Just why I should write a preface I know not, except that it is fashionable to do so, and yet in the present case there would seem a little explanation due the reader, who may cast his eye on the first chapter of this work. Indeed, the chapter, Early Days in Indiana, may properly be termed an introduction, though quite inti mately connected with the narrative that follows, yet not necessary to make a completed story of the trip to Oregon in the early fifties.