Transcript

[Pages 49-50 are not transcribed here. This transcription begins on page 51.]

I then went to Ioway [Iowa] City Ioway [Iowa] Territory and joined the Camp of the Saints who were preparing to cross the plains to Utah with hand Carts. I was called and Set apart as Bishop of the Camp where I remained until the last Company started. Elder Edward Martin was appointed Captain and I his Counseler and Chaplain. My health was poor, but when I saw the Suffering of my brethren and Sisters in consequence of the cold[,] Storms and Scarcity of provisions I plead might[i]ly with the Lord and I was heald and became healthier than I had been for Several years[.] Elder Martin requested me to See every one out of Camp in the morning and in Camp at night, which I did, he going a head and looking out Camping places &c. I also had to See to burying the dead which in our Company amounted to Some thing over ninety during our over three month travel, out of our Six hundred, Souls! The heavy Snows Set in at the upper Crossing of the Plat[te] about the the first of Oct. and continued during the rest of the Journey at intervals the rest of the way. Many was the night after Camping as we some times must in a Scattered Condition that I have taken Small children in my arms from the wagons and hunted the mothers who had pulled the cart, for over an hour before finding her Camp fire, where She would be Cooking her Scanty allowance of food So Stupified that She was oblivious to every thing else—even the tender child of two or three years. But these scenes are too painful a detailed account would melt a heart of Stone. We done our best, and many to day congratulate us on Saving their lives while others whom by the utmost exertion we Succeeded in Saving can Scarcely think of any thing too wicked and false to Say about us.