Days 12 and 13

Tuesday, October 8th and Wednesday, October 9th

^{We spent the next two days in towns our grandparents were born and grew up in.  My grandparents were from Washington County, Kansas and Glen’s were from Wymore and Blue Springs, Nebraska.}

 I spent most of Tuesday in the Washington County Historical and Genealogical Society in Washington, Kansas.   Glen and I toured the museum in the afternoon.  There is a room dedicated to the emigrant trail and the Pony Express.

Wednesday we stopped at Hollenberg Station, a stop on the trail and the Pony Express.

In 1854 Gerat Hollenberg settled near the trail crossing on the Black Vermillion River in Marshall County, Kansas Territory. In his small log cabin he kept a stock of goods to be sold to travelers on the trail. In 1857 Hollenberg moved his business to the present site of Hollenberg Station in Washington County. He realized that there he could capture the growing trade from the St. Joseph branch of the Oregon-California Trail as well as from the older southern branch. He began with a one-room log cabin that soon evolved into a long, narrow five-room building. 

Here he sold supplies, meals, and lodging. Over the years he added barns and sheds to house his other trail-related activities such as selling draft animals and repairing wagons. His wife was responsible for the care and feeding of the travelers who stopped at the station. Hollenberg's road ranch became involved with the Pony Express. The route went by the station, and the ranch offered all of the necessary services, such as food and shelter for both riders and horses.

On Wednesday we went to the Gage County Historical Museum in Beatrice, Nebraska and the Wymore Library in Wymore, Nebraska looking for information on Glen’s family.