Transcript

Transcript for McLane, Duncan, Autobiographical sketch, in Genealogical Charts and Biographical Sketches of Members of the L.D.S. Church, Ogden Stake, 26 vols., 23:48-49

Father wouldn't come with us as he expected us to return soon. Little did any of us realize the journey we were taking. So mother myself & two brothers James & Hugh left Liverpool in April 1855. I was then 14. The ship we sailed on was the "Samuel Curlin[g]." This was her first trip across and we were just one month on the water & landed at New York.

We traveled on the boat Amazon on the Ohio, Miss & Missouri rivers. There was cholera on board and we stopped several times to bury the dead.

When we arrived at Mormon Grove on the Missouri we landed and stayed several weeks to break cattle and provide provisions for our journey by team.

We crossed the plains in Milo Andrus' company. It was a terrible trip, very stormy and a great deal of cholera. We would hardly get the dead buried till the wolves & coyotes dug the bodies out of the ground. The Indians were very bad that year killing a great many travelers.

General Harney & the Cavalery passed us on the road. At Ash Hollow they had a battle with the Indians. killing all they could find. They gave the Gen. the nickname of "Squawkiller Harney." The Indians were quiet all the rest of the way.

We arrived in S. L. C. in an awful snow storm late in the fall of 1855.