Reminiscences of Annie and William indicate that the family traveled in 1866, leaving from Denver, Colorado. Annie remembers that the family consisted of her parents, her and her two brothers, and her grandparents. (The record, typed by a descendant, indicates that the grandparents were her paternal grandparents. However, census records prove that it was her maternal grandparents, Jesse and Mary Brettell.)

The family traveled largely independently, occasionally traveling with an unknown freight train to which the oldest son, Thomas, had hired out to drive team. On one occasion (July 24, 1866) the family got too far ahead of the freight train and was attacked by indians. Grandmother was killed, grandfather, daughter, and father were wounded, and mother kidnapped by the indians. The family went back to Denver for a time and continued on to the Valley the following year, this time both boys and father hiring out to drive team for an unknown wagon train. They arrived in Salt Lake, by way of Provo, sometime in 1867.