Oregon-California Trails Association | Sharp, James Meikle

Sharp, James Meikle – Brief Account of Experiences 1852

Merrill J. Mattes Collection·

“Ho! for Oregon. From a diary kept by mother, I note that we hitched up our motive power and made our start for the far west at two P.M., May 5th, ’52. Traveled about ten miles, and camped. During the night a hailstorm came up, which blew down our tents and saturated everything. This was an inauspicious beginning, but later we became somewhat used to such treatment, and consented to endure what we were unable to cure.” ~ James Meikle Sharp, 1852

Photos on pages 5, 6, & 7
This document is a recollection of the author, which includes the life of his father, John Sharp of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his mother, Cornelia Ann Hesser, of Loudon County, Virginia.
39 Pages

The collection was begun in 1991 by the late Merrill J. Mattes, a co-founder of the Oregon-California Trails Association. That original nucleus was a result of a generous donation from Merrill and reflected his many years as an award-winning National Park Service historian and also included works of his own authorship. The collection is housed at the national Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri. Here, you have access to many of the original trail diaries he collected in digital form.