Transcript

He [Uncle John] seemed to have a good supply of wagons and cattle. Uncle John furnished Mother and Father with a wagon and yoke of oxen. After we got there, they had to get the cattle yoked up and wagons loaded ready to start. We started from Ferrysville in May 1851.

Father was a shoemaker and was not used to driving. The cow would pull the wagon all day, then at night we would milk her. We would gather buffalo chips, make a fire, and cook a big pot of mush, and have milk on our mush. We came to a big river. Father was not competent to drive, so another man drove for us, the oxen plunging into the river. It seemed like they had to swim. We traveled along the side of the Platte River, and a large buffalo came down from the hills and plunged into the river. Uncle Robert Burton killed it. A big camp of Indians drove up to the camp one day. They didn't harm us, but I knew we had to give them something.

As we were coming through Emigration Canyon, or before we got to the valley, I remember William B. Smith coming to meet us with provisions. This William B. Smith later married my husband's sister, Isabella Burton, as his second wife. Uncle John Marriott knew Brother Smith in Nauvoo. Among the provisions Brother Smith brought were flour, potatoes, and tomatoes. Sister Emmie remembered a big loaf of bread. Sister Smith [J.R. Barnes's sister] accompanied her husband, Brother Smith, to meet the train of emigrants. It is said that with tears in her eyes she sat down and watched the hungry souls as they devoured their food.

On 15 September 1851, after a toilsome journey of over a thousand miles, we reached Salt Lake City. The company of pioneers I came in was called Livingston and Kinkead. Uncle John Marriott brought a load of sugar for the stores.