| OCR Text |
Show Appendix 403 I am forty four years old this 27th day of Feb. and a company of about thirty of my friends have called upon me as a surprise party, bring ing a generous repast, and a nice present to comemorate the day. I will write in this a short sketch of my life. I shall, however, abridge it as I am writing my Autobiography which, with my Diary will be preserved to my children, and if no accident occurs, many of my writings will be handed down to posterity. I father born in the city of Toledo Lucas Co. Ohio, Feb 27, 1837. My Joseph Mount Son of Joseph and Deborah Mount. Of English extract. My mother was Elizabeth (Bessac ) Mount. Daughter of Lewis and Mary Bessac. Her grandfather was John William Bessac, French by birth and education, and attached to Gen. Lafayettes command during was was the American Revolution. I had a sister older named Caroline Gertrude and a brother younger called Henry Bertrand. They both died young. My parents moved to Dayton where my father went into the wagon and carriage business with his brother John Mount, since deceased. There from there they burried their two children, and joined the Mormons, and they removed to Nauvoo to gather with the Church. We remained at Nauvoo five years my father spent much of his time laboring on the temple, and at its completion my parents received their anointings and sealings therein. We shared in the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, and crossed the plains in 1847, with ox team, a method of traveling which would seem extremely tedious now. We suffered much during the early settlement of the vallies, yet not more than our fellow sufferers in exile. During the winter of 1847 and 8 small companies of the Mormon Battallion came into the valley. Some had friends and fami lies, and others had no one to receive them: but the mountains were filled with snow, and their provision being spent, they were obliged to winter at Salt Lake, and share the rations of the little colony already there. The following season the crickets destroyed a large portion of the crops, and the fall emmigration depending on the settlers for food, the scarcity caused much suffering. During the winter of /48-9 my father,' with Sam Thompson and Wesley Willies as partners built a sawmill in a kanyon fifteen miles south of Salt Lake City, known as Mill Creek kanyon. In the spring of /49, my father growing dissattisfied, and growing excited over the gold mines, went to California, leaving his business in the hands of his partners. Subsequently Willies sold out his share leaving Thompson and my father sole owners. It was at that time contrary to advice from the authorities of the church for people to go to the gold fields. It was necessary for the good of the colony that its strength should be kept here and not scatter out under any circumstances, for we were in an Indian country and our only resource at that time was agriculture. Wherefore if the masses were to' get excited and those who were able went to the mines, the weaker ones must suffer. My father gold |
