Transcript

. . . Now this was in May and it was a very rainy season and a small creek became a river, and the Missoury [Missouri] river was very high, so after a few days we ferried over at the old Winter Quarters and camped on the high lands. Here is where one man tried to leave his dog but the dog wouldn't be left so he swam the river after running up and down the banks a while and howling for his master.

The next thing to be done was to be organized in a company of sixty wagons which was done and a captain by the name of Morris Phelps. Now these companies was subdivided in tens and a captain of each ten wagons. Now I had to drive one of our wagons and I was bare footed and the oxen used to tread on my feet. Now at this time what was called the Elkhorn river which ran into the Platte river was very high so we would have to wait or go another way so the men thought they could go around the head of the Elkhorn and strike the old road up towards Laramy but the map didn't tell all the truth. We encountered all sorts of trouble in the way of slues, sand hills, bad water and no water and after traveling 400 miles we struck the old trail and we was only 200 on our way.

Now while we were taveling through these sand hills we past one company camped, and a good many of there cattle had run away with the buffalo. Now that was a pitiful site. Now soon after we struck the Platte my brother Samuel took sick with the mountain fever and it was expected that he would die but he lived but wasn't able to drive his team any more. When we struck the Pacific springs my brother Charles and little sister [Rosannah] took sick with the mountain fever and that left me to look after all of the cattle, father [William] being a poor hand with oxen. Now I had to take my turn in herding the cattle by night, bare footed and plenty of prickly pears. After three months of weary travel we ascended the big mountain where we could see the valley, or the promised land! Men shouted and swung their hats and the women swang their bonnets. The next day we arrived in Salt Lake and found our folks all rite. This was on the first day of October 1851."