Fred Grant

Prairie Pioneer Fred Grant

Prairie Pioneer is the story of Adam Martin, his wife, Danielle, and their four children who journey by wagon train from their farm in Larue County, Kentucky to Oklahoma. The lure of free land enticed the Martins to undertake the nine-hundred mile journey. In the year 1870, Adam met his wife-to-be, Danielle Fontaine, in Natchez, Mississippi. When the riverboat he was working on, the LaBelle docked to load hardwood to fuel its boilers, Adam had a day free of duty. A farm boy, he took the opportunity to explore the countryside. Strolling along a country lane, he met the girl who was to become his wife. His courtship was complicated by a two weeks time limitation and the reluctance of the girl to leave her close-knit family. Overcoming odds, Adam was successful in his courtship. Married, the couple traveled on the LaBelle to Kentucky where they purchased and lived on a tobacco farm. Four offspring were born in the initial ten years of the marriage,othree boys and a girl. The United States government opened the Cheyenne-Arapaho Strip in western Oklahoma to settlement in 1892. Adam¡¦s friend, Will Kelly, invited Adam and his family to join him and others in making the trek to participate in the scramble for free land. Adam calculated the trip by wagon would require two and a half months. To reach the site by the date of the scramble, the wagons would be required to leave no later than February 1, 1982. After two months of intense preparations, which included the purchase, of an additional wagon and team, the Martins joined four other families in the journey west. The ardors of living our-of-doors in the cold, with occasional rain or snowfall twenty-four hours each day, was far more debilitating than anticipated. Especially for women and children. Adding to the travelers¡¦ woes, frequent emergencies created delays, which created losses to the time schedule. When it became apparent the wagons would not reach western Oklahoma by the date set for the scramble, Adam and his t