Train of Innocents

Train of Innocents is the story of a wagon train bringing Iowa farmers to un-ploughed land in Southeastern Washington. Traveling in the west, Iowa farmer John Knox Kennedy noticed two things about the Walla Walla Valley: the top-soil was deep and it was not being farmed.Kennedy described the area to his Iowa neighbors and soon a number had sold their possessions, acquired oxen and the other provisions they would need and lined up behind Kennedy for the trip west. Fear of hostile Indians had discouraged many from settling in that area, but by 1862, with cavalry stationed at Walla Walla, the area was peaceful.The farmers Kennedy brought with him had enjoyed a settled life. They were innocents, not prepared for months on the dangerous trail they found in 1862. Most of the troops once stationed along the trail were gone, sent east to Civil War battles. Moreover, some Indian tribes were preparing to strike back at the emigrants despoiling their lands.The train encountered varied difficulties. They discovered a murderer, whom they promptly captured, tried and shot. Their oxen stampeded repeatedly. Coming upon Indians attacking two small wagon trains, Kennedy came to the rescue with the help of his farmers. Kennedy was wounded and two of his lowans were killed.A Captain in the Iowa militia, Kennedy soon found that some of his Iowa neighbors did not take well to the military discipline he felt was necessary to get his charges safely across the continent. Some rebelled and refused orders; others split, setting out on their own.The people who went west on the Kennedy train never forgot their experiences. Their diaries and their memoirs have survived and the author has weaved them together to give a picture of what life was like on an eventful wagon train crossing.