Transcript

I made up my mind to go to Utah, so on the 19th of March, 1861, I was married to Esther Wardle in the Manchester Cathedral, England, by Reverend G S Allen. On the 16th of April, 1861 we set sail for America on the ship Manchester, which made the voyage in 28 days. This was supposed to be extra fast at that time for some were 6 weeks going over. Hearing that I could get good work in New York, I gave my pass to a friend to come to Florence, while I would stay in New York and earn a little money so I could continue my journey to Utah. While I was on the water the war broke out between the North and South and when we arrived in New York the streets were full of soldiers, drilling and preparing for war. All employment was shut down and times were very dull and very little work to be had and low wages even at that. In the spring of 1862, I saw an advertisement, “A good painter wanted to paint passenger steam boats,” so I applied and got the job, as that kind of workman were scarce. I earned our passage to Florence and left about the 12th of June 1862. While on our way the baggage car caught on fire and burned all our baggage. After we arrived Florence we stayed there six weeks and while there witnessed some very severe thunder storms. In one of them, Joseph A Young was severely hurt about the head. We started across the plains with Brother Henry Miller as our Captain. The company consisted of 60 wagons and 693 emigrants, each wagon having three to four ox teams and sixty hundred of Church freight besides the luggage of 18 persons to a wagon. All of us were forbidden to ride (except the sick). My wife and I walked one thousand miles and carried our six month old baby, Joseph in our arms, arriving in Salt Lake City, October 17, 1862. When I left Florence I bought a pair of shoes from the commissary and when I reached Green River I waded the river with my shoes on and the soles left the tops and left me without shoes. The next morning it snowed so one of the teamsters gave me a pair of shoes, but they were so small I could scarcely wear them. I was too bashful to let any one see me go bare foot so I just put them on night and morning while in company with the emigrants and when I was traveling out of sight I would take them off. I suffered very much rather than have my modesty shocked. When we arrived in Salt Lake we had no place to go, so a Brother George Openshaw, toll keeper at he Eagle Gate, took us in his home and cared for us until we could do better, although he lived in a small log house.