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Frontier Utah books, Captain McNulty and his men probably had a copy of T. H. Jefferson's map of his journey to California in 1846. The map was published by the author and sold by Berford and Company, New York City, for $3.00 a copy. Due to a late start, the Colony Guard Company no doubt had the opportunity to buy the Jefferson map which accurately described the Hastings Cutoff. It is known that in mid-June when McNulty and his men met the Washington City and California Mining Association Company near Fort Kearny, that outfit did possess a copy of the Jefferson map. Also, later in the journey beyond Salt Lake City, J. Goldsborough Bruff, captain of the Washington City and California Mining Association Company, mentions that some members of the Colony Guard had crossed the "Utariah Desert" or Great Salt Lake Desert on their way to the Humboldt River. The name, Utariah, was unique with Jefferson. Having decided to go by way of Salt Lake City rather than through Fort Hall, McNulty and his companions left Kansas on a well-marked road leading to the main Oregon Trail on the Platte River. The company proceeded in a southwesterly direction to a point near present Gardner, Kansas, where the Santa Fe Trail branched off; then moved northwest across the Wakarusa Creek near modern Lawrence; across the Kansas River at Topeka and along that stream to a crossing of Little Vermillion Creek; then north by northwest through Westmoreland across the Black Vermillion and Big Blue rivers and along the Little Blue River to Fort Kearny on the Platte. Their travel along this trail is made definite by the newly discovered sketches of John Hudson, four of which depict scenes at Squaw Hollow, just a short distance out of Kansas; near Wakarusa Creek; on the Vermillion River; and near the Little Blue River. Another is entitled the "Valley of the Platte." Little is known of the journey of the Colony Guard from Kansas to Salt Lake City. The few incidents of camp life and travel mentioned by Hudson in his letter of October 6, 1849, are just enticing enough to wish that the journal he kept of his trip had not been lost. Fortunately, Bruff and his companions did meet the McNulty company, found they were congenial fellow travelers, and so left some record of their trip across the plains. On June 22, about forty miles west of Fort Kearny, Bruff recorded, "Formed the acquaintance of a very clever set of adventurers-a company organized on the same principle as ours, with mule wagons also, but the members were mounted on mules. They had also adopted a snug uniform, and were armed and equipped with U. S. rifles-They are called the `Colony Guards,' from New York City, commanded by Capt. J. McNulty. By invitation I dined with them on buffalo soup." By this time, John Hudson had become seriously ill with either mountain fever or cholera. Again on June 24, Bruff wrote, "I dined & supped with Capt. McNulty commandg a New York Compy called the Colony Guards. Here I was treated to superior strong coffee." Three days later, about halfway between Fort Kearny and Chimney Rock, Bruff noted, "Early this morning, Capt. McNulty tendered me a mule, and I forded the [South] Platte, with them-" Continuing his narrative, Bruff described an incident in which Hudson may well have been the man who played the leading part as the one who was ill, "My New York friends got all their train over without incident, except one wagon, which sank so in the sand that they had to leave it for the day. I[ t] was about SO yds from shore, and about 400 feet below the landing & camp, and contained a sick man. It looked queer to see a man wading down stream, waist deep, in the rapid river, with a pot of coffee in one hand and a plate of bread and meat in the other, going to the wagon, to the relief of his comrade. " The two companies were together again on July 4 about three miles from Chimney Rock when they engaged in a very serious salute to Independence Day: "At 2 P.M. marshalled the company, fired a feu-dejoi*-visited by a squad of our N. York friends, whom we received with military honrs, and filed in between 2 wagons, covered over and arranged for dinner; where, by request, I delivered an address, and at 3 sat down (on the ground) to a sumptious repast, -of pork & beans, buffalo meat, sort of rolls, hard bread, bean soup, & stewed dried apples. Dessert -apple pies. After removal of the -- tin platters & iron spoons, the medical stores of brandy and port-wine, were used up in 64 |
