Transcript

Transcript for Young, Brigham H., Autobiographical sketch, 1847, 3-11

I was soon involved in Capt. Grants company & had the honor of being chosen as one of the night guad of the cattle half of every other night. We laid here about two weeks waiting for the last wagons to join us, as this was the last company of the season, Many found that they had little repairs to make such as reset[t]ing tire, & shifting their loading, I had to put in a new axel tree in my wagon, it took me two days to find a stick to make it of, John Young was president of the Company. The first day out we made about five miles, there was about 100 wagons, divided into 50 in each division, Brother Snow, & Bates Nobles Capt of fifties, we made about 12 or 15 teen miles a day, we had a disagreeable time in crossing the Loop [Loup] fork, nothing of note happened until we had made about 400 miles reaching the Buffalow [buffalo] country. One morning two of our company took their guns & struck out into the low hills, about 11 oclock they over took the train a good deal excited, & reported that they had killed a monster, we were ordered to camp for dinner, Bro. Pierce said they could take his horses & wagon, the only horse team in the out fit, the box was soon set upon the ground, there was some faults tongues & levers placed on the running gears, four men was to go back. Capt Grant asked the hunters what time they would be back, the awnser [answer] about 5 oclock, 5 oclock came & no hunters in sight, night came the cattle corralled [corralled], & all went to bed, except the night guard to keep the cattle in the correll, about 11 oclock the wagon came, it was left about eight rods west of our correll every morning as daylight appears there is a sucshion of wind from the west, the first breeze, the cattle [s]cented the blood, & every animal seemed to be on their feet, making a rush for the carkess [carcass], it seemed as though the whole Earth trembled it was a frightful time, as I looked out the cattle at the mouth of the correll were on top of eacher [each other] as high as the tops of the wagons in the rush, they tiped over the wagon on the end of the night wing with one occupant who came out all right, they ran past the carcas about 80 rods, & lost the s[c]ent, they wheeled around in two divisions passing back a past our camp, I canot describe the terror & dread that we were in, if they got with the Buffalo, we were with out teams. There soon some 20 men running after the cattle Calling to them, but the lowing & bells, made two [too] much racket to be heard, when they had run about four miles they stacked up so that the men got around them, in the mean time the carkus [carcass] was moved to one side, & delt out to the people, & a poor deal at that, for there was but little tough meat on the bones; The horns broken off of about thirty oxen & 2 or 3 colts with broken legs, was cleared away, & everything in readiness to receive the cattle, they came about ten oclock, ordered to yoke up, each man got his yoke & began to hunt up his team, the cry was soon heard, I am minus an ox, another, I am out of two, all told there were 26 head short, 4 of the best cattle; Joseph W. Young & another man were called upon to go in search of the lost cattle, their outfit was two plug horses, & five days food, they were absent ten days, returned without the cattle, they tracked 150 milles [miles].

There was 5 or 10 thousand lbls [lbs] of freight that had to be placed upon the company, every one was to take according to the strength of his team about four oclock we roled out, traveled about five miles & camped in two divishions, about 50 rods apart, after the cattle had eatten a little they were placed in the corrells, with a strong guard, about midnight I was awakoned by the stampede of the other correll, the cattle seemed much frightened, & bewildered, we talked to our cattle which seem to passafy them; the other company soon had their cattle back in the correll, we soon found out the need of the cattle lost. We moved along as best we could to make up for our lost time, about eleven oclock as we were moving a long, we discovered a band of Buffalo coming over the ridge north of us, heading for about the center of our train. As they came nearer they increased in numbers, until there were thousands. They follow their leader, & travel in a three cornered shape. Shape, they see nothing before them, & travel in a short galiop [gallop]; we see that our only chance was to turn them as we could not get out of their way, so voli<n>teers were called for with their guns, they succeeded after many shots to turn them to the left, as they came around & passed by us they seemed to be not two rods from us, many very large, we felt very much relieved, for a few minutes ago, it looked as though we were to be trampled under foot, it is a wonder that our cattle had not stampeded, we roled a long for two or three days as usual, We were brought to a halt, to let a large herd pass in front of us, they crowded into the river until they damed it up until it ran over their backs, The next thing of note was of meeting of Gen. Freemont, & party returning from one of his western trips, he came down from the Yellow Stone [Yellowstone] country, he had but very little to say. We killed very few Buffalow, big mouth Baker said that he killed three with one bullet, The next thing of note was return of Phineas H. Young & another man, who was sent back from the main body of the Pioneers who had reached Green River 160 miles of the great valley where we were expected to camp for the winter, we were very glad to get direct news from the Pioneers.

