Transcript

Transcript for Gudmundson, Samuel, Diaries 1860-1900, 17, 19

As we arrived there [Florence] we met a lot of oxen wagons and drivers that had come from Salt Lake City to bring the poor home to Zion and a lot of the emigrants were transported home. The rest went with their own transportation. My wife and I went with Knud Halvorsen's transport, and as he had two teams I took my place as driver for one of them.

We left Florendze in the middle of July and had a man named Harley as our captain. The first days we drove very slowly and had plenty of grass the whole time. We soon came to the Plat[te] river where the apostles O. Pratt and Erastus Snow came to fetch us and follow the emigrants. There were lots of trains until we arrived in Salt Lake City. We followed the Plat[te] river for several weeks and after leaving the Plat[te] river we had more uneven terrain to drive over. Now we began to see snow on the mountains and we now began to climb the Rocky Mountains. It was very cold.

On Sunday the 22nd of September I arrived in the Scandinavian Company of the Saints, guided by Capt. A. D. Wooly to Great Salt Lake City, the biggest "forrest" and the Lord's Zion in these last days.