Transcript

In the spring of 1848 we arrived at Council Bluffs and stayed there about a month. We left there on the 4th of July in Franklin D. Richards' company [Willard Richards Company] for the West. My father [Joel Hills Johnson] took a small herd of sheep with him. I think they were the first sheep driven to Utah. I saw some Omaha Indians at Winter Quarters. They were the first Indians I ever saw.

While we were on the Platte River some 250 miles from the Missouri River, I was ahead of the company about one mile, driving the sheep, when a war party of Sioux Indians came up to me. Seeing them, I though[t] maybe they would kill me, but I knew I could not get away so I waited for them to come to me. They were very friendly. The chief took me on his horse behind him and went back to the company who gave the Indians some presents. The Indians went on their way, feeling all right. Being ahead of the company driving sheep, I killed several buffalo. Though I was only 14, the company praised me for being a hunter. My oldest brother, Sixtus, killed lots of game along the road.

We arrived at Salt Lake Valley the 19th of October, 1848.