. . . I met my family in Liverpool on their arrival and went on board the ship Windermere on Feb. 14th. Brother [August J.] Harper had lent me 50 pounds with which to pay my emigration expenses, (besides my wife's mother, Mrs. Fowles) and Sister Ann Fowles, so that our present family group consisted of myself, wife and two children, Sister Fowles and daughter and Brother [August J.] Harper. Seven in all. There were 482 emigrants on board the ship mostly in the steerage, and by the organization effected for the care and unity of the passengers they were divided into ten wards to the watch-care of one of which I was appointed which occupied considerable of my attention before securing a suitable berth for myself. Unfortunately I was the last to secure a berth, in the second cabin which was situated on deck, and had to use the berth next door which exposed my wife and child to the February wind which resulted in the death of the infant when two weeks out to sea. About this time the smallpox broke out among the passengers in the steerage. It must be understood that the voyage from Liverpool to New Orleans was one which usually occupied from 8 to 10 weeks so that as we approached the tropics the situation grew quite serious as smallpox case multiplied up to 37 (2
7-woods) [UNCLEAR] and continued until the voyage ended. Once while far south there was a dead calm and the ship making no progress, sails flapping back against the masts as the ship rolled in the moving waves. Drinking water growing short for so large a number, food also, two smallpox corpses lying on deck ready for deposit in the deep, deep sea, ships bell tolling, then some brief, mournful singing, a short prayer and the corpses slid off a plank overboard, a weight at their feet so that they would sink below the fish zone in the water. Still the saints as a rule were not despondent. It was remarked by the ship's officers that during rough weather that we encountered, the passengers were cheerfully singing and praying, while other classes of passengers under similar conditions would have been crying and screaming.
April 23 ,1854, arrived in New Orleans, where the portion of the company not positively sick with the small pox embarked on a steamboat to continue the journey. Those afflicted and closely exposed were quarantined. My personal experience on the journey across the sea was to spend considerable time in the steerage, and when called upon to do so to lay my hands upon the afflicted ones which I did without fear or reserve, feeling that while I was administering in the ordinances the Lord had authorized and appointed I was under his special protection. And I did not take the disease. Again upon the steamboat I was the last to secure a berth in the steerage, and at [p.40] Brother [August J.] Harper's solicitation we took cabin passage to St. Louis. On May 4th my son C. [Cyrus] F. born in Bedford died and was buried on the Illinois bank of the river opposite Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. My family group had now diminished in numbers, my two children having died and my wife's sister having been married by Elder Carns [Daniel Garn] to William Boyd the captains's mate.
Our cabin passage was very fortunate for us inasmuch as we were permitted to land at St. Louis, while all the other passengers were landed on an island in the middle of the river where cholera raged among them and many of them died there.
On arriving at St. Louis we found my sister Mary, who was now Mrs. Waters with whom we lodged, and remained two weeks until a boat was chartered to carry as many as were out of quarantine up the Missouri to Kansas City. At St. Louis we were joined by my wife's sister Jane, who had left England for America four or five years previously. She had fallen in with John Sheffield's family which on the breaking up at Nauvoo had come down the river to St. Louis to get work. John Sheffield had started a tannery in Nauvoo but of course had to leave all. His son Thomas made love to Jane Fowles and married her. The whole Sheffield family moved down the river to Tennessee and started a tannery there and prospered temporally, but lost faith and so far as known none of them ever returned, only Jane Fowles who married one of the sons.
It may be news to people nowadays, but at that time there were no excise duties on the manufacture of spirits, hence corn being plentiful and very cheap, much whiskey was made and could be bought anywhere there for ten cents per quart; this had the effect of making Thomas very abusive to Jane, and she learning by letters from England that her mother and sister Adelaide were expected in St. Louis in May, made up her mind to come to St. Louis tho meet them. Which she did and desired to travel on with us to the valley. She had a little daughter 22 months old named Susan, who at maturity married John Hess, and finally settled at Georgetown, Idaho. My sister Mary (Mrs. Walker) with her husband got passage to the valley with Captain James Brown.
May 20th embarked on steamer Sonora which in four days took us up to Kansas City, Missouri. Having made our tents and wagon covers on shipboard during the voyage, with cloth purchased in Liverpool, and landing on the river banks, I immediately put my tent in use to the amusement of some who entered the town and secured lodgings. Next day by hired team moved out 2 miles to where there was a very large camp of emigrants who had preceded us from England, having crossed the sea in another vessel. Here we had to remain until our wagons and oxen which had been paid for in advance arrived and until we could get all our arrangements made for wagon travel. Among the Saints whom we found here, the cholera had broken out and many had died. One family of our Bedfordshire people named Burgees from Shedham had died and others from different parts of England and Scotland.
On June 1st I was appointed by William Empey the emigration agent for that season to take charge of a company soon to start and who were getting their teams and general arrangements in readiness.
June 7th our organization having been effected with myself as Captain Elder Martel (afterwards of Spanish Fork) captain or sargent of the guard, with other brethren as captains of ten (wagons or families) the company consisting [p.41] of 36 families, we made a start. Our cattle mostly wild with only myself and two others who had ever handled an ox whip