Transcript

Transcript for Gledhill, Sarah S. Moulding, [Reminiscences], in "Utah Pioneer Biographies," 44 vols., 11:97-100

When the baby was eighteen days old we started on our journey to Utah. Most of the company had gone on so we traveled alone as far as Omaha, making the rip by train. It was a mixed freight and passenger. When we reached Omaha, we overtook our friends and from there we were to travel by ox-team. The men, including my father, had to go to the corrals and practice driving the ox-teams, as it was an entirely new occupation for them. The idle men of the town hung around to watch and make fun of them, but the Mormons had lots of pep and soon learned. They also knew they would have to walk most of the thousand miles to Utah, but they bravely undertook the task. We came in what was called an independent company but it was well organized, having a leader for every four or five wagons. We had a hard trip but I never heard my parents complain of it when telling me about it later. I was just passed three years of age when we made the trip, and Ida, my sister was about four and half. Mother was not very well when we started on the trip, having just recovered from the small pox and having the new baby. She was very pale but the fresh air seemed to help her a lot and she too was able to walk most all the way. The covered wagon was heavily loaded and the older ones had to walk to make the load lighter. In our wagon were two large wooden boxes of chests filled to over-flowing with clothing, dishes, father's tools for his business and numerous other articles. In the back of the wagon was fastened the sheet iron stove and cooking utensils and our food. On top of the chests was placed bedding of all kinds and on top of all this we three children had our living quarters during most of the trip. As little as I was, I can remember the noise of the wagon and the jingle jangle of the

ots and kettles fastened underneath and at the sides of the wagon, the dust and dirt from the wagons in front of us. We were so thirsty and the only time we could stop and get a drink from the canteen that father carried over his shoulder was when the other wagons stopped. Everyone had been warned to keep up with the wagons and not stray behind on account of the Indians. When we did stop to get a drink I would always have to wait until my sister had her drink because in England the older child was always favored and came first in everything. I can remember how I would dance up and down waiting for her to finish getting her drink and how thirsty I was. The water was warm and never very good and at times it was terrible because they would have to dig a hole to get it and then it would be muddy. The baby cried a good deal of the time from being bounced around in the wagon so much and we two girls cried in sympathy with him. The meals were about the same and very tiresome, the bread was poor and we didn't have butter. It was hard to bake bread crossing the plains, they would set up the stoves and probably just get a fire started when a wind would come up and away would go the stove pipe. We children often ate vegetables (Potatoes, carrots and cabbage) raw.

At night they had their times of enjoyments, holding meetings and singing songs of Zion. They even danced once in a while. We girls would get out and play with a little girl in the next wagon who had a set of dishes made of lead. The red ants were so bad and mother often had to strip off our clothes to get rid of them and how they did bite.

When we neared Utah, we came to the mountains and someone passed along the word that the wagons would have to be unloaded as they could not cross the mountain passes. Many of the families threw out all their earthly possessions, beautiful blankets and shawls that were brought all the way from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and other places, but the majority kept their belongings. Six years before, in 1855, my mother's sisters had crossed with all their possessions and had written back to mother to bring all she could as she could get nothing when she got to Utah. So my parents did not unload our wagon as the roads were not so bad and they really had less trouble with the heavy wagons than with the lighter ones. The men would hold on to one side of the wagon and they kept on the road and the lighter wagons would slip and slide and cause trouble.

We children could only look out of the front end of the wagons and all we could see was the ever present thistle and skunkweed that grew just beside the road. I remember getting such a dislike for them and to this day I cannot stand the sight of the color. I just screamed and told mother how I hated them. Mother used to hate the mountains when we first came to Utah and I guess it was because they seemed to shut her away from her folks in England. She finally became acustomed to them and later on she loved them just as we children did.

We reached Salt Lake City late in September. . . .