Transcript

Time went fast and we landed in New York the 10th of July and went to Castle Garden and from there to Albany, to Niagara and Chicago, then to Florence, where the Scandinavians were separated from the rest of the company. [Elder] Needham went ahead of us with half of the company and with 50 wagons.

I had to take charge of the provisions for our part of the company and to make ready for our trip across the plains. This time we came with oxen and wagon over the same route we traveled about six years before with the handcarts. While in Florence we could hear the cannon roar and guns shooting. The Civil War was raging at that time and everything seemed to be in confusion, even at the distance away. At Florence, we made ready for our trip across the plains. My brother [Johan Frederick Ferdinand Dorius] and I bought a yoke of oxen and a wagon for our transportation to Salt Lake City.

We left Florence on the 24th of July 1863. Peter Nebeker was appointed as our captain. Our company was well organized and we made good progress, traveling from 12 to 16 miles per day. We had some sickness—two women and seven children died on our trip. We were nearing Parley’s Canyon when, to my very great surprise, my wife Ellen with our son Charley, then almost four years of age, came to meet us. She was sitting on the front seat of a wagon. She had come with someone traveling East. The happy surprise it gave me will ever be vivid in my memory.

We came into Salt Lake the 30th of September and went to the Campgrounds, and I waited to see that our people would find places to stay.