Conestoga Wagon Family Story

Great-grandpa Knupp

Mom: My great-grandfather. Yeah my Grandmother

Hendrick’s father and mother. They moved from Virginia to

Illinois. And they came in a Conestoga wagon. My

grandmother walked most of the way behind.

Carol: Ach! Women’s lib take note!

Mom: It would be her job to keep the cow or two in line that

was following this old Conestoga wagon. But her father was

stricken by lightning while he was sitting on this wagon—and

died.

Carol: Probably from making his wife walk behind!

Mom: And Grandma Knupp—Great-grandmother Knupp—had

to go to where they were going in Illinois. And they buried him

there. Then she raised all of her family then by herself. Never

remarried. I don’t know how she did it.