Evaline was just an infant when her parents set out along the Oregon Trail in early May, 1845. She was one of about 13 family members, named for a maternal aunt, Evaline (Cooley) Officer. At Vale, in the Oregon Territory, members of her family and other emigrants made a fateful decision when they heard there was a risk of Indian attacks in the Blue Mountains; they hired a mountain man, Stephen Meek, to guide them across the Oregon desert in the middle of August, which he claimed was safer. Sadly, there was a drought during their crossing and their guide became completely lost after a matter of a few weeks. Some of the emigrants who were already weak and tired from four months of walking across the Plains and across Idaho now became ill. Many of those who were already ill began to die. A sickness the settlers called "Camp Fever", which is now believed to have been Typhus, spread thru the wagons, along with Rocky Mountain Fever from tick infestation. The route they traveled was often quite rocky, covered with sharp rocks that cut into the hooves of their oxen, and many would collapse, never to rise again. Because of the drought, there was not much water or grass. They climbed the Malheur Mountain range into the Harney Basin, a region known today as the Oregon High Desert. 10 yrs. previously, when Stephen Meek had last been in the area, the alkaline lakes flooded a large part of the valley. Now, due to the drought, everything looked different and Meek was lost. By the middle of September, they were running low on provisions and the places they were camping at had insufficient water and grass for their stock. They split up when they reached the south fork of the Crooked River. With help of a Native American, they finally reached the Deschutes River, followed it North, and sent a relief party ahead to The Dalles. It took them 10 days to reach it and then some of the men needed help dismounting from their horses. On the 26th of Sept, both groups arrived at Sagebrush Springs, near present day Gateway, Oregon. They spent the next day resting and buried six persons, according to Samuel Parker's diary. Meek, fearing for his life, went ahead with his wife to the Mission at The Dalles where they convinced another mountain man, Black Harris, to return with a crew and equipment to help the weary emigrants cross. It took nearly two weeks for everyone in the wagon train to cross. The starving and exhausted people finally reached The Dalles beginning around the 2nd week of October, 1845. At least 23 persons had died. It was here that little Evaline finally succumbed to all of the hardships. She was buried at The Dalles with a number of other members of the 3rd company who had taken the infamous Meek Cutoff.
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Thank you to Wikipedia for their wealth of information regarding this tragic chapter in the history of the Oregon Trail. Also, I highly recommend "Emigrants To Oregon" by Stephanie Flora. Because of her diligent research, I have been able to find many (most) of the dates that my relatives took the Oregon Trail. They were a brave and courageous group of people to whom I owe a great debt.