The Breens joined the company at Independence, Missouri, and the Graves
family overtook the train one hundred miles west of Fort Bridger. Each
family, prior to its consolidation with the train, had its individual
incidents. William Trimble, who was traveling with the Graves family,
was slain by the Pawnee Indians about fifty miles east of Scott's Bluff.
Trimble left a wife and two or three children. The wife and some of her
relatives were so disheartened by this sad bereavement, and by the fact
that many of their cattle were stolen by the Indians, that they gave up
the journey to California, and turned back to the homes whence they had
started.
An amusing incident is related in the Healdsburg (Cal.) Flag, by Mr. W.
C. Graves, of Calistoga, which occurred soon after his party left St.
Joseph, Missouri. It was on the fourth night out, and Mr. Graves and.
four or five others were detailed to stand guard. The constant terror of
the emigrants in those days was Indians. Both the Pawnees, the Sioux,
and the Snakes were warlike and powerful, and were jealous, revengeful,
and merciless toward the whites. That night a fire somehow started in
the prairie grass about half a mile from camp. The west wind, blowing
fierce and strong, carried the flames in great surging gusts through the
tall prairie grass.
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