Transcript

In the spring of 1861, my father, Stephen, and my mother, Louisa, and my Grandmother, Mary Ann Campbell Foreman, my sister [Charlotte Louisa], myself, and my mother's two sisters [Eliza Foreman and Charlotte Griggs] started west. We went by railroad to Florence, Nebraska, where we joined the oxen-drawn wagon train company of Captain Joseph Horne, just departing for Utah. While on this journey across the plains in a jarring, bouncing wagon, my mother gave birth to my sister, Harriet Esther, August 16, 1861. My Grandmother Foreman took care of my mother. Then one day when Grandmother was getting out of the side of the wagon while in motion (the wagons never stopped during the day until camp was made at night) she slipped and fell under the wheel. The wagon, going over her, crushed out her life. She was quickly put in the wagon and was buried that night by the side of the trail on the plains, near Chimney Rock, Wyoming. I can still remember her grave and how sad we all were. At night, the wagons were pulled into a big circle. We all camped inside the circle, animals and all, for protection from the Indians and wild animals. At times we had nothing but buffalo chips to make a fire with. I can remember seeing the great herds of buffalo and also our crossing the Big Platte River.

We arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, 13 September 1861 going on up to Logan, in Cache Valley later that same month.