Individual

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John Marsh Haven

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Benjamin Ashby autobiography, circa 1897-1904, 25-30

Benjamin Ashby autobiography, circa 1897-1904, 25-30.

We had now one wagon 3 oxon and two cows[.] one wagon had been sold in the winter and one Bro Noble had taken to the valley[.] the rest of the cattle had never returned from the winter herd ground



We exerted ourselves to get ready to start and I laid in a stock of provisions[.] I bought of Bro [Willard G.] McMullin some 12 busher [bushels] of corn and I came across a man who had twelve Bushels to sell for which I made him a pair of mens shoes giving him twelve and half cts per Bushel[.] we also bought seventy pounds of flour[,] a pound or two of sugar[,] some cloth for one new shirt which with two old ones comprised my wardrobe[.] my sister Martha had accompyed Bro. Nobles family to the valley the year previous[.] my sister Harriett engaged to go with some of President Youngs family[.] My Bro Nathaniel drove the team for old father [Deacon John] Haven so there was seven of us at home very destitute of sutable clothing[.] I had an old pair of Boots and I bought some mogensons [moccasins] from a squaw[.] also had a pair of rubber shoes—which when obliged to wear in the hot sands sweating just so as to be unbearable



I was in possession of an odd ox which I intended to work single but Bro Brigham Young sent us an ox so we had 2 yoke of Oxon and a yoke of cows[.] we went out to the camp as early as we could in order to let the cattle recrute before commencing our Journey[.] In a short time the company was organized and we moved on to the Elkhorn River[.] here I was taken with pain in my stomach which lingered upon me for days[.] at last I endeavored to find some wiskey and I could not find any in camp until I came to Bro McMullen[.] he gave me half of what he had about one third of a gill into which I put a teaspoon full of cyanne [cayenne] pepper and drank it and went to sleep and slept nearly 24 hours and got up [.] well there was very little that occured of intrest except what is recorded in history[.] We were organized in Joseph Busbys [Busby’s] ten but traveled in Erastus Snows as my Sister Elizabeth and had married Bro. Snow in Winter Qua[r]ters



During our stay the first winter in Winter Qua[r]ters a band of Omaha Indians camped a short distance from us, one afternoon a messenger arived in their camp with the news that the Souix [Sioux] Warrers [Warriors] had slain some of their people and for two nights and days the Mourning and lamentation of those people was most pitifull and heart rending to listen to



Before we started on our journey we were organsed and kept guard over the cattle which were staked on the outside of the correll [corral] during the night. At five in the morning the bugle sounded and cattle was loosed and herded[,] breakfast got and everything got ready when the cattle were driven in and yoked[.] the last to leave the camp ground was Prest Brigham Young who[se] fatherly care was always manifest



On[e] morning on the Loup Fork where we had campt Our team was the last to leave the ground and I had just started when the staple droped from the yoke[.] I was obliged to take of[f] the yoke to fix-it[.] Bro Young was just going out of sight over the hill upon his coach[.] in a few miniutes he was by my side and assisted me to replace the staple and yoke the oxon and get under weigh [way] again[.] In a few days he sent me to get the staple which was Brooken [broken] mended by the Blacksmith



One evening as we drove into camp Sister Harriett met us and told us that she had fallen under the wheels of the wagon as she was getting out of it and received but slight injery though the wagon was loaded with about forty hundred pounds[.] a most miraculous escape



When we arived at the alkali country we found [illegible] the thickness of two [illegible] which we found quite handy the next winter for hulling corn which we used for food as it was some time before there was any mills to grind it



When we got to the last crossing of the Sweetwater we stoped some 8 or 10 days waiting for teams from the valley which were to meet us there[.] the oxon commenced to die and it was said it was the alkali[.] the people some of them fed a considerable tobacco to their oxon and according to my observation it poisoned the cattle worse than the alkali and caused more death[.] we had one ox taken sick and I gave him about two pound of fat pork and he recovered



At last the teams arived and was distributed among the companies[.] I lightened up my wagon about from 8.50 to 400 pounds of corn and we started up the hill leading over the South Pass[.] while camped at the Sweetwater we had a heavy storm of snow and rain but we had drawn up our wagons behind a clump of willows which sheltered us much from the storm. We also had some pleasant wheather and I did several jobs of shoe mending for which received some money[.] But it had no purchasing power as their was nothing to sell



The first night we camped at Pacific Springs[.] here we broak [broke] up into small companies in order to better journey through the rugged mountains and be better accommodated with campgrounds and avail ourselves of the smaller pastures for feeding the cattle[.] The roads were of the most primitive kind[.] When we got to Fort Bridger I traded some powder for some Antilope skins from which I made me some mogensens [moccasins] and with which mother faced my pants after we arrived in the valley.



