Transcript

Transcript for Layton, Sarah B., "Autobiography of Sarah B. Layton, "Woman's Exponent, 15 Feb 1901, 7

Before we were ready to start on our journey across the plains, the cholera broke out in the camp and several died, but it did not attack any of our camp. The chills and fever was a constant attendant on me nearly all the way. I did not walk at all crossing the plains on account of sickness. When we were traveling along the Platte river I was baptized for my health, but it did not appear to have much effect, so my travels were anything but pleasant. I had taken enough quinine for a dozen people, I thought, but it was of no avail.

The morning we reached the Bear river bottom I had my last shake, and it was a very severe one. It was a cold, frosty morning and took a long time to get up a large hill that we had to go over. They took the carriage up first, and then we had to wait several hours for the rest of the camp. It seemed that the chills had no more power over me, but I had something else that was almost as bad. A pain began in the roof of my mouth, then it began gathering until I could not open my mouth or swallow. Just after we crossed the top of the mountains Brother Franklin D. Richards and several others came to meet us. He came to the wagon that I was riding in and administered to me and promised me that my tongue should be loosened that I could talk to friends when I arrived in Salt Lake the next day. My sister and her husband had come a long way to meet us, but on account of my mouth I had not been able to talk to her.

Next morning we left camp early and as we caught sight of the valley we saw some of the elderberries and Sister Layton jumped off the wagon to get some of them for me. I tried to crowd some of them into my mouth, when all at once the gathering broke; and what a relief! My tongue was loosed just as I was told it should be, and I did talk to my friends.

The first house that I went into in Salt Lake was Brother Elias Smith's. It was a log house with but one room in it, but we were made welcome, and it was a rest after our long journey across the plains.