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Baptists, Methodists or something like that. They're bigoted.”

Then he went on to tell us about Independence and what a strange town it was. He said, “You know, there are a lot of Mormons here.” Then he went on to tell us the story of how Independence really got its start in life by being the point from which the wagon trains started out to the West. It was the place where the big wagon trains were outfitted. People came from different parts of the East to Independence in one way or another and there they joined up with wagon trains that were going out to settle the West. This was particularly true of the Mormons. There was a big trek of Mormons that came to Independence, to outfit, get wagons and go forth into the promised land. The Mormons waited in Independence to get outfitted. It took a train a month or more to get outfitted, get fixed up, get going and get organized so that they could move the whole train and provision it. It was a big operation. Harry Hawes showed us how they got their supplies together. You had to get horse feed as well as human feed.

It was a fascinating subject to me, as I had never run across it before. The Conestoga wagons I had always supposed were made in New York State, but lots of them were made in Independence or the surrounding community. He described the whole method of operation. They had to have