The States of Kentucky. Tennessee. Indiana. and Illinois knew them prior to his immediate forebears joining the coveredwagon trains of the early emigrants to Oregon. Just 100 years ago his grandfather. James McNary. determined to cross the plains with his family to Oregon. and began making his plans accordingly. Early in the year 1845. the McNarys were on the long. long Oregon Trail. The first wagons had arrived in the Willamette Valley in 1843 but 2 years previously. Only after 6 long months on the overland route did the creaking. worn. oxendrawn covered wagons and the tired and weary emigrants at last descend the rugged western mountain slopes to the beautiful Oregon country. Often. only by following the courses of the mighty rivers of that western country. and at times actually using the beds of the smaller streams for their only roadways. did the Oregon pioneers. foremost among whom were the McNarys. finally come to rest in the finest and fairest of fertile valleysthe promised land of the western pioneersthe valley of the beautiful Willamette. Only the survivors of the fittest of all those American emigrants who started across the plains in the 1840s and 1850s finally got through to Oregon. The faint of heart turned back and the weak of body perished on the way. Only the resolute of spirit and those of dauntless courage. forti.fied by the muscle and sinews of centuriesold breeding. persevered to found an empire in the wilderness beside the western sea.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization about the strength and resolve of Oregon pioneers.