I'm looking for a book but don't have much details. It is about a family that is traveling west on a stagecoah (could be about the California gold rush but I'm not sure). Along the way they experience a lot of trials, one of the children gets sick and dies, they meet up with troublemakers and at one point the father declares that 'poverty (or being poor) robs you of your dignity'. I believe it was published somewhere between the 30's and 50's. I know, not much help there. Any help would be appreciated.

It sounds like "the grapes of wrath" by john steinbeck but I read it so long ago that I could be mistaken