Transcript

Transcript for Johnson, George Washington, Autobiography, 6-7

In the spring of 1850 I again started westward to follow my kindred and friends who had gone before

On arriving at Kanesville Iowa I found my brothers Joseph and William and many of my friends and acquantences and concluded to stop there for a time and by the urgent request of many of my friends I commenced the practice of medicine[.] This proved to be a great cholera year and concequently a year of great suffering and distress and my calls were so numerous that for months I would get but little chance to take off my clothing to sleep This was also a great year for emigration to the mines in California

In the Spring 1851 I concluded to follow my Brothers Joel and Benjamine to the Rocky Mountains but the waters of the Elk Horn and Loupe Fork were so high it was almost impossible to cross them so it was decided by the emigration to take a new route which had never been explored to cross the head waters of these streams

So on the 13th day of June 1851 I started with my family and many others on this unexplored route and the hardships and suffering we endured was more than I can describe on paper[.] We traveled many days over sandy deserts almost without food water or fuel[.] Cattle and horses stampeding left many without teams to pull their wagons which had to be left behind with much property

After a journey of several weeks, we arrived on the old road on the Platte River. In crossing the bottoms for several miles we passed through a herd of Buffalo which extended as far as the eye could reach each way and as we traveled on they parted right and left to let us pass through

About 10 miles before we reached the Platte River my son Miles Edger [Edgar] was born on the 31st of july 1851[.] On that night we had the hardest storm I ever remember in my life thunder lightning and rain[.] But the sun shone bright in the morning and we continued our journey under more favorable circumstances the rest of the way

We reached Salt Lake City about the first of October