Transcript

Here there were sixty-one wagons with ox teams that President Brigham Young had sent to meet us and bring us to Utah. Captain Horn was placed at the head of the company.

I will never forget how tired I got of that long ride with nothing to see. Most of the older people had to walk all the way, but as I was only four years old, I was permitted to ride. I would beg my father to let me down to walk for a while and of course I couldn't begin to keep up with the wagons. We would get quite a ways behind and then he would pick me up on his shoulders and carry me so that we could catch up. No one was permitted to get far behind on account of the danger of Indians. At nights they would drive the wagons all around in a circle forming a kind of corral. Everyone then stayed on the inside of this circle and even the oxen were kept on the inside so that the Indians could not steal them. We saw many Indians of the Pawnee tribe but they were very peacable and helped the saints in many ways. The Saints had been warned to feed the Indians rather than to fight them. Brigham Young decided this was the best.

My little sister Fannie, the baby who wasn't two years old, took sick and died. She is buried near Chimney Rock in Wyoming. Mother grieved so much over her. They dug her grave deep and not having any boards to make a coffin, just wrapped the body in a sheet. I can hear my mother crying and saying, 'Those poor little bones.' I realized as I grew older that she meant that they would be crushed by the weight of the dirt and rocks as the grave was filled in.

When we arrived at Ogden, a brass band led by Mr. Sprague met us at Riverdale and played some lively tunes to cheer us up. We reached Ogden on September 15, 1861.