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Show BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF .5 LI'CIND A H A WS HOLDA \VAY In 1845, Elders came to tell us that the Saints were being mobbed and driven from their homes, and that we had better prepare to go west with the company. We remained in Wayn e County until May, 1847, when my father and family prepared to go west. We went as far as Iowa and stopped at a little place called Mt. Pisga for the winter. We remained here until the spring of 1848, then started for Winter Quarters so that we might be L ready to go west with the first company. In May we crossed the Missouri Rive r in Lorenzo Snow's company on our way to the Rock y Mountains. All went as well on the journey as could be expected. Of course, we had many diffic ulties to encounter -- we had to wash our clothes in cold water and make fires of "buffalo chips" as there was no wood to be found. Very often the great herds of buffalo woul chimney. The house was made of adobe with a roof of willows, rushes and dirt and a dirt floor. The Old Fort was formed by a great many of these little houses being built together in the shape of a square, a space being left for a gate on the east and one on the west. No Windows were put into the houses for fear of Indians who were numerous and often made attacks upon the settlers. When the door was closed there was no light except that from the port-holes through which the country could be seen for miles around and through them the people watched for the attacks of Indians. After we were settled, we had a very hard time to get food to eat. d come down from the mountains to drin k at‘ the rivers, sometimes within a quarter of a mile of us; they didn't seem much afraid. In the evenino We would all assemble in the center of the corratls which was formed by a ciml e of wagons, and sing and pray. Every one seem ed thankful and a good time was had by all. On September 23, 1848, we arrived in Salt hake Valley. My father then bought one of the little adobe houses in the Old Fort which was built by the pioneers who cam e the year before. This house. consisted of one roo m twelve feet square containing one door, a fireplace and two port-holes about ten inches square, one on each side of the ma ..;..,.‘;"L.-¢fi{mw~sthw v ' . ‘ A little corn had been raised the year before by the settlers, some of which we bought. This had been roasted and the bread ,we made of it was almost black. The people had sacks of dried buffalo meat which they used making a kind of soup and thickening it with alittle flour. Once in a while a cow was killed and a little piece of meat portioned out to each family. So they lived on in this condition until the next summer. President Brigham Young told the people one Sunday, as he stood under the bowery in the Old Fort, not to be discouraged for before this time next year flour could be bought here as cheap as it could in the East. This looked impossible to the people; but nevertheless, this prediction was true. In thefollowing summer, 1849, the gold seekers on their way to California passed through Salt Lake Valley and sold their wagons, clothing, pro- r ‘ ' I ‘ ‘ |
