In the early Autumn we reached the Columbia River and we drove down through the Barlow Pass and came into the Willamette Valley. Father was anxious to secure a place where he could have shelter for the invalid mother and when he found a chance to buy out a homesteader, he was glad to pay him his price ($1,000) and take possession at once. The place was on Mill Creek, four miles East of Salem. There was a comfortable log house of two rooms, a log barn, and ten of the 640 acres was farmed. […] Oh no, we were not poor! Father brought $10,000 to the country. How? In gold and silver. You know mother was brought on a bedstead set right into the wagon. Well, underneath her bed was a box of bedding and in that box, the money was cached.

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Munkers Estes, Crossing the Plains in 1846 (written 1916). Collected in “Oregon Trail Stories” (David Klausmeyer).