Transcript

I decided to go to Utah, and on the 10th of May 1862, I sailed from the city of Glasgow. After six weeks and three days we landed in New York. We went from there to Council Bluffs and there the ox teams met us. We remained there two weeks and then organized with fifty wagons in our company and a great many emigrants for Utah. I was chosen to have charge of a part of the company, as the custom was to divide up so that the head captain might not have so much to do.

We got ready all in good order and started on our two-thousand-mile trip. All went well for a time; but after about three weeks there came a change and our people began to sicken and die. There was a great deal of walking to be done. Those who could walk must walk. Only extreme sickness was an excuse for riding. Indians did not trouble us much, though we guarded against them very closely.

Such trips taught one to be very patient or very fretful. We had to do with three or four nationalities each having its own peculiar ways. Many days and nights together my clothing never was dry,—fording rivers and exposed to the rain. Yet my health improved. The trip did me good, both in health and experience. We reached Salt Lake at last, with much loss of life and of stock, which was usual with such long journeys.