Transcript

It was sometime in May when we left Stockholm on our journey to Zion. We went through Gottenburg, from there to Hall, and from there to Liverpool. There we were put on an old vessel which had served a long time. We were lucky that it got across the Atlantic, because I learned that on the way back it went under!

As near as I remember we were on the ocean five weeks. It was the forepart of July when we landed in New York, and from there we traveled on the railroad until we cam to Council Bluffs. At that time there were no bridges across the Missouri River, so we ferried over by boat to the Omaha side where we were again put on the railroad cars and traveled until we got to Fort Laramie. From there we traveled by mule team. On this long and tiresome journey there was nothing uncommon that happened.

I did not go to Salt Lake City with the rest of the emigrants but stopped to work on the railroad in the head of Echo Canyon. I worked there until Christmas, then we moved this side of Ogden. John O. Young, son of Brigham Young, was the contractor and the man I worked for. I was paid $2.00 a day and my board. We worked ten hours a day. My first job in this country was to run a wheel barrow. I started work on August 22, 1868.

I cannot fix the exact date that I came to Salt Lake City, but it was sometime in March. When I got there my girl was waiting for me.