Transcript

[Father] would tell us how he would freight and of some things that happened. In the very early days some of the men wore buckskin trousers and when it rained they would get wet and stretch so long they would step on them and when they dried they would shrink and be very short.

He would freight from California and Council Bluffs. He drove a team of mules and all freight was hauled in a wagon. At one time I remember him saying that one morning after he had camped all night, one of the mules ate up his blacksnake whip.

On one of his trips he was traveling alone, probably having had to wait for some of his freight, for the rest had gone on ahead. As he was driving along there was an Indian hurrying toward him and in just a few minutes the Indian jumped on the front of the wagon and shook his fist in father's face and said: "By sundown, your mother's son will be a dead man." As my father was thinking what he should do, the Indian jumped down from the wagon and went on his way in a big hurry. Father decided right then that he would not camp at the next camp but would drive right on until he reached the main camp. He looked back and could see the Indian still hurrying on but father kept an eye on him as he could see him a long way off as the sun glittered on the barrel of the gun the he held over his shoulder.

Father passed by the place where he would have camped, had he not decided otherwise and traveled on. When he reached the main camp he told the men of his experience and they said he was very fortunate for there had been a great noise and some shooting and there must have been a war among the Indians some distance off, but the Indians had not discovered their camp for they were not molested.