The Genteel Gentile, Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857 - 1858

Genteel Gentile, page 028

Infy. and the Fifth is beyond t&. As ladies, of COUTSE, do not care to walk about in a camp, unattended, & as it inter- feres w,th a socnble ,"np& io seek a pmtecior every trne one would vmt, we see each other very httle but send ire quent & pohte messages-books, some treasure of a couple of iurmps & such hke The Mormons destroyed all a5 they thought, but now&then a few potatoes OI tumps are found- frozen but ed,ble They are luxunes & valued We are m Green Rwer County The County Seat ws at Foii Supply near here Before our arnval, the Mormans burned down Fort Supply & Fort Bndger, a tradmg post' John Taylor, a Mormon Elder, says in a letter to Captn Marcy, that they have destroyed 300-000 dollars worth of propcriy. They tell me that the grass burned here was considered equal io 100,000 dollars of this sum. Fifty or sixty houses were burned dawn at Fart Suo~lv, Court House included. At Fort Bndgcr they burned th;;ntermr, consisting of houses barns &c many ammals have formerly been cm there The & of the Fort could not be destroyed wth fire It was bulk of the round stones (hke sea shore stones "1 shape-"pavmg stones") of th,s country, cemented together-fifteen feet wde at base, tapermg to two feet at top, & capable of shelterrng about 300 animals & their herdsmen. We found these places mtirelv dcstroved on our arrival-exc& this wall. This wall , , was of immense value ta us Wlthm It, all our pro"mon storc~, waggons &c are placed, & under a guard-our hves depend on the safety af these-we acted not merely pm dentently but forwarned of the intenhan on the part of the Mormons to burn our provmons I have lust asked Alfred rf 28