Customer Reviews

Independence! (Wagons West, 1st)

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Dana Fuller Ross captured my interest in the first paragraph of Independence, Vol. I of Wagons West Series. He kept my interest through 22 more volumes of Wagons West plus the sequel of The Holts, An American Dynasty and a The Frontier Trilogy of Wagons West. In the story of the first wagon train from the east coast to Independence, Ross introduces the Holts, the Brentwoods, the Blakes, the Indian White Elk and many other characters that will dominate the pages of this imaginative story for the next 100 years. This becomes my own community as we struggle across the great rivers, plains, deserts and mountains to California, Oregon, Washington and Hiwaii. American History comes alive when this community becomes a part of the Discovery of Gold in the West, the development of Oregon and California, the Revolutions in Hawaii, Cuba and the Phillipines, and the World Wars I & II. I have never been so captivated by one writer as I have been with Dana Fuller Ross. I warn you if you read Independence you are in for many exciting hours of entertainment for some time to come. I read them all between February 1997 and February 1998 and was I sorry when I finished the last one.

I can't wait to read the rest of this series! The book was an easy read and I really came to love the characters. It was fascinating to see how so many different kinds of people came together to make the wagon train a success. I feel like I have a much better picture of how the west was settled, yet I don't feel like I've just had to sit through a class.

The year is 1837. United States' President Andrew Jackson, his Vice-president, Martin Van Buren, and financier and fur trader, John Jacob Astor, are in a race with the British and the Russians to settle and claim the Oregon Territory. Jackson calls upon his close friend, mountain man and rugged veteran Sam Brentwood, to put together a wagon train with the purpose of traveling overland to Oregon and settling the territory. The train of prairie schooners eventually includes over 500 people - folks who were willing to risk their lives to make the first overland trip across America in an entourage of this kind. They were motivated by the gift of 600 acres of free land to homestead in Oregon, and the opportunity to start new lives. The financial situation in the US was terrible during this period. Due to a major depression many of the potential Oregonians had lost their jobs, life savings and/or property.

Brentwood, the wagonmaster, and his assistant Whip Holt, begin the journey in Long Island along with a beautiful, feisty widow, her younger sister, and the sister's elderly husband. The small group pick up more people and covered wagons as they slowly move cross-country to Independence, Missouri. Missouri is the frontier town where Sam Brentwood will set-up a trading depot and leave the wagon train in charge of Whip Holt. Missouri will be the pioneers' last look at civilization until the Pacific Northwest is reached.

This is Book 1 of 24 in Dana Fuller Ross's fabulous "Wagons West" series. This fictional account of the first wagon train to cross the US is extraordinary. The characters are complex and very well developed. They obviously grow and change throughout the journey of almost three years. The author vividly brings history to life here. And the politics behind the settling of the West are fascinating, as are the descriptions of the land and the Native Americans the group encounters along the way. As one would expect, the novel is filled with tales of adventure, hardship, courage, love, loss, tragedy and triumph. Many details have been taken from actual diaries and journals of early settlers. Reader BEWARE! Once you start this book you won't be able to stop until you have read all 24 novels. The next one is "Nebraska," and deals with the second leg of the trip from Independence to the foothills of the rocky Mountains. Very highly recommended!
JANA

This is the first book in the Wagon's West series.

The president of the USA is calling in favors. He wants to make sure that the west is American territory and not British or Russian. To do this he calls on his old friend Sam Brentwood and asks him to start a wagon train to Oregon. Sam agrees and will guide the train to Independence, MO where he will stay and make a way station for the future trains to come.

This is where you first meet all the main characters and learn the interaction between them and the types of things that they must face if they are going to try and forge a new life in the west for themselves.

This is the story of their struggles against the British & Russian forces trying to keep them for making the trip.

This book is one of the 7th printing from back in the early 80's. If you are interested in the settlement of the American West this is one series that you need to revisit.

...but am glad I picked up the re-issue. Good story, great characters. I look forward to the rest of this series.

I appreciate the reissuance of the new series. Very good read. Would recommend.

This book brings the American Frontier to life in such a way that you feel like you're on the journey with the characters. It's a totally engrossing, fast paced read. I just bought this book, and am now looking for the rest of the series. I'd definately recommend it to anyone, but buy the series together, it has a bit of a cliff-hanger ending.

Andrew Jackson, the President of the United States in 1844,
tells Martin Van Buren, his vice president and successor, that "joint control is no control" because under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, the United States and Britain have joint
control of the Oregon Territory. The book's set in 1837, which historically, isn't when the Oregon-bound settlers
set out. Chalk it up to dramatic license. You have your
cast of characters: Whip Holt, the assistant wagonmaster,
he takes over after Sam Brentwood leads the wagon train as far as Independence, Missouri. Sam marries Cathy van
Ayl's widowed sister, Claudia, and they stay on there to outfit
future wagon trains. You have Henry St. Claire, a British
spy, whose mission for Her Majesty's Government, is to
sabotage it. You also have a beautiful Russian, I forget her name, but she's blackmailed by the Czar's government into
sabotaging it too. Then there's Hosea, a runaway slave,
you also have the Taylor family, Danny, an escaped endentured servant, and Stalking Horse, a Cherokee Indian.
You also have a man dying of consumption, a father with a
daughter, and his illegitimate granddaughter. There's also
a bankrupt planter and his daughter, also named Claudia.
I highly recommend it.

The greatest series of historical fiction starts with a bang. Hey, someone contradicts Andrew Jackson in the FIRST sentence.

With an interesting cast of characters, as well as action and intrigue, this book has it all as the wagon train starts its journey to Oregon by covering the eastern half of the US. Historically, settlers Oregon-bound did not start until around 1844, but we can let that slide. What is strange is that THE principle cast in this book take a diminished role in future titles, save for Cathy Van Ayl. (I'm not counting Whip, who was more prominent later on in Nebraska and aafterward). A MUST READ.

The first in a series named Wagons West, this book chronicles the New York-to-Independence (Missouri) leg of the first wagon train moving settlers to the Oregon Territory in 1837. The story is interesting, and the characters are well developed. However, the prose is a little simplistic: tensions are not maintained and conflicts are resolved too easily. It reminds me of a script for an old TV western series!