Transcript

"We rested a few days and left [Wyoming, Nebraska] on July 24, 1866, about noon after we had cooked our dinner around a campfire. We were met by a company of eighty-two covered wagons which had been sent out from Utah by Brigham Young to meet the immigrants. Two families were assigned to travel in each wagon on the journey to Salt Lake City. This arrangement did not meet with my mother's approval, as she did not like the looks of some of the immigrants. She thought they might have vermin, or that we children might contract some disease from them. After talking with several of the drivers, we were assigned to ride in a wagon that carried some freight. It consisted of two large flat wooden boxes which just fit into the bottom of the wagon box and completely covered the floor. Packed into these boxes were the materials for the Great Salt Lake Tabernacle organ.

"During the journey we had delightful weather. It was warm with a few gentle rains. When we grew tired of riding we walked to rest ourselves. At night we camped in a half circle. The oxen were put in a corral made by the wagons, and we slept in the corral made by the wagons or in the wagon boxes. Every night guards stood at the opening of the circle, the men in the party together with the drivers acted as guards. We passed over hundred of miles of prairie country. One morning a girl friend and I were standing, perhaps within a stone's throw of the wagons, washing our faces and combing our hair by a small stream. Suddenly almost before we had finished, we decided to run back to the wagons. We had no more than reached them when fifteen or twenty big Indians rode into our camp. The captain of the company gave them sugar, flour, and other things to eat. I remember how they stood and looked at mother's baby, which was only a month old, and then offered to trade her a horse for it.

"After reaching Utah, the first settlement we came to was Coalville at Silver Creek, a small village with a few buildings. We did not stop here, however, as our destination was Salt Lake City, where we arrived October 4, 1866. Here we camped in the lot just east of the Tabernacle, grounds in the tithing office sheds."