Transcript

In the spring of 1850 we joined Mother's eldest son, George Peacock, who was on his way to Utah with a fine outfit and able to help us. Mother [Mary Noddings Clark] still had the four youngest Clark Children. My brother Thomas was fourteen and I was seven. A young man named Jake Wyric who was anxious to get to California, helped Thomas get our outfit ready. We had one wagon, one yoke of oxen and two cows.

I rode a large stallion belonging to Jake Wyric and drove the loose cattle. As I was only seven my legs were so short they would hardly reach across his broad back. At first I was in constant danger of a tumble, but soon grew to be at ease perched up so high where I could look over the miles of weaving grass.

Large herds of buffalo could be seen daily, sometimes feeding, but oftener trailing one behind the other in trails worn so deep by their hoofs they could sca[re]cely be seen. We had fresh buffalo meat most all the way. Sometimes they were killed without leaving the wagon train. We salted enough to last us through the following winter.

We reached Salt Lake City on September 9, 1850 . . .

The next few years were spent making trips to the Missouri River to help emigrants to Utah. There were three other boys and we herded 450 head of oxen at night. We traveled 2000 miles, many nights wet to the skin and depending on the flashes of lightning to see the straying cattle. I made four such trips. Jack Hall was my buddy.