Can anyone tell me why Olney and his first wife Celinda left the Providence Rhode Island Area? The Fry family had lived in the area right from the start, since Thomas Fry Sr. came to America (from England) in 1669 and he settled on 5000 prosperous acres in East Greenwich (Rhode Island). Five generations later, Olney married Celinda, and well into their late 30's, they suddenly headed west, staying 12 - 15 years in Fannington (Knox County), Illinois, and then in 1849, when they were each 47 years old, they took all 11 of their kids on the Oregon Trail all the way to Oregon. Does their migration west coincide with the wave of Irish and German immigrants? Perhaps their 1849 trip does, but I ponder what made them pack up and leave the Providence area in the first place...
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