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Show THRILLS AND HARDSHIPS OF : PIONEERS' JOURNEY RECALLED ' First Hand Account of Days of '47 in Salt Lakei Valley Reveals Struggle to Survive and Establish Commonwealth T . Kdltor Standard-Examiner: In response to your invitation I shall give you a fi w brief incidents cjf 1 ho Journc of the Utah pioneers of 184 7, who entered this valley In July. To : rears ajO, I often think of thn.su early ear-ly years. Being then a child 1 can recall many Incidents later In that early time They were a stury. reso Lute lmnd I'l men and women, strong characters, ready in overcome any and all obstacle-., whic h WOtlld arise before them. Peojtle of sterling quail-ties, quail-ties, thru deeds Will live after them nnd be kindly remembered bj future g neratlons. LONi H()T JOI RNLA My father and mother, with threo children. aged 2. -I and 6 years, lelt Boston early In the spring of 1847 to Join the emigrants on the Missjouil river where they outfitted for the grcati lourney .icrns-5 mc pi.iins Kunroaus ar. that time were tew and th larthere?'. west they went was MHiiHwhcrn in Pennsylvania, W! travelgd jitos thi State of Tennsylvania. on the old Erie anel to Pittsburg, the head of the hlo river. The Erie canal used rud- boats, pro-jjelled pro-jjelled by two mules traveling tn- dem fashion; a slow and tedious way I of traveling. The discomforts could j be Imagined easily. We traveled lul i hat manner nearly across the state of! Pennsylvania taking a river boat in the uh!o river at Pittsburg ami traveled travel-ed the full length of the river, m7J ..mllos, to where it empties into the I great Mississippi. We then went up the Mississippi to the mouth of thol Mssoin. then up the Missouri river to Florence. Observe the deviating route southwesterly down the ( hlo and then In a northerly direction up I the Missouri to reach on: deal InaMon TIED BABIFS TOf.KlHKR. A wonderful hand Journey for a mother with three little children: A river boat at that time uhj a rude affair My mother kepi the thu -chlldron tied together, thw fastened to her body. The boat captain said to my mother: Lddy. you will not lose the children. child-ren. If one falls overboard they will never be seen again." My uncle, Jsaa.n Kldredge. who was with us. fell overboard nnd was never seen again. My mother answered. "Where my .children go I shall also go i have brought them for. far from my hem.-to hem.-to lose them In this awful river They and I are going to the Kocky mountains." moun-tains." ' Said he, "Madam, you are a wond. r-; ful courageous woman and I believe j that you will succeed In your wonder-1 ful "Jornev." K.MK.RWTS DKl'VRl In time we reached Florence on tie Missouri rler where we were to nut-lit nut-lit with oxen and wagons for the l.OOol miles across the plains My parents Trre weary and worn out with the' long Journey th'.ugh not discouraged! fc' T.nt full r.f , - -J . v "f had traveled by canal-boat and -, river-boat nearly 1000 miles, always In danger and the ilest accomodation! . 1 My mother and the children spent most of the time on dock so thev could have fresh air and now we had a Journey of 1000 miles to go by wa-.-on and oxen. The companies were soon arranged' and moved in companies to 50 wagons ! The emigrants were- poor and short of money for outfitting previously having hav-ing driven from their hurrn-s in Mis. eouri and Illinois VOLUNTKKHs SUMMONED The goernment called on them for 600 volunteers to go to Mexico, that number was furnished and the gov-! ernment generously pal dthem in advance ad-vance for several months Thus the. volunteers' families had rnnnv to buy oxen and wagons for the Journey I My father cam. direct from Massa-I chussets and had sold all of his property prop-erty there and had the means to out-! fit- He and his cousin bought threl teams and wagons, iwr. voke of oxen nnd one yoke of cows to the team Father loaded one wagon with food-1 -' 1 ' a and considerable clothing and! bolts of cloth, shoes and so forth l.-1 heing seacaptaln and was In the habit of providing, as he called It, cargo or! stores for the commissary- department I The Journey across the platrs has been written and probably has beeni known to manv There were, some! fl00 wagons In all divided into com-l j.anles of 50 eacn, each company keep-l ing far enough away as not to mix the. cattle. OXEN BRKAK WAGOV. My father knew nothing about driving driv-ing oxen and had no experience po i' young man. Bcnjamlne Rolfe drovel the wagons Just in advance of the wag-' -t- on father drove. He dld a few years .!,-' He I old me many amuslnR ln-i ln-i I dents of the Joi;rney He used to come back and drive ihe wason for father over the had places The second dav out on I he lournoy father with assistance, had his oxen hltehed t" i he wngon and as Mr ftolfe's wagon moved on father started his icnni. Instead of the oxen following fol-lowing the wagon ahead they ran around to the right and broke off the wagon tongue. While in that condition condi-tion a man from another train came up and saidi "Brother Eldredge you have got nix oxen" ami father said ' Which yoke is yours" 1 He answered. That yoke In the lead " Father said. Thank God. they are not my oxen'" rhe nrn fathered around discussing, how to fix the wagon and tither said. "Boys, 1 do not know anything about I 'Mi ii Him m iiV'ii- "in i can snow you J how to splice and lash a mast " SPLICES roxGl'E. H' soi i rope from ili- wagon and by sailors' knots and hitches using a l piece of wood on each side he spliced I the tongue in a fine way and it last-led last-led all the way across the plains. In the meantime while splicing the i wagon tongue someone found the oxen and soon all were on their waj apaln A Corral was always made by the wago .s forming a circle pon at -neh side by a narrow entrance which would be closed at night to hold the cattle. A Kuarrl was p'acd around for fear of Indians thsy being verv numerous Herds of buffalo were to j be aeen daily. Once or twice thu train opened a passage to let a large I herd of buffalo pass through EN .