The two men were sorely disapointed not finding their families in the Company, The men said they would continue on their journey East, They staid with <us> 4 days to give the people <a chance> to write back to their friends, there was a <little> provishion furnished, <them> their outfit consisted of a small Poneney [pony], frying pan, Coffee Pot, & hatchet, two old rifles & a very little Powder & lead, they had five hundred miles before them, nothing to be seen but red skins & Buffalow; It was sad parting for me, my Father had then traveled some fourteen hundred miles, the most <of> the way on foot, carrying his gun. We traveled along the banks of the Platt[e] until we got opposite Ft. Larima [Laramie] which stands back in a cove about one mile south of the river, it was low & we croosed [crossed] & drove out about four miles & camped, it looked good to see a house again, we soon had the Black hills to climb which was very hard on our catt[l]es feet, the gravel was so sharp, In a hundred & fifty miles we recrossed the platt[e] again, here we found a few of our Pioneers who was detained to build a boat to cross the companies as the[y] came up, when we came up the <stream> was so <low> we could ford it, The next place of note was Sweet Water [Sweetwater], & Independance [Independence] rock, It <is> said that when the big rush of forty three or four to Oregon the <emigrants> all met there & spent the 4th of July & had fifty two weddings, & named the rock, the next place of note is the Devel's [Devil's] Gate, the feed being poor we made a short noo<n>ing after we had traveled about four miles, we discovered that <we> were four women short, the question was asked, are they Kidnapt [kidnapped], a few men went back about a mile & see the lost women. The next place is Rockey [Rocky] Ridge, it has got its right name, on top of the ridge we met President Young & company on their return trip, it was about dinner time, & we camped for the night, we wanted to know all about the great Bason [Basin], we had a good visit but a little bad luck, about daylight the Indians steped up & got seven head of horses, young & old that was tied to <the> Cannon wagon, they cut the bell strap, & skipted [skipped] for parts unknown.

About Ten oclock we seperated. Our next place of note was the South Pass after traveling eight hundred miles of upgrade, we found our selves on the Back Bone of America, I compaired the water of the Atlantic & pacific [Pacific], I could <see> no diferance, Green River was the next place of note, in due time we arrived & found the river low & we crossed without any trouble, then fifty miles to old Ft Bridger, we arrived there all safe about dinner time, we camped for the night after dinner quite a number of us strooled [strolled] up to the Fort. Messrs Bridger & Vasques were owners, the Fort consisted of 8 rooms covered with poles & dirt, it had been cleaned up, & we were made welcome, & was envited to bring our music & have a dance in the evening, Bridger had Squaws but the[y] kept out of sight, this whole country was claimed by the Snake tribe, they were very numerous, they have a way of dressing their robes & other skins far superior to any of the other tribes, they never split their robes.

In their storeroom was a small supply of Indian goods, a little sugar, tea, coffee & Sarvis [Service] berries, a pint was a pound all around; Mr. Vasques was a scholar, & very interesting to talk with, he told me where I could find the Indian Medicine Spring, & fill up my tea pot, I would find <it> good for the wagon also for sore throat, or any kind of a sores. I found it to be so, We had our little dance, & bid them good by, it seemed <good> to get under a she<l>ter again, In the morning we started for the Great Valley one hundred & thirteen miles to make, we moved along until we reached Salaratus Creek three miles east of Bear river. We found a good Spring of water, & we camped for the night, here Sister Grant breathed her last, 83 miles east of the valley.