An Untimely Death

Martin Henderson Ringo (1819-1864)

Mary Ann Peters (1826-1876)

2nd Great-granduncle/grandaunt (see the relationship chart at end of the post)

 

In 1864, Martin Ringo, a wagon master and freighter during the Mexican War (1846-1848), and his wife, Mary Peters, made the decision to move from Missouri to California in the hope that Martin’s health would improve. Martin had tuberculosis, something he contracted while in the military. It was thought that the climate in California would help his condition.

 

The Ringo family, which consisted of Martin, Mary, and their five children, ranging in age from fourteen to two, joined a wagon train of about 70 wagons for the long journey to California. They departed Gallatin, Missouri on May 18, 1864. The map below shows their route.¹

 

 

Averaging about twelve to fifteen miles per day, the wagon train had covered around 800 miles when they stopped for the night near Deer Creek, not far from Fort Laramie, Wyoming on July 29, 1864. The next morning, Martin Ringo accidentally shot himself with his rifle. A letter sent to Liberty, Missouri and later published in the Liberty Tribune newspaper told the circumstances of his untimely death.   

 

Just after daylight on the morning of July 30, 1864 Mr. Ringo stepped out of the wagon, as I suppose, for the purpose of looking around to see if Indians were in sight and his shotgun went off accidentally in his own hands, the load entering at his right eye and coming out at the top of his head. At the report of his gun I saw his hat blown up 20 feet in the air and his brains were scattered in all directions. I never saw a more heartrending sight, and to see the distress and agony of his wife and children (Johnny Ringo included) was painful in the extreme. Mr. Ringo's death cast a gloom over the whole company. He was buried near the place he was shot in as decent a manner as was possible with the facilities on the plains.²

 

Mary Peters Ringo kept a journal, religiously writing something every day. Her account of the day her husband was killed is vivid and heart-wrenching; her description of daily life on the trail paints a picture of the hardships pioneers encountered on their way to Oregon and California ‒ it’s well worth reading. A digital version of the journal can be accessed through the Library of Congress (see sources below).

 

The map below shows the route Mary Ringo and her children traveled after Martin's death.³ In early October, they stopped for about a week in Austin, Nevada where Martin and Mary’s sixth child, a son, was stillborn. From there, they continued to San Jose, California to stay with Mary's sister, Augusta, and her husband, Coleman Younger. About a year later, Mary and her children settled in their own home in San Jose.

 

The Journal of Mrs. Mary Ringo; a diary of her trip across the Great Plains in 1864 - inside front cover.

Mary Peters Ringo died from consumption on July 16, 1876 in San Jose. In the conclusion to Mary’s journal, Mattie Ringo said of her mother, “I think she was the bravest woman I ever heard of,” a fitting tribute to a true pioneer.

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NOTE: Younger will be a familiar name to most people who have seen movies about the old West. The Younger brothers, nephews of Cole Younger, rode with the outlaws Frank and Jesse James.

 

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SOURCES

¹Route of the Oregon Trail. [Map] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_of_the_Oregon_Trail.

²Gatto, Steve. Johnny Ringo. [Protar House, 2002]

³Ringo, Mary. The journal of Mrs. Mary Ringo; a diary of her trip across the Great Plains in 1864. [Santa Ana Calif, 1956] Image. https://www.loc.gov/item/56014477/

 

 

 

 Howell-Richards Family History - June 2021