There was a dauntlessness in William which was partly due to the fact that he had pioneer ancestry. His great-grandfather came over from Holland to New Jersey with the early settlers. His grandfather settled in Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolution, and William’s father was born there. His mother came from England, and in the little farmhouse near Gettysburg, William was born on March 20, 1848. Hard work and heavy responsibilities fell to the boy early in life, for when he was but fourteen years old, his father died. He then had the care of his mother and sister and the management of the farm. Two strenuous years followed; then his mother died and the children were separated and taken into the homes of relatives.
William was now cared for by an aunt, whose farm was close to Gettysburg. The change made it possible for him to attend a better school and he was proud to become a student of Hunterstown Academy. Eagerly did he grasp this opportunity to prepare himself to render the greatest service in whatever life-work should open before him.
CHAPTER II
EXPLORERS OF A CONTINENTAL PURCHASE
AS William pored over his big geography in the firelight of his Pennsylvania home, that great stretch of territory vaguely called the “Northwest” filled his mind with interesting visions of possible adventures. Another name given to it by his elders, and by the books, was the “Great American Desert,” and the boy could never hear enough of the tales that came out of it. He always wanted to learn more about the Indians, with their strange beliefs and customs, and about the great brown herds of buffalo that roamed over the plains, and that were being slaughtered wantonly by white man and red man alike. He day-dreamed of Indian camps, of the long wagon-trains of venturesome pioneers, of swift, pony express riders, and of the hardy hunters of wild animals in the mountains.
“When I am old enough, I am going west,” said the boy to his friends. “I shall come back to Pennsylvania to live, but I am going to see the land of Lewis and Clark first.”
The adventures of these explorers had a great fascination for the schoolboys of that period even as they have at the present time. The great western land of which William dreamed became known to the world principally through the journeys of these daring men. William loved to hear about every one of their wonderful experiences. The story of the Louisiana Purchase, by which most of these territories had been acquired by the United States, was a favorite, too. He liked especially to read about the day when the Louisiana Purchase had the unique experience of flying three different flags in twenty-four hours. In 1803 Spain ceded all this unexplored land to France. France sold it to the United States. So in one day the Spanish flag came down and, for form’s sake, the French flag was put up; and in turn that was lowered for the flag that has floated over the Purchase ever since, the Stars and Stripes.
President Jefferson made plans at once for the exploration of the new domain, and chose as the leaders of the expedition two young Virginia college men of energy, ability, and high character. They were well fitted for the dangerous enterprise ahead. None but stout hearts could have completed the venture, of which William Wesley Van Orsdel and thousands of other boys were to hear and read many years later. Lewis was President Jefferson’s secretary and a man whom he loved much. Jefferson has left this fine appreciation of him: “Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction, careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline, intimate with Indian character, customs and principles, honest, disinterested, liberal, of sound understanding, and a fidelity to truth so scrupulous that whatever he should report would be as certain as if seen by ourselves.”
The maps showed few cities on the Missouri River when Lewis and Clark started on theirexpedition. St. Louis was then forty years old; it contained less than two hundred houses and about two thousand people, nearly all of whom were French. These men who started up the Missouri in the fleet bearing the expedition, little dreamed that from the territory which they were to explore there would be carved the great states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon—fertile and prosperous states from which would come the necessities to strengthen nations in need in the great war more than a hundred years later. Not only wheat, sugar, and cattle, but timber, and metals to renew the world’s shipping, were to come from those western fields, forests, and mines.
The fleet consisted of three craft; the largest was a keel-boat, fifty-five feet long, drawing three feet of water, carrying a sail, and propelled by twenty-two oars, eleven on each side. It had a forecastle and a cabin guarded by breastworks to protect against Indian attacks. The other two were piroques. These were boats bound together side by side and flooredover; one with seven oars, another with six oars, and both carried sails.