"Isaac assembled 20 young men in 1850, to work in the mines or elsewhere in the West. They promised to repay him for his advances of living expenses, and everyone kept his word. He spent the winter in Oregon then returned to Indiana via the Isthmus of Panama and then New York. In 1852 he took his wife and four children across the plains in a covered wagon. The family started out at night in a torchlight carivan of covered wagons. It was common practice to start for the West at night, camp about 20 miles from the starting place, so that they could return next day in case they had forgotten or overlooked something."