The last day of our Journey was the most arduous and trying of the whole Journey[.] the road crossed the creek about twenty times and in the morning I had broken one of the houses of the wagon and the iron braces was all that held it and they were bent causing the wagon to run out of the road and I was obliged to keep the oxon out of the road so the wagon could be kept in it[.] this was a difficult task and I wished to stop and have assistance come from Salt Lake and help us in[.] but mother objected to stoping unless we were forced to so I kept on successfully passing and overcoming every obstacle until we reached the mouth of the canyon[.] so we got into the fort all right[.] I beleave that nothing but mothers prayers and faith enabled me to accomplish a seeming imposibility[.] We were met by Bro Noble and taken to his house in the north fort and kindly received by his wife Mary and family[.] we occupied one of his rooms during the winter

Transcript for Benjamin Ashby autobiography, circa 1897-1904, 25-30

CR 100 137: Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1830-2008

Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1830-2008. Supplement after 31 December 1848: Page 5.

CR 100 137: Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1830-2008.

Eliza Ann Haven Westover letter to Lewis Westover in A Legacy of Faith: A Family Portrait of Lewis and Eliza Westover and Their Parentage (2003), compiled by Paul Lewis Westover, 110

Eliza Ann Haven Westover letter to Lewis Westover in A Legacy of Faith: A Family Portrait of Lewis and Eliza Westover and Their Parentage (2003), compiled by Paul Lewis Westover, 110.

In the Spring of 1848 we left for Winter Quarters, the general gathering place of the Saints, then started for Salt Lake in President Brigham Young's company, a large one. He had most of his family in it. I had a very pleasant time. I was young with no cares. Father [Deacon John Haven] had a team of 2 yoke of oxen and two cows in the sling, so we had milk all the way. It was on the plains that I first met your father. He drove part of President Erastus Snow's teams across the plains. The first time he saw me I had one of Father's oxen by the horn leading him up under the yoke. Once on the Platte River the whole company had to stop to let a large herd of Buffalo pass. There were hundreds on the lope going to the river to drink.

Transcript for Eliza Ann Haven Westover letter to Lewis Westover in A Legacy of Faith: A Family Portrait of Lewis and Eliza Westover and Their Parentage (2003), compiled by Paul Lewis Westover, 110

MS 14290: Camp of Israel schedules and reports, 1845-1849

First 100, report, June 1848.

MS 14290: Camp of Israel schedules and reports, 1845-1849.

Robert T. Burton autobiography, undated

Robert T. Burton autobiography, undated.

[1848]



I was quite successful here in obtaining means necessary for our outfit to the valley of Salt Lake Utah. March 26th, 1848 our first child Theresa Hannah was born. I now began to make more active preparation for the journey westward.



On the 17th of May we started from our home in Mis[s]ouri with a team composed of two yoke of cattle and two cows and a fairly good wagon. My father and his family consisting of his second wife (Widow Smith married to him Sept. preceeding) her daughter Julia and my youngest brother Charles Edward had an outfit similar to mine.



My father-in-law John Haven and family consisting of wife and daughter Eliza Ann also accompanied the starting place for the west, where we arrived on the 21st of the month remained in this vicinity get[t]ing ready organzeing companies, etc., until the May 31, 1848. I was organized in Prest. Young's company (second ten) was the Bugler. My father and family Brother William and family were organized in Heber C. Kimball's Company.



The teams of these companies were principally oxen and cows there being but very few horses and mules. Our march therefore was necessarily slow and tedious having to travel in large companies for protection against Indians. Up the Platt[e] River we traveled much of the way four teams abreast. Some difficulty was also experienced from the vast herds of Buffalo stampeding the cattle.



On arriveing at the North Platt and up the Sweet Water not knowing how to take advantage of mountain travel selecting feed ground etc. my cattle died by drinking poisonous or alkali water. So much so that my team and many others was so reduced that we could not travel until aid was sent us from Salt Lake Valley by those who had emigrated the previous year.



After a weary march of four months arrived on the site of Salt Lake City Sept. 23, 1848 with just one half the animals I had when leaving the Mis[s]ouri. 
 
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[1856]



Early in Oct. in company with Genls. G[eorge]. D. Grant, William H. Kimball and some twenty others I was sent East to aid the last companies of the hand cart emigration who were yet some 500 miles from the valley and reported in a suffering condition. On arriving at the head of the Sweetwater river the weather became very cold, snow falling deep and no tidings from the Emigrants[.] sent forward messengers who returned reporting the critical condition of the handcart companies. We pushed on through snow and cold meeting them near the Platt[e] river[,] found them suffering from cold and hunger, much of which it was impossible for us to relieve, but we were enabled to bring them along slowly. In the snow and intense cold we were reduced to ¼ rations very many of the people falling by the wayside in spite of all our efforts burying as many on one occasion as 16 persons in one grave, but as we journeyed homeward in a few days began to receive additional aid from the valley of teams and provisions until arriving at the South Pass some 250 miles from Salt Lake[,] we were enabled to get all that remained of these companies into wagons and could now make good progress toward home. Here (South Pass) General Grant and Col. Kimball left me in charge of the company which finally arrived in Salt Lake on the last day of Nov. with 104 wagons and teams winding their way over the Big mountain. This indeed was a grand sight to us as we looked back upon the hardships and sufferings of this most critical campaign of my life. The hardships and sufferings of this company of people can never be told. Found my family all well.

John Marsh Haven

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