. . . We stopped in Liverpool until 27 February 1851 when we went on the ship Olympus then sailed out of the Harbor on 3rd of March 1851, anchored all night then sailed on 4 of [-] February. We sailed to America on the south route passed several miles from the Island of Jamaica. We close sailed near the Island of Cuba, the weather was most excessive hot. After leaving the Island of Cuba we crossed the bar or the mouth of the Mississippi and the river. We arrived at New Orleans in Louisiana the following day. We went on board the steam ship "Atlantic" and sailed up the River Mississippi to St. Louis in about ten days. Some time in the beginning of May 1851 after landing at St. Louis we moved to Gravi [Gravois] near St. Louis and stopped there about 11 months. While stopping there, my brother in law, John Bowman Burres, died also and my beloved wife Janet Bowman McNeill died of cholera on the 5 of September 1851 and my son George McNeill who was born June 5, 1851 at Gravi [Gravois] [p.41] and died on the 3 of September 1851 at Gravi [Gravois] My wife Janet and our son George were both buried in the one grave in the Holy Ghost Grave Yard near St. Louis. The 3 children of John Bowman and said George Bowman died and my wife Janet and our son George all died of cholera and a great many of the Saints died also about the same time with the same sickness. I was forced to stop working a few weeks to administer to the sick and help bury the dead. I stopped in the Gravois near St. Louis until the beginning of April 1852 I then left with a company of Saints with ox team for Utah. We traveled by ox teams from near St. Louis Missouri to Salt Lake City, Utah, a distance of about 1500 miles. We had many pleasure days in traveling and some troubles. After traveling over 4 months we arrived in Salt Lake City sometime in the morning of August 1852. . . . [p.42]
BIB: McNeill, John, 1827-1903. Reminiscences 1901-1902 (MS 1643), pp. 41-42. (CHL)
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