I’ve been anxious to post this wonderful picture taken by Charles R. Savage in the summer of 1866 somewhere on the plains from Nebraska to Salt Lake City. Mr. Savage was part of the Thomas E. Ricks mule train company that left in early July arriving in Salt Lake City on August 29, 1866. His purpose was to take pictures of the country, landmarks along the route. The bonus to our family is that we have ancestors that were on this very wagon train with him, Agnes McDowell Smith and her children a total of 11 in their group. Unfortunately, C. R. Savage wasn’t very successful in his trade while on this journey. You can read his trail excerpt and find out all the pitfalls of photography in the 1860’s -- it was hard enough being a pioneer, just imagine being a photographer as well! So, this one photo might be all that we have of the company made of 251 people. I like to imagine that somewhere in this picture one or two of those faces are Smith’s.
Click on the image to make it larger and see if you can see any family features and get back to me. I think the man with straw hat holding the young girl on his shoulder looks like someone familar.
Thanks for sharing. I'm a descendant of Agnes McDowell Smith as well, and I enjoyed seeing this.
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