Sager Orphans
In 1844, blacksmith Henry Sager, his wife Naomi, and their seven children joined the emigrants along the Oregon Trail. The journey was difficult. Young Catherine Sager broke her leg, and like so many pioneers, her Henry had to set it since there was no doctor in their party. Their daughter Elizabeth became lost for hours when she and a friend walked ahead of the train to find water.
They were lucky to catch a glimpse of the train after walking, lost, for hours. Henry died from illness and Naomi, who had never recovered from giving birth on the trail, fell in and died shortly after Henry. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, early Willamette Valley missionaries took the children into their care. Narcissa Whitman was one of the earliest women to cross the Oregon Trail, and proved that women and children could handle the trials of the trail.
