Transcript

My father [Erick Goudyson Hogan] made preparation to start in the spring, it having been two years since we started to travel into the wilderness. He offered to sell our place for something at Plum Hollow or as some called it, Zabriskey Hollow, made a trade with George P. Dikes, he having come from Salt Lake Valley, returning from the Mormon Battalion. He said he had a house in the fort at Salt Lake Valley that he would give for our place and one small wagon, but when we came to Salt Lake Valley, we found no house belonging to said Dikes, so we lost nearly all that place which cost several hundred dollard [dollars] hard labor.

Started the last of May and came to Elkhorn, east of the Missouri River. There we stopped a few days and organized into companies of 100s, 50s, and 10s. Continued our journes [journey] the 5th day of June in Jera [Zera] Pulsifer Company. My father drove a pair of cattle on one wagon, my mother [Helge Hogan] drove one horse on a small wagon, and I drove 3 pair on one wagon 3 cows, 1 bull, and one pair of oxen. We also had 6 sheep, 6 chickens, and 1 pig. We brought all through excepting one ox, that got elklid [alkali] on sweet water, and one chicken that got run over by the small horse and wagon at the time when we were in camp, when a high wind storm rose that blew so furiously it started the wagons to roll. In our travel we had many things to contend with, such as high waters, etc. We had to stand guard all the way, as the Indians would watch for a chance to steal our stock if left unguarded. Many times we had no wood to burn and had to use buffalo chips which would serve a good purpose when we could find enough of them that were dry. The buffalo were very plentiful and we made good use of the meat by stopping a day or two to cut it in thin slices and dip it in salt brine and hang it beside our wagons to dry. Then it answered a very good purpose to quench our hunger and often we had to watch and guard our cattle to keep them from being mixed with the buffalo, which would cause a stampede. Frequently when we were traveling, the buffalo herd would come down off the hills by the hundreds and thousands, to go in their beaten path to water. We had to stop the company until they passed by. But we were willing to put up with this for the sake of having all the meat we need when we were hungry, having no prospect of obtaining anything when we got through only what we had in our wagons. Often many of the saints acknowledged the hand of the Lord in sending the buffalo to supply our wants in times of need, the same as sending the quails on the Mississippi River after the Saints were driven from their homes in Nauvoo. I was one of the hunters to kill buffalo, which I at that time took great delight, having a very good gun, I cheerfully did my share in obtaining meat for the company when it was needed.

At the last crossing of the Sweet Water I was out to hunt buffalo. After two hours absence from camp, I fired two shots and killed two buffalo, with an old rifle that my father brought with him from Norway in 1837. When I was back on my mission to Norway in 1878, I talked with the man from whom my father bought this gun prior to leaving Norway. He was then 85 years old and assured me that he had killed no less than 300 reindeer, his father having used this same gun before him, had killed as many as he.

While camped on the Sweet Water one of my oxen took sick and died. My father was bewildered to know what to do for another animal in the place of this one, as our load was too heavy for the remaining animals in the team. While in deep meditation as to what to do, here came a lone cow to camp, which we were satisfied was a cow that someone had lost, having gone on, so we yoked her up and moved on. When we came through to Salt Lake Valley, we found the owner, who was Levi Stewart. He was exceedingly glad to get his cow, and we were no less glad of the use of the animal, as he expected she was lost for good. I will now close the journey from Nauvoo to the Salt Lake Valley, which has taken two and one half years of hard labor and toil through the wilderness, and at last, by the blessings of the Lord continually over us, and many of the Saints generally, we arrived in Great Salt Lake Valley the 22nd of September 1848, when there was not a house in Salt Lake Valley only in a small fort southwest of the city of Salt Lake.