Transcript

We started our journey across the plains July 24, 1866, in the Joseph S. Rawlins Company when I was about six weeks old. During the early part of our journey, I was christened by Horace S. Eldredge, a returned missionary from England, and named for his mother. There were ten persons in our wagon, Father, Mother, myself, brothers and sisters, and the driver of our ox team, Cicen Chase.

About a month and a half after leaving Cohoes, a group of Indians rode into our camp. They traded back and forth with the pioneers in our company. I was about two months old at the time, and I suppose the only young baby in the company for when the Indians saw me, they wanted to trade a pony for the little white baby. When they left our camp, they circled it, yelling, whooping, and waving their arms. They made three complete circles in this manner and then rode away in a cloud of dust. This was the only encounter we had with the Indians in our journey across the plains. Our hot and dusty journey ended on the fourth of October, 1866, when we drove into the peaceful Salt Lake Valley.