Individual

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Robert Eckersall Redford

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Donation account book, circa 1870-1882, 85-90

Donation account book, circa 1870-1882, 85-90.

Redford, Robert Eckersall, "History of Robert Eckersall Redford, [3-4]

Redford, Robert Eckersall, "History of Robert Eckersall Redford, [3-4].

We were all put into box cars as if we were cattle. Mormons weren't fit to ride in passenger cars or sleepers. We left New York on the Union Pacific RR, July 15th and arrived in Laramie, Wyoming on July 25th, 1868. I rode with some other boys on top of the box car going from Cheyenne up the river when the brakeman came along. He had a big gun on his belt. We asked him why he carried it. He said there were Indians along the track which might give us trouble. We were not troubled by them. We wondered why we had passed safely. We supposed they were friendly to either the railroad Co. or else to the emigrants.
At Laramie, we met a company of wagons from Utah. They had come to aid the emigrants on their journey to Salt Lake. The first day out of Laramie, when we camped for the night, our Captain, Chester Loveland of Brigham City, Box Elder County, said, "We won't have any wood for our fires so we will have to gather buffalo chips for fuel." We had never seen buffalo and we were quite anxious to see some but we didn't have the opportunity, but we were able to find the chips for our fires. Whenever we stopped to make camp whether at noon or night we would arrange our wagons in a circle, the front wheels of one wagon against the rear wheels of the other one with the tongues outside making a solid corral. A rope drawn across the road would keep the stock inside. The steers were used for meat and were killed as needed.
While camped on this campground, just after the teams were unharnessed and before the guards were stationed, two Indians rode up and began shooting, and before we knew it, the Indians had stampeded half of the horses and mules and galloped off full speed up the hills. Eight or ten men went in hot pursuit. They didn't have time to saddle their horses so they were riding bareback. The Indians were overtaken and horses repossessed. The men took the horses of the Indians, who were killed in the skirmish. When they returned to camp, the Captain called everybody together to find out how many firearms there were in the company. We were proud to report we had a fire arm even though it was only a six shooter. Roving tribes of Indians found the bodies of the Indians and deciding they were killed by the whites, meted out their revenge on the next immigrant train which was composed of miners aid trappers on their way to Oregon.	
Our Captain sent a runner twenty miles to inform another train of immigrants about our Indian raid and ask them to wait for our train to catch up with them. Their Captain Rawlin, did so, and after traveling one half a day, we joined them just outside Wyoming. That ended our trouble with the Indians. We were surely grateful we had not encountered any more.
At Green River, we had to ferry across. The older people stayed in the wagons and the younger ones stood on the boat. It was a bit frightening but as my brother and I had walked all the way from Laramie and Green River, we didn't mind it too much. We were so glad to be close to our journey's end. The wagons were so heavily loaded that those who were able to walk were expected to do so. I shall never forget how frightened I was at the sight and sound of the first rattle snake.
I well remember our arrival in Salt Lake on the 20th of August, 1868 as we drove down Emigration Canyon. We were very tired.

Robert Eckersall Redford

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