How did they get him home?

E-mail from Lynn to Dr. Alan Lee, an archeologist:

I was getting ready to write to you about a different puzzle concerning Mason Oviatt - so he dies in California in July 1850. They shipped his body home and he's buried in the West Richfield cemetery. Very sad, but not questionable.

I'm reading the history of Summit County by Samuel Lane from 1898. He was also a prospector of 1850. He left Akron the same month as Mason altho in a different party. He gives a great description of the very arduous journey. Lots of hopeful prospectors died along the way or at the destination - mostly cholera. They were buried along the trail or in California. Being shipped home was not an option.

Sure, Mason had the very rich Uncle Heman who may have financed it. But how the hell would they have arranged it? There were no railroads. There was no dry ice. They could have packed him in brine -- but even so -- who is going to drag a body in a heavy barrel in a wagon where there is barely enough room for survivial provisions? Not to be gruesome, but someone had to have worked a miracle to have arranged this. Does this make sense to you? What am I missing, here?

It opens up the possiblilty that there might be some record somewhere at the California end.

Lynn