Transcript

. . . and in 1855 took Mary Jane Quinn to wife and in 1856 I moved to the country and lived about 25 miles and lived in Banim Township, St. Louis Co. and made me an outfit to go to Utah with.

I started 1 April 1859 and crossed the plains with one wagon and 2 yoke of 3 year old oxen and 2 yoke of heifers and some loose stock. The company consisted of myself and wife and four children. [Editorial insertion] (There is one place I want to speak about in this story of brother McNeil, while they were camped one morning a band of Indians came up on the War path and demanded some crackers. so they got out the crackrrs [crackers] and the old chiefs were holding consultation and it took 2 dish pans full of crackers to go around once and each Indian only got one cracker and when the chiefs came back they looked at brother McNeil and motioned for him to go on thier way. One reason they were here alone was because they were to syart [start] with one of the other companies and found they had started a ways ahead of them and so they went alone and the Lord blessed them and protected them.)

We traveled about 1700 miles and arived in Utah all well and camped on the Bench below where Camp Douglas now stands. We arrived the 1 of Aug. 1859. We did rejoice and thank the Lord for preserving our lives to see the valleys of the mountains, the gathering place of the Saints.