Adventure and Death Crossing the Great Plains Worksheet
This worksheet is based on the passage 'Adventure and Death Crossing the Great Plains - 1865.' Read the passage and answer the following questions. Use complete sentences for short answer questions.
Source 1
Heading West, Nebraska, 1886
Group 1
Answer the following questions based on the passage and diary excerpts.
Source 1.1
Due to its harsh environment, the Great Plains was slow to be settled. The vast, dry, flatlands that extend from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains provided numerous challenges for settlers. Eventually, technological advances such as railroads and steel plows made life easier on the Great Plains, but it was the bravery and determination of the settlers that brought civilization to the area.
One of those courageous settlers was Sarah Raymond. Her diary doesn’t reveal her age, but we can assume she was probably a teenager. She left Missouri on May 1, 1865 with her father, mother and brothers, and arrived at Virginia City, Montana Territory on September 6. She journaled their daily adventures - accidents, Indian encounters, dust, monotony, and terror. Following completion of her journey, little is known about Sarah, except that she married and stayed in Virginia City the rest of her life. The following are excerpts from her diary:
Eleven Graves - Monday, June 12 Sarah’s group of wagons arrives at Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory. There, the pioneers are confronted with evidence of the hazards of their journey:
"We stood by the graves of eleven men that were killed last August by the Indians. There was a sort of bulletin-board about midway and at the foot of the graves, stating the circumstances of the frightful tragedy. They were a party of fourteen, twelve men and two women, wives of two of the men. They were all at breakfast except one man who had gone to the creek for water; he hid in the brush or there would have been none to tell the tale of the massacre. They did not suspect that an Indian was near until they were surrounded, and the slaughter had commenced. All the men were killed and scalped, and the women taken prisoners. When the army wanted the provisions the horses were gone and ran off with the horses. The one man that escaped went with all haste to the nearest station for help. The soldiers pursued the Indians, had a fight with them and rescued the women. One of them had seen her husband killed and scalped and was insane when rescued and died at the station. The other woman was the wife of the man that escaped. They were from St. Joe, Missouri."
Killed on the Road - Sunday, July 16 "Just after we crossed the bridge, we saw where two men had been killed and two wagons burned last week. The tire became loose on a wheel of the next to the last wagon on a freight train, the men stopped to tighten it, while the rest of the train moved on, not thinking of danger; and was out of sight in a few minutes. An hour later some of the men came back to see what kept them. There they were - dead and scalped - horses gone, and wagons on fire. The Indians had taken all the freight they could use, piled wood under the wagons, and set it on fire."
Killing in Camp - Saturday, August 5 Sarah describes an argument over a business deal between two men in the wagon train, Frasier and Hosstetter. Sarah describes the incident following a verbal threat from Frasier to Hosstetter:
"It was getting dark, and Frasier stood with one hand on a wheel as he talked. He then got into the wagon and out again, with something in his hand, which Hosstetter thought was a revolver in the gathering darkness. He came back to the wheel where he had been standing when he made the threat, and Hosstetter thought he had come to shoot him, and fired twice, he said, to save his own life, Frasier fell, shot through the brain, and died instantly. Then it was found he had a hatchet in his hand and had come to tighten a tire on the wheel, which he had found loose and said he would mend it. Frasier’s eldest son of fourteen years is here. There are five children and their mother at home. Hosstetter has three children and a wife. Eleven innocent persons to suffer, no one knows how intensely, for that rash act. Frasier’s son knelt beside his father’s dead body and placing his hand on his breast, he swore a fearful oath that he would have but one purpose in life until his father’s death is avenged. Oh, what a shocking ambition for so young a boy."
Sarah’s diary entry a day later notes that a squad of soldiers came and took Hosstetter to a fort near Green River (Wyoming) for an official trial. However, she does not reveal the outcome of that trial.
Question 1a
Which of the following BEST describes why the Great Plains was slow to be settled?
Question 1b
How long did it take Sarah and her family to travel from Missouri to Montana?
Question 1c
What happened to Sarah after arriving in Virginia City, Montana?
Question 1d
In her June 12th journal entry, Sarah describes an Indian attack on 14 settlers. Why are there 11 graves, and not 14?
Question 1e
According to the July 16th entry, why do the two men stop their wagons? What happens to them?
Question 1f
Why does Hosstetter shoot Frasier? What was Frasier attempting to do when he was shot?
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