Transcript

In the morning of July 1st, at 3 o'clock, we reached FLORENCE, NEBRASKA. On the 8th of July the handcarts started along with 10 wagons. On the 14th the captains of the companies went to the camp 2 miles from Florence; on the 18th the Swiss wagons had to go there too because the oxen were not drawn lots for. My wagon weighed 34 hundredweights and 30 pounds, the wagon itself 1046 pounds, that would leave 23 hundredweights and 84 pounds. I paid $71 dollars for foodstuff. There were six persons in my wagon, Christ[ian] Staufer, and the 20the Sister Theurer from St. Joseph came in, and John Stucki and Sister Theurer and Sister [Anna Gugger] Staufer, I had to take in my wagon. On the 20th we had to draw lots for the oxen: I had to pay $84 for two pair and $86 for the wagon, after which only $20 were left.

Right from the first day after our departure I got sick and for the entire month I had to lay down in the wagon. On the very first day Brother [John] Diethems axle-tree on his wagon broke, and two hundred miles from Florence Sister Naef died. I too lost three oxen on plains, so I had to buy another pair for $90: to pay that, I had to borrow $60 from Brother Keller out of the heritage of Sister Katharina Naef. 350 miles from Salt Lake Father [Henry] Keller died. Mother [Elizabeth] Keller got very sick; she fell and a wagon wheel injured her leg very badly.

On October 5th we arrived in Salt Lake City.