[Elmer Taylor]

It was about the middle of July 1850, that he started for Salt Lake city in Captain Foote’s “hundred” and Abraham Coon’s “ten”. The thrid day cholera attacked thecamp, a man named [Alfred] Brown being the first one to succumb. Half of Horace Spafford’s family, the mother [Martha Stiles] and five children who were traveling with the Taylors, also died, the father [Horace] and five children recovering. Several of Captain Coon’s family were stricken, but none of the Taylor family, twelve in number, were even assailed. In all there were about thirty victims. Elmer [Taylor] assisted in digging th gtaves [graves] and burying the dead. Eight miles above Fort Laramie, Mattison [Madison] Welsh [Welch] and Nelson Spafford narrowly escaped drowning while swimming the Platte river, driving stock to feed. Elmer Taylor was of the party, and though a poor swimmer, while his companions were experts, by holding on to an ox’s tail he crossed and recrossed the deep, a swift-running stream without difficulty. On the Sweetwater his father [Benjamin Franklin Taylor] nearly died from being poisoned by a snake.