Transcript
Transcript for Bunker, Edward, Autobiography, 1894, 22-23
. . . to Iowa City which place we reached in the month of June 1856[.] Here the companies were fitted out with hand carts[.] I was given charge of a Welsh company and left Iowa City 23rd 1856. We rec’d our provisions and teams to haul our supplies at Council Bluffs. After leaving Iowa City, we encountered some heavy rain and wind storms which blew down our tents and washed away our handcarts. I got a heavy drenching, which brought on a spell of rheumatism that confined me to my bed a portion of the Journey.
I had for my councilors Bros [David] Grant, a Scotchman and taylor [tailor] by trade, and [John] Macdonald a cabinet maker, neither of which <whom> had had much experience in handling teams[.] Both were returned missionaries. The Welsh had no experience at all and very few of them could speak English. This made the burden upon me very heavy. I had the mule team to drive and had to instruct the teamsters about yoking the oxen.
The journey from the Missouri river to Salt Lake City was accomplished in 65 days. We were short of provisions all the way and would have suffered for food, had not supplies reached us from the Valley. However we arrived safely in Salt Lake City Oct. 2nd 1856.