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Tied To The Elephant: Organization And Obligation On The Overland Trail, John Phillip Reid

Seattle University Law Review

The gold-seeking emigrants who went by the overland trail to the diggings of California seldom traveled alone. The few who did were usually men too poor to purchase a share of a wagon or, for one reason or another, unable or unwilling to work their way across the continent as hired hands. Most, however, traveled to the Pacific as part of an organization: either shareholders of joint stock companies, partners in a mess, clients of passenger lines, or members of traveling groups. In addition, there was another legal technique overland emigrants utilized when binding themselves in mutual associations-they made contracts. …