. . . I had before leaving some persecution of my relatives wanted me to leave the Mormon church. I had been a pretty good young man previous of joining this church, but after belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I was then not good for much in the estimation of some of my own acquaintance, but I made up my mind to be true to the covenant I have made with God. I knowed by the testimony I had received by rendering obedience to the commandments of God that if there is a true church upon this earth, this must be the right one, and I believe so today and I trust I ever may, if not it will be my own and not the Lord's fault. God forbid that I never may apostatize.

I left my home on my journey to America about the beginning or middle of April, 1860 with the expectation never to come back again, rather expected that my folks, brothers, sisters and mother would come where I was. Mother, brothers, & sisters came with me to the railway depot in Weinfelden. They all felt bad to see me go. Some tears were shed, especially by my mother. They comfort themselves by thinking they soon could follow. I felt happy glad I was to go to Zion. In Basel all the Saints got together that were going to Utah. We left Basel in the morning and came to Manheim in the evening. Next day per steamer we left Manheim for Hull, England per train to Liverpool. Crossing the North Sea we all took seasick. We remained in Liverpool a few days to buy a few things on our journey on the ship. We went on a sailing vessel, name of William Tapscott, in the neighborhood of seven hundred Mormon emigrants from England, Switzerland, Denmark, and Scotland, besides 300 others not Mormon, mostly Irish, were on board. As far as I remember we were 50 days on the ocean. We encountered many storms. Our board was rather poor and the water very bad in the latter end of being on the vessel. The water got to stink very much. I had to do some cooking for about 8 persons. I was most of the time sick. By standing before the hot stove stirring the rice which, however, got burned, the kitchen was always crowded by the folks and everything were uncomfortably fixed. I ate very little on board a ship. Our main food was salty pork, rice, and some potatoes. No bread but some hard crackers without salt. I did nearly starve and was very sick. [p.8]

One morning when we heard we were close to land everyones heart was gladdened with joy to behold the blessed land, houses, and trees again. I myself was very glad. I always said, "Let me take my chance on the land." When we got to New York in the Castle Garden, our baggage was all examined. On some things duty had to be paid on it. A few persons got the smallpox on the vessel which caused us a little trouble for us to get landed. I enjoyed a good meal of victuals in New York as I did not enjoy one good meal all the way crossing the sea. It took us over a week to go through the states. We traveled at times by rails, at times on steamers. We were not as comfortably fixed to travel then as we are now. It is something like comparatively before a pleasure trip now. We arrived Florence, near what we call now Omaha, only then a village with a few stores. Here we remained a number of weeks to prepare for the great journey crossing the plains or desert. We bought cattle & wagons to haul our provision and luggage across a distance of over1000 miles. . . . [p.9]

. . . We arrived in Salt Lake City on our destination October the fifth 1860, we were met by the brass band. . . . [p.10]

BIB: Ence, Gottlieb. A short sketch of my life. 1840-1918 [LDS Church Archives, Ms 8658, pp. 8-9,10; Acc. #35318]. (CHL)
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