Transcript

Transcript for Journal of History Vol. 10 (Lamoni: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1908-1925), 180-81

In the spring of 1848 many went to Salt Lake, my mother and family with the rest, with the exception of myself and husband any my brother Peter.  Mother was very weak from her long illness but Mr. Grant went to work for the Government and took my brother, Peter, with him; they were driving teams hauling fright from Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie.  I remained at Council Bluffs with my Uncle Bateman Haight and wife.  They came home in the fall and Mr. Grant took the Council Bluffs school and taught there two years.  Here two of my children were born—Mary A. and Sarah O.

[I]n the latter part of April, 1850, we left Council Bluffs for Salt Lake City; Sarah being a baby one month old.  There was a large train of people, Captain [Aaron] Johnson being the leader.  Several men rode ahead to look out good camping places where here [there] was plenty of water.  One day they had been riding very hard and it was very warm and one of the men came to our wagon for a cup to get a drink.  He said he had found some water and was going to drink some of it.  I cautioned him not to do so, as we had plenty of water but he was persistent and drank the water he found, which was really only a buffalo wallow and naturally stagnant and filthy.  It was ab[o]ut the middile of the afternoon when he drank the water and at ten o'clock that night he was taken sick, became unconscious and died and was buried at breakfast time next day.  There were many cases of cholera, this being the first.  But the wagons moved on.  We arrived at Salt Lake safely, about the first of August, being about three months on the way.