Transcript

April 27, 1852, myself and family left St. Louis for Salt Lake Valley, Utah. I am thankful to God my Father for delivering us from St. Louis. It is a sickly, wicked hell of a place. Many of my brethren have fallen but I have been preserved. We left six of us and my child, in one wagon with two yoke of oxen. The other members of the party were Brother and Sister Jeffs, Brother Clegg, an old bachelor and his sister.

We camped at Manchester on the 29th

and at Union on the 2nd of May. We had very heavy thunderstorms and bought two cows.

May 7th we ferried a river.

May 16th we ferried the Osage River. That was the greatest hell I was ever in. It was on Sunday. We had a very heavy thunderstorm and flooded our wagons. Two of the brethren got to fighting and when our wagons were on the ferryboat one of the oxen got overboard. We got him on again and then one of the oxen gave me a kick overboard and Brother Vickers pulled me out of the water by my feet. I shall always remember it and thank God for saving my life. We passed through a half mile of swampland in water up to our knees and then came to a good country, plenty of grass, good roads and some strawberries.

June 1st we got to Independence safe after having our wagons break down and a great many more difficulties.

June 6th we camped at Kansas City and crossed the Kansas River.

June 7th we came to Leavenworth.

On the 9th we started on the plains; seven or eight wagons and eleven men.

June 11th we found an ox with a yoke on it. He was very wild and we got a rope on him and he ran at us and drove us, but we took him to Salt Lake City and sold him and divided the money.

On the 12th we lost all our oxen and found some of them seven miles off. We found many dead oxen and graves of men.

On the 24th we came to the Big Blue and forded it.

On the 30th we came to the Platte River. The mosquitoes troubled us very much. Brother Vickers’ child [Martha Ann] died the day before.

July 1st we came to Fort Kearney.

On the 3rd we came to a flock of sheep, 10,000 in number, going to California; fifteen or twenty of them were left behind every day.

On the 12th we forded the South Fork of the Platte River.

On the 13th we came to Oak Hollow;

on the 16th we came to Chimney Rock,

and on the 20th to Fort Laramie. We who had money bought provisions and some had no money and no provisions. They laid their case before the commander of the fort and he gave them freely and liberally, so we started, refreshed again.

August 4th we forded the north fork of the Platte River. We had some trouble to get through and then we saw a widow’s wagon turn over in the river. We saved the most of her things. A man who had been drowned was found.

August 10th we forded Sweet Water River at Independence Rock.

The 23rd we came to Sulphur and Tar Springs.

September 5th, 1852, we arrived at Salt Lake City.