Unstable(d) Writer's Challenge Closed

I am going to be writing the story of my husband's 3x great grandfather into a fictional novel. To make a quick summary, he was a farm boy from Ohio who decided to travel by wagon over the California Trail to mine for gold during the gold rush. On the way, he nearly dies. When he came home, he went by way of the Isthmus of Panama. While we have a rough outline of his travels, through a lot of research I have already done, I am ready to flesh out a novel sized tale inspired by his travels.