Jumping Off with the Denny Party in 1851

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been researching the Denny party, who traveled from Illinois to Oregon in 1851. Once there, most of the group decided to continue north to Puget Sound, where they would eventually found Seattle.

I decided to share some of my research about the Denny party in monthly blog posts this year. They left Cherry Grove, Illinois, in April 1851, and so this month I’ll describe their departure—their “jumping off.”

The Denny party consisted of seventeen people:

• Arthur Denny, his wife Mary, and their two daughters, Catherine and Lenora
• John Denny (Arthur’s father) and his wife Sarah (who was also Mary’s mother), along with their baby daughter Loretta
• Louisa Boren (Sarah’s daughter and Mary’s sister)
• Carson Boren (Sarah’s son and Mary’s brother), his wife Mary Ann, and their baby daughter Gertrude
• John Denny’s four unmarried sons–James, Samuel, David, and Wylie

Even at a glance, their family relationships were complex. After being widowed, John Denny married the widowed Sarah. John’s son Arthur had already married Sarah’s daughter Mary. Later, when the group was settled in the West, David Denny married Louisa Boren. In other words, two brothers married two sisters—and the brothers’ father married the sisters’ mother.

Arthur Denny appears to have been the primary instigator of the journey west, although his father John, a former soldier, was also eager to go.

The party spent the winter of 1850–51 preparing. They sold their land, disposed of most of their possessions, and outfitted four wagons for the journey. Family stories add vivid details about their preparations. Louisa Boren is said to have packed a mirror, a wedding dress, and even Christmas presents for Mary’s children—small tokens of normal life carried into the unknown.

At last, on April 10, 1851, they were ready. Mary Denny took time alone in the house before leaving—a quiet moment before a life-altering journey. She was pregnant with her third child, a child that would be born somewhere along the trail. One can only imagine her emotions at leaving.

The wagons pulled out in mid-afternoon as neighbors gathered to say goodbye. Despite Mary’s efforts to keep her daughters, Catherine and Lenora, apart from other children, the girls were exposed to whooping cough that day. Both later became ill as they traveled.

From Cherry Grove, the party spent roughly three weeks crossing Iowa on their way to Kanesville (now Council Bluffs) on the Missouri River—one of the traditional jumping-off points for westward emigrants.

Arthur Denny kept a brief journal of the journey, more a record of mileage than reflection. His first entry captures the matter-of-fact tone:

“April 10, 1851. Left home at 3 o’clock P.M. and proceeded to Kanesville by the way of Burlington, New London, Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield, Agency, Ottumwa, and Eddyville on the Des Moines River and arrived at Kanesville on the 30th day of April.”

And that is all we know for certain about the first leg of their journey—a departure marked by careful planning, intertwined family ties, and uncertainty about what lay ahead.

Have you ever embarked on a journey into the unknown?