(! PDXjIjERS The roads were made and ferried were made nnd lelt by the advance t men whb went ahead On one occa-' 1 slon In moving one of our wagons ' i from the ferrv a steep ascent up thai ' hank was difficult to nuike The yoke of oxen that was l istened to the! I wagon was unable t" pull the wason! j.up the bank but they prevented It! ; from hacking into (tie river Thol oxen held on stubbornly until the! men came and assisted the oxen up the bank. Father said 'Ben. you see I well named the oxen anchors. Had they not been good strong anchors my Wagon would hae pin.- back into! the river and been lost Oaly death Will part these anchors from me." The sturdy band of emigrants finally fi-nally reached the valley and my' mother said her feelings and emotions emo-tions were varied First joj and gratitude filled her mind. She sail she got on her knees and thanked '.".! tor Ins men-lea :,nd blessing, that her chlldron, husband and herself her-self were well and ,ad passed through so many dangers and hard-ships hard-ships But the picture before her! mind looked dark and gloomy, a vast ! wilderness uninhabited save by treacherous savages GIVE RUBE HOMES. Two fort.s had a small room for each family with no floors a small window and one narrow door with the roof covered with brush and I grass, with earth put on top. as she I expressed It. "earth on bottom, side-? jand top." It was simply a hut. Bhc I had been accustomed to comforts of ! home and relations and frlenii and so the contrast was very marked Still she said, "God be praised for all j He has done for me and my family." She would not complain but do Tier part and well she did her p-irt to the I end. There were two forts, the room? ! j built one against the other, all fac'n inside the enclosure i can remcn -ber the flag pole erected In the cen -I ter of the enclosure A pile of logs i -was in the enclosure and children 'were playing and climbing over the1 logs An Indian accidentally started !'r on the top and It rolled down and oi.r one of the children killing the child The Indian was not to blame, but he felt badly and he went and got one of his children and of-I ferd it to the parents of the child killed. Of course It was not accept-! ed FIRST WINTER MILD. My father said the first winter of! 1M7 was mild and there not much snow It was fortunate tor us, Otherwise our cattle and horseB would have perched as they were thin and In poor condition The grass and rushes on the lowlands along the ' Jordan river afforded food and shel-i ter for our cattle The next summer hay was cut and provided for the stock I The first plowing was done on or near the Aucrbach store, on First South street. That flrnt winter and up to the corn crop of 1MR will be remembered by all those that were there. It was soon discovered that there was barely food sufficient t last until the crops could be raised Then my f:ither was Kind he had loaded load-ed one wftKon with flour, corn meal, bacon, sugar, and so forth. He and all others put their food supply In aud shared It In common with the others. oth-ers. Strict rations were made so that It would last. PINCHED FOR FOOD Heber C, Kimball said biter to my father, "Brother Eldredge, I will say that your children shall never suffer for bread because of your generosity. Winter passed llRhtly and crops were planted early Much plowing had been done In the latter part of the winter and early spring and the people peo-ple were pinched for fund The corn was growing fine and we looked for early corn. But suddenly the large crickets came from tho east mountains, moun-tains, large black fellows, and at once commenced on the crops, devouring them ns they advanced. It seemed that they Wi.nl.l ste.il all that we had. We tried every method possible to stop them I can remember remem-ber my father took a barrel jipurl and m father, mother and we b( ) each took a barrel stave and went to smashing tho crickets. But they cam i.ister and faster. The large corn stalks fell like trees before the ;ixe We gave it up and my father said to mother, "Ruth, nothing hut the hand of God can possibly saveaus now." (.1 M,s DEVOUR INSECTS Suddenly the air was filled with s a j g'lls. They uttered that peculiar crj i and came In swarms and we wondered what new peril had come. Soon Wfl I saw the pulls li;ht and begin t devour de-vour the crickets. The who.- enrt!i I seemed to be covered by the guii- They ate and ate anil then would go j to the water ditches and drink water, ! where they would discharge the, crickets from their crops and refill 'again, doing this all day: At night they went h.-si and came early next morning, repealing th?ir I I destruction of the crickets until all I were destroyed and sufficient of our' I crops were saved. tl well remember those crickets and the jfuiis. The memory will never pass from m recollection It v;is ' i wonderful but true No person thai I witnessed tike wonderful Incident wrll ever forget It. I I At. I I'ON PR K I have often heard It questioned .is to a flag pole being erected on ISnstgn peak I heard mv father saj thai -i tiap was put up on lOnsign peak an i the peak has been called that name since rirst sight of the dear old 1 flag was when my mother sew I pieces of cloth together. There are not many of those pio-neers pio-neers living but we who are iivim,- vvlll join In saying that God was good to us and we will praise His name j forever and forever. (Bigned) J U. BLDREDGE, SR. nn |