In April 1847, the family joined a wagon train heading from Pennsylvania to the Oregon Country. Emeline Himes became sick along the route, and they stopped in La Fayette, Illinois to seek medical help. While waiting for his wife to recover, Tyrus Himes opened a shoe making business. Later he filed a claim on an abandoned land grant in La Fayette and began farming. In March 1853, the family continued west in a 32-wagon caravan under the direction of James Biles. Biles chose the difficult Naches Pass, and the train arrived in the lower Puget Sound, where Tyrus filed a Donation Land Claim for 640 acres near Olympia.