JOHN 1 EDWARDS WHITES salt lake city jim jan 19 1916 editor of the box elder news I 1 received your valuable paper at my address on S street and I 1 enjoy reading my horne home news newn 0 1 mostly go down town every day as s is some scale meetings or shows hows or something new to ae be seen every lay clay I 1 have hav e spent some of my time at the alie vermont building looking at the display of utah resources which are grand I 1 also visit lloyd knitting mills on richard street where you can luy buy almost all kinds of home made goods I 1 often visit capt D L davis at his store on so temple st one day I 1 took the state street car and went to twelfth south to see prof evan stephens at his villa or pine lodge found him and his niece miss daniels his hie housekeeper at home miss daniels is a lady of culture and she aha haa been back to her native land recen recently tir and talks of 0 going again prof Step stephens bens took mo me out to see him feeding his flah arid and see bee different varieties and his ponds and flowing wells a and nd also his pine troea ac tho the protessor Prots sor haq a great love tor for willard its mou talus and I 1 its ts surroundings roun dings and its people lie he was partly I 1 raised and spent a good part of his is life if there one day as I 1 stepped down from the desert news building I 1 seen my friend frient peter INI hansen of elwood ile he introduced trod me to a son a young man who was leaving on a mission to south africa abrica and said that lie he would have to travel about miles by water to get to his destination I 1 also visit my friend john james of swansea ot at his office ot ice in capital building ile he is commissioner of for the state of utah one fine day I 1 went up 6 ave to where a man by the name B R anderson andersen has built a round tower where t and others have a view of the city and valley I 1 think it grand to look over the city I 1 a see the old emigration square where the city and county building now stands where I 1 landed sixty years ago last october where I 1 turned over my team and wagon to capt charles harp harper er I 1 must go backward a little and explain when I 1 landed at the place called mormon grove on the prairie sn miles from atchison last of june and there about 6 matting ing up and nd getting ready to cross the plains to utah and I 1 was culled called on as a teamster to take charge of a church team and wagon and bring a load of emigrants to salt lake city the oxen were put in a big corrall and each teamster was to pick out his team but he must take for his middle yoke one yoke of those wild spanish cattle with long horns I 1 picked out my three yoke and had them hitched to the wagon and my number of emigrants and drove to camp that evening in good shape but the captain came to me and said young man you have too good a team you must give up those wheelers and take a small yoke of 0 steers and I 1 felt very bad in parting with my best yoke of cattle us as the privilege was given to each te teamster to go and pick his team we got along fine until we struck the big blue river about a third of our bogans had got across but the river was raising so fast it was impossible to cross while waller waiting there came a lot of soldiers both cavalry and infantry under the command of gen harney and lie the reason why we cross we told him and he ordered a platoon of cavalry to cross one soldier was drowned but his horse made shore they were here going out to punish the sioux indians for killing hilling and robb robbing the U S mall mail carriers from california in a day or two we ne got across and ne traveled alonz alone alip little pue nine where the wild plumbs and wild grapes were plentiful and when ne ie got on the south s platt fish and buffalo were in abundance As the he buffaloes buffalo eq cane down from the hills to the platt antt ti 10 water nater the would conie come in ill s sange ii e r a they had worn a deep path ii 11 the so I 1 ren remember lember one time lime we e had lia to ut at we tiie train in two to let them pass ars iq i we crossed over from south to north platt plait place called ash lichow we found the soldiers again they had just alst fought with the indians the day d a y before and had killed about throe three hundred of them they were just hattling lia ha tiling them to a little hollow ani and throwing a lot of dry quaking asp over them 11 L 1 and cremating them well this letter is getting too long the mind must get back to salt lake city and as I 1 look over this well laid out city with its large and beautiful public buildings I 1 say to myself oh what a change 60 years has brought general harney was a fine looking soldier s old ter I 1 fancy f an cy now DOL w I 1 can see irina wh ahen en b he e gave th the e command for the soldiers to cross that river with the noted colonel johnston by his eider bide wile led the arny anny to utah a few years at ar ter wards