James Parshall Terry (1830 - 1918) Profile

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James Parshall Terry

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First Presidency missionary calls and recommendations 1877-1918

First Presidency missionary calls and recommendations 1877-1918, March 23, 1887.

First Presidency missionary calls and recommendations 1877-1918.

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal.

Missionary Department missionary registers, 1860-1959

Missionary Department missionary registers, 1860-1959, May 31, 1887, Vol. 2, Page 96, Line 147.

Missionary Department missionary registers, 1860-1959, May 31, 1887, Vol. 1, Page 97, Line 147.

Missionary Department missionary registers, 1860-1959.

Camp of Israel schedules and reports, 1845-1849

Brigham Young's 1848 emigration division, First 100, report

"Brigham Young's 1848 emigration division, First 100, report", Camp of Israel schedules and reports, 1845-1849, June 1848, Page 1-6.

Camp of Israel schedules and reports, 1845-1849.

Elizabeth T. Heward autobiography and journal, 1853-1860, 20-21

Elizabeth T. Heward autobiography and journal, 1853-1860, 20-21.

We left our cave (dugout) on the 2nd of May 1848, and went about a mile and camped at my Bro. Jacob E. Terry's for the night. The next day we left Mosquito Creek in company with Father Miller for the Valley. My Father [Parshall Terry] also came with us about nine miles. We crossed the Elk Horn River on May 30th and on the 31st we left Father Miller's Company and joined Father [Zera] Pulsipher's Company. We had a very fatiguing journey several months. We reached Pacific Springs Aug. 20th, 1848. It had now got so late in the season for my Bro. James [Terry] to go any further with us for we had agreed with father for him to return in the fall. We should easily have been through to the Valley by this time, but we had to wait weeks to gather for the rest of the Company. There were others in the Company who could have gone as fast as we could. We stayed at Pacific Springs two weeks.



My health had been very poor all this time, but I had to do all the work for the family which consisted of John Howard [Heward], James P. Terry, Emma A Young, my little Sarah and myself. For, if I would ask Emma to pick up a few chips she would cry and would not do it. Neither would she take care of Sarah. She was cured of the canker before we started and had not been troubled with it since.



James Terry started back Aug. 26th, 1848 and our Company went on and left us for they were not able to help us so we had to wait there until a team would come from the Valley to help us. On the 2nd and 3rd of Sept. it rained and snowed and the wind blew so hard that it seemed as if we would perish with the cold. John dug a hole in the ground and built a little fire in it so this kept us from freezing.



On Sun. Bro. Brigham passed us on his way back to Sweet Water where Bro. Kimball was camped. When he saw our situation, he sent a line to Bro. Hanks about 2 miles further ahead and he came and moved us to his camp which was on the 5th of September. On Sept. 6, 1848, Bro James came to us from the Valley with a wagon and two yoke of oxen. He took our provisions and traveled with until Sept. 23rd when he fell in with our old Company and he went on to the Valley, but we did not get in until Sept. 25th, 1848.

Transcript for Elizabeth T. Heward autobiography and journal, 1853-1860, 20-21

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 112-13

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 112-13.

In the spring of 1848 I was one with several others who went to assist those who were moving to the Valley of Great Salt Lake. I came as far as Pacific Springs eight hundred and two and a half miles from Winter Quarters. Started on the return trip August 27th reaching Winter Quarters October 15th. . . .



I will next refer to some incidents in my travels west in the summer of 1848, with those that were going to the Valley that season. I have seen the buffalo for miles and miles as far as the eye could reach and half a day at a time and had some thrilling adventures in hunting them. When we were returning to Winter Quarters in the fall from our trip west we camped one night on the Sweet Water below the three crossings and the next morning, our oxen were nearly all gone. I only had one left out of four head, but we managed to move our wagons and gathered up our cattle through the day as we traveled along. I got all of mine but there were six head that we did not get until we got to the Warm Springs fourteen miles west of Ft. Laramie where we found them with some of the mountaineers who were working there. They did not want to give them up at first but finally did so. They had traveled over two hundred miles. They left the road and struck across the country and got to whare we found them a week ahead of us. The way we traveled and done at night. Where it was good roads on the Platte we traveled in two lines and when we camped for the night the lead wagons would form for the corall [corral] and the next wagons would come up on each line with the front wheels touching or locking in the hind wheel of the wagon in front with the tongue inside and so on until the corall was formed, leaving the gap at each end. We had ropes and stakes for picket pins for each and every one of our cattle and at dark we would fetch them in[,] each man staking his cattle outside and opposite his own wagon or wagons. Then we placed guards around the whole and called the time of night every half hour and changed the guards about one oclock in the night.

Transcript for James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 112-13

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 113-15

James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 113-15.

July 6th 1849 left Winter Quarters, on the Missouri river, with my fathers family in Allen Taylors company arriving in the Valley October 15th. . . .



In 1849 a different mode was adopted in camping. The corall was formed with the wagon tongues outside leaving a small opening at each end of the corall and at dark we put our horses and cattle all in this enclosure. This was a summer of stampedes. One night our cattle took a scare and broke out of the corall and it was with much difficulty that the guards could stop them. They smashed over two or three wagons but fortunately there was no one killed. Poor cattle would take fright and run like antelope. One day we met a lot of cattle that had stampeded from the California emigrant company. We took them back until we met their owners coming for them. They had run about sixteen or twenty miles.



I will here refer to a thrilling incident.



Our company took turns in driving ahead. It came my turn for the day of which I speak. It was in the afternoon. I was some distance ahead and setting in the front of my wagon when I heard a great noise and on looking back, the whole train was in com[m]otion. It was a stampede. I jumped out, took my near leader by the horn and kept my team quiet so they did not run. The others ran till they caught up with my wagon when they stopped. There was one woman by the name of [Margaret] Hawks was run over and killed and a young woman by the name of [Janet] Findlay was badly hurt but she got well. The damage to wagons I think was slight may be a wagon tongue or two broke. We had some bad streams of water to cross, austensibly the Loup[e] Fork being the worst on account of quick sand. I recollect we had to put chunks under our wagon boxes to raise them up in crossing the Platte. One day while we were traveling below Ft. Laramie, a party of Sioux Indians met us and formed a line across the road and would not let us pass till we gave them some presents. We gave them flour, sugar and whatever else we had and could spare. It was deemed to be cheaper to feed than to fight them.



I will here refer to a miraculous escape of my father from being killed. It was a few miles west of Ft Laramie, on a ver[y] steep and rocky hill and when about half way down he slipped or fell in front of the wagon. His neck being immediately across the track. The wheel came so it touched his neck, when the horses stopped as suddenly as if they had been shot and my father got out of his peralous situation unhurt.



Between North Platte and Sweet Watter I have seen cattle drop down in the yoke and be dead in a few minutes from drinking alkali water. I have seen the road strewn so thick with dead animals that in places a person could step from one to another. The best cattle general[l]y were the ones to die. My father had the little white mare that he took from Canada to Missouri. And in all our movings and a very large mare making an odd looking team. The large mare died at Independence Rock on Sweet Water from hard work and scarcity of feed. Then the company had to help him. When we got to Fort Bridger my brother Joshua Terry was working there and he let us have a yoke of oxen to help us on to the valley. Where we arrived the 15th of October.

Transcript for James P. Terry reminiscences and journal, 1886-1893, 106, 113-15

John Heward autobiography, circa 1871

John Heward autobiography, circa 1871.

May 3, 1848 we started west in company with Eliazer [Eleazer] Miller, for the mountains. We stayed at Winter Quarters now called Florence, (Nebraska) several days. June 2 we got to the Horn. The companies were organized into Hundreds and fifties, to keep the Indians from stealing the horses and cattle.



We came from Winter Quarters with the Ezerale [Zera] Pulsipher company. We traveled a long way on the Platte River. The grazing for our cattle was generally good, and for wood we used buffalo chips. We would find a little wood and sage brush now and then.



June 30, 1848 Levi Reed and I went to hunt and killed a buffalo, the first that was killed by our company. July 12 we came to the ancient bluff ruins. July 22 we got to Laramie (Wyoming); the road soon became gravelly and the cattles feet got sore. Aug. 26 we were at the Pacific Springs. James P. Terry, my wifes brother, came this far to help us along—with one yoke of his fathers oxen and we agreed we should return to fetch father Terry the next season—and he took one yoke of my oxen back. We could not move for want of teams, but there were t[e]ams sent from the valley to help those that needed or wanted help. So President Brigham Young told Bro. Vance [Hanks] to help us to the valley. We traveled along with Brigham Youngs group – our company had gone and left us. We now traveled fast but the weather was cold and it snowed several times.



Sept 22, 1848 we got to the valley of the mountains.

Transcript for John Heward autobiography, circa 1871

John Pulsipher journal and autobiography in Cache Valley historical material, circa 1955

John Pulsipher journal and autobiography in Cache Valley historical material, circa 1955.

Transcript for John Pulsipher journal and autobiography in Cache Valley historical material, circa 1955

James Parshall Terry

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