty miles per day was the average speed of travel. Speeddepended for the most part upon the condition of the trail and the numberof rivers to cross.  The trip took from eight to ten months.  In places,the trail was so dusty you could scarcely see the oxen or mules pullingthe wagons.  This can be understood for history tells us that as many astwo thousand wagons plus stock would pass a given point in one day duringthe peak of travels to California.
     The wagons were of the prairie schooner type and packed to fullcapacity with provisions, necessary clothing, and fuel.  The fuel waspicked along the way where it could be found, however, an extra supplywas always on hand in case they could not find any when camping timecame.  On the trek across the prairie, "Buffalo chips" were gathered andburned for fuel--reported to be excellent fuel but I have often wonderedhow they smelled!
     Diseases such as Cholera played havoc with many trains.  Hundredsdied along the way.  Sore feet, thirst, and hunger for the stock was aconstant worry.  The Indians were always to be reckoned with.  They werefriendly for the most part but treacherous and had to be watched.  One oftheir tricks was to appear just at meal time and sit down uninvited toeat--cleaning up all the food in sight.  To be sure, the Indians werereceived by gracious hosts for they did not want to make them mad--ahostile Indian was something else to be reckoned with.  No doubt therewere some of the things Grandfather Hayes experienced on his trip toCalifornia."

James Hayes left for California in 1850, never wrote for 7 years, assumeddead. These were "gold rush" days.  He and his brother had two wagonsfull of "provisions" that people would need for their trip, and they leftwith a large group of other people from Missouri.  He left his wifeElizabeth, in charge of a small store in Atchison Co, Mo, but, two yearslater, the family was living is dire circumstances and relatives urgedthe move to Rising Sun, Polk County nearer to her mother Sarah and someof her siblings.
James supposedly returned after more than ten years and found Elizabethhad remarried a prosperous farmer, James Rooker so he turned around andleft on the next train.  (He did find out that two of his daughters werein California and he contacted Judith Hogan (Ellendor Anne Astley states)and lived and died in Hearldsburg later.)

1830 CENSUS of Shelby County, Jackson Twp, Indiana.  Pg 402 (Ancestry.com Image #5 of 17) his father, James Hays Sr, age 55;  James age 15;Hiram abt age 20; Phebe age 12; and his Mother Sarah age 56.
1850 CENSUS of Atchison Co, Mo (Linden?)WWW.rootsweb.com/moatchis/50atch_5.htm (pg 302, seq 279
)HAYS  James, age 35, Indiana
     Elizabeth, age 24 (error), Ky (should be age 34)
     Elenore, age 15, Indiana
     Judith, age 14, In
     Martin, age 11, In
     Angelina, 7, Missouri
     James, 5,   Missouri
     John, 3,   Missouri
     Mary E,  , Missouri