Transcript

After landing in America, we took a steamer up the Hudson River and on 20 July 1863, took the train to Albany, New York. From here we started the journey to the Rocky Mountains by traveling as far as Winter Quarters, now known as Florence, Nebraska, by train. En route the rail car containing most of our belongings and the tent that Levi had labored so hard to make caught on fire caused by the clinkers blasted from the engine's chimney. The train's engineer uncoupled the car and left it to burn on the tracks—along with everything stored inside. This left the Cox family with very little, mostly the things we were carrying on our person and some personal luggage.

When we got to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, we met a group of people preparing to cross the plains to Franklin, Idaho—an area under Mormon colonization. Mary was given the opportunity to ride with another pioneer family because she was very ill and at the time was not expected to live. The children [Robert Harrison and Catherine] were left to walk across the thousand mile trek. Their shoes wore out along the way and the remainder of the journey was made with bare feet. Because Mary was so ill, she asked her husband to leave her to die. The family suffered many hardships during this time of crossing the western wilderness. We had been used to life in a big city and it was, indeed, very hard in this new, primitive land.

We arrived in Utah in October 1863.