Transcript

We arrived at Florence, Nebraska the 2nd of June, then the stopping place for the Saints. We remained there one month awaiting the ox teams to come and take us on our long journey to the Rocky Mountains. While we were encamped at Florence, my mother [Elizabeth Brook Scarborough] got work at a gentleman’s home to help earn our food. We cooked flap jacks out-of-doors. We were all housed on one large room with our bed made on the floor.

I got my first view of Indians all painted and feathered and riding their horses while at Florence. Our stay at Florence lengthened into one month and we were very happy to see the teams roll in to take us on to Zion. My mother and brother [Joseph Brook Scarborough] walked a great deal of the way. Our journey was uneventful as far as any trouble with the Indians or herds of buffalos were concerned. It certainly was a novelty to see the teams and wagons pitch into the great streams, blocking the wheels going dow[n] hill, hearing the teamster holler to his two and three yolk of oxen pulling up the hill again. We gathered buffalo chips to make fires for cooking and for bon-fires.

On September 12, 1861, we arrived safely in Salt Lake City, Utah.