Transcript

In the spring of 1851 Needham and Fergusen dissolved partnership[.] Bro. Needham emigrated to Utah and Mr. Ferguson continued the business[.] I continued with him until May 1852 when I emigrated to Utah, in the 20th company, H[enry]. W[illiam]. Miller being captain of the company.

Bro. Miller was an excellent captain to travel with. Elder [Orson] Hyde and family were in the company. We made good time, passing all the companies along the road down to the 7th. The cholera was very bad on the plains that year, but only one or two died out of our company. Captain Miller would not stop in one camp long enough for the people to get sick and die. It was very sorrowful to see so many graves by the roadside.

We arrived in Salt Lake City on September 24th, 1852.

[Text also in Our Pioneer Heritage, 20 vols. (1958-77), 18:181; Treasured Histories of the William Oscar Bentley Family (1984), 25; and Joseph T. Bentley, Life and Letters of Joseph C. Bentley: A Biography (1979?), 9]