Transcript

We came across the plains in Kimball's company. . . .

On the way across the plains we walked behind the wagon. My sister Rachel Ann drove the little wagon that mother rode in. She would get out and walk when the oxen pulled it up hill and ride when it went down hill. We pitched a small tent at night. Many times we walked with our dresses wet to our knees because it rained so much. Our shoes gave out. We would sit in the wagon to sleep if it rained so hard that we could not put up the tent. We had to keep on traveling until we came to water and grass. There were two cows and two steers hitched to Pa's wagon. I milked cows and yoked them up. Rachel Ann put the things into the wagon and I helped her. One steer got away and went across the Platte River. Pa sent Rachel Ann and me to hunt her. It was a wide river but shallow. She saw a white faced steer across the river and waded the river and brought it back, with the help of some herders. Then Pa put a rope on him. Most of the teams and wagons had left by then, so we were late in catching up and getting into camp that night, but the circle of wagons had left a place for our wagon. After dark the men would herd the cows for awhile then put them in the wagon corral.

Just before we came into the valley, we were coming down Emigration canyon and a big rock came down on us. I could not get into the wagon so I put some blankets around me and stayed outside.

When we came down out of Emigration canyon and entered into the valley, the roads were all washed out and we had to make new ones. We found only a sun-burned waste land, and our grief could not be expressed. We thought of our friends at home and all that we had left behind. Our company got in late in October 1848.