Transcript

We started for Utah on Aug 6th, 1863, in Captain J. [Daniel] D. McArthur's Company. My father [William Fowler] and his family consisted of mother [Ellen Bradshaw Fowler] and three children [Harriet, Henry and Florence Fowler]. I being just three and one half years old. We were blessed with three yolk of oxen for our wagon and thankful we were for my Uncle Henry having remained in England on a mission, Aunt Martha [Holland Fowler] and her three children [Mary, John and Kate Fowler] were with us, making nine, with all our earthly belongings for just one wagon. Aunt Martha had very bad luck on the trip for her little babe just fifteen months old died at Wood River. There were many sad burials on that long tiresome journey.

Oh how well I remember standing by the fire one night, father had just made to keep us warm, when in some way I stumbled and fell laying both of my little hands on the live coals, you can imagine how painful they were not having any modern ways to overcome pain. It made me very weak and I was carried or rode many a day in the wagon while the other little ones trudged along beside Mother and Aunt Martha.

There were fifty wagons in Bro. McArthur's Company. My Mother, Aunt Martha and all the children had to sleep in the wagon. Father and the driver slept on the ground regardless of the weather. Father contracted a severe cold which later developed into tuberculosis.

We arrived in Salt Lake City on Oct. 3rd, 1863 . . .