Transcript

Bishop J. B. Fairbanks came to me this winter & said to me it was his council for me to go in to the Patarical [Patriarchal] order & take me an other Wife[,] so to be obediant to council & knowing that this was a step to Exaltation in the Kingdom of God I said that I would try to fill that Law[.] So I comenced casting about Payson to see if thair was any good girl that I could get to come in to my family, but young Wimmen [women] was scarce & hard to pleas, so I volenteared to go to Omeha [Omaha] this spring with my team & meet the Emegration from Europe & bring up a Load of Emegrants & perhaps I may finde a good mormon girl that will be sealed to me & com in to my family,

so on the 24[th] day of April this year [1863] I started with 4 yoak of oxen & a wagon with 9 others & Wm. McClelian [McClellan] was our captain from Payson & we joined John R. Merdocks [Murdock's] Company of 65 wagons & 460 yoak of oxen + 75 men comprised our company & we traveled up Provo Canion [canyon] to the Webber & through Ecco [Echo] canion & so on acrost the Plains through the Hills to Larmey [Laramie] & down the Plat[te] River to Omeha[,] Everaging 20 miles a day making 50 days in the trip down to the Masouri [Missouri] River[.] The Emegrants ware waiting in camp for us to arive as they had got thair a week before & they wair nearly all scandinavians & moast of them could not speak of word of English, so when all of the Wagons was Loaded but mine[,] thair was left 24 sweeds to go with some wagon & murdock said the only chance was for me to take them all in my wagon & that was twice as many as the others had, so they stoed [stowed] them or thair goods all in & Piled the Wagon full to the Bowes & our company started out for the mountains[.] I had 2 Invileads [invalids] in my Wagon that had to Ride all of the time & the 2 Weighed 4 hundred pounds & I found at the first night's camp that my Passengers could not talk a Word of English & I felt very sick of them at first, but as I was cook of our Payson ten & had to sit up long Evenings to Boil Beans & Bake Bread the girls would help me to do my cooking for thair was 5 large young Wimen in my Wagon & they ware ancious [anxious] to Learn the English Language & I was ancious to Learn the sweedish so I gave them words to Learn & they gave me words of sweedish to Learn & by the time we got up the Plat[te] River I could talk very fair Sweedish to them & so we got along much Better the Latter part of our Journey[.] Thair was one young Lady that formed an attachment to me & I in turn to for hir[.] Hir Name was Scelia [Cecelia] Parson & when we came home she stoped at cottonwood to visit some Reletives & I came on home & all of our Emegrants scattered out in to the country & now we had made the trip to the Mosouri River & back home in Less than 4 months[,] it lacked 8 days[,] making about 20 miles per day with ox teams & nothing Sirius [serious] had happened to any of us on the [w]hole Journey.