Transcript

Transcript for Goldsbrough, Ellen Jackson, Reminiscence 1882 May-August, 11-13

For my part, I sincerely wished I might never see another railroad. How soon that wish was to be recalled I little dreamed at that time. But I had a harder task ahead which caused many of us to wish for those tiresome cars—a journey across the plains of 1500 miles with a handcart is really no small affair. But a happier crowd of people than we were when we left Iowa City hitched to our handcarts would be hard to find. We were filled with joy at the prospects of coming home, and nothing seemed too hard a task for us to undertake. And the Lord again manifested his loving care over us, by strengthing our bodies for the Duties we were called to fill. we fully realized the promise of the Lord, "that as thy day, thy strength shall be", for after a distance of 15 or 20 miles a day, we would sit down for an hour or so, eat our bread and be so refreshed that we would often meet around a large camp fire and sing for hours. This was not the case with young people alone, but the same feeling filled the elderly ones, who would mingle with us and declare they were not tired at all. But the longest day has an end, and the longest journey has an ending, and very happy we were when that journey ended, for after all, it began to get very wearisome towards the latter part of the time. We left Iowa City the 1st of May and arrived in Salt Lake City on the 12th of September. Should I attempt to describe my joy and emotion at first beholding Salt Lake City; what would I have given had my parents been with me. O I could not speak for the joy and thankfulness that filled my heart were too great for utterance. My happiness seemed complete, although I had not a home to go to that I knew of in all that city, nor a relative that I could claim. Yet I was confident that all would be well with me.