Transcript

. . . up the River to Florence Neb. where we camped to July 25, when our little baggage and mother was loaded on top of Dry Goods box in a covered wagon, one of 70, of Capt. Peter Nebeker's Co. bound for Salt Lake City, where we arrived Sept 25, 1863.

Mother was overworked and very weak nursing her last son, Hans Ephraim, Born Dec. 12, 1862, who died Aug. 6, 1863, about 200 miles west of Florence, where the train was halted about ½ hour for his burial, by the road side, while mother lay sick and helpless on top of those boxes in the Covered wagon.

Father, sister Maria and I, together with all able bodied immigrants walked the entire distance from the Missouri River, Florence, to Salt lake City, only the sick were permitted to ride. However, I and other boys, driving the lame oxen, often rode some of them for a rest. We also got a ride, occasionally, with a Mister Smith who drove two horses on a buckboard and used us as "Setter-dogs" for game hunting ahead of the train.

One day camping with Mr. Smith for lunch, Andrew Amundsen a chum of mine, espied up in a tree a platform, to which he climbed and found a dead Indian thereon and all his belongings, which Andrew began casting down to the rest of us; when Mr. Smith stopped "the fun" and warned us that if we were discovered, the living Indians surrounding us would destroy us.