Transcript

We crossed the plains in Captain Howard [Homer] Duncan's Company. One wagon was provided for twelve people so it necessitated our walking most of the way. Shortly after the Company left Laramie or Florence, a woman was confined in our wagon. One evening a terrific storm arose and my father [Thomas Thrower] who was sleeping in a tent was soon floating in water. He was not a physically strong man and the day following was taken sick and died three days later of pneumonia. I remember how they rolled him in a blanket and buried him and how terrible it seemed to me for him to be left on that lonely plain and of wondering if the wolves would get him. One remark he made to me while I rode a little way in the wagon so I could hand him a drink, has been a source of consolation to me. He said he was glad he started in order that his family might be in Utah, no matter whether he lived or died. We arrived in Salt Lake September 24, 1862.