After the Famine. Hunger continued to be a problem for Ireland in the years after the Famine. The poor still lived as tenants-at-will, subject to the whim of the landlord. Any improvements they made to the land still became the property of the landlord upon eviction.
The first large wagon train of pioneers bound for Oregon was in 1843. The last wagon trains came in the 1880's, when other methods of transportation (such as railroads) were developed in the West.Oxen were used because they could pull heavy loads.Oxen could survive on eating the grass along the way.ome wagon trains were led by a trail guide that was hired to show the way. Often these guides had been fur trappers and traders for many years and had traveled the Oregon Trail many times. In some wagon trains, all the members voted to have one person be the captain or leader.
The most familiar covered wagon crossing the plains and mountains to the promised land of the west was a smaller, lighter cousin on the Conestoga wagon of the east. This prairie schooner was superbly designed for its job of transporting pioneer families and their goods on the five month long, 2000 mile journey west.