Over the river and through the wormhole

My great grandfather, John Murray Wortman, walked out of Nebraska sometime after 1888 to Oregon. He'd had enough of the Midwest apparently after the great 1888 blizzard. He left my great grandmother, Lydia Ann Etchesion Wortman, behind with nine (ten?) children. After he had established himself (bought a farm? got a job?) his family joined him; my grandfather, Ord Wortman, was born in Wallowa County in 1895.

With a little digging I’m getting information that they married in 1861 when he was 19 and she was 10. Hmmm. Then they married (again?) in 1872. Hmmm. No children born until 1873. And then if you follow the trail, it says they married again in 1878. 

When she died in 1922 she may have been married 60 years. They had 12 children. 10 survived to adulthood. John lived until 1926.

But what of that time when he was walking to Oregon? Did he go by himself? In one census count I see they had a border, in the chronological listing of children, a daughter, Cassie, dies in Oregon at age 16 in January 1892. Lydia and John have a son in August of that same year in Ord, Nebraska. This is Ancestry.com info. Looking to fill in some gaps, maybe help tell a story. A good story, a good tough pioneer story. John’s is good too. 

I’m more interested in Lydia. 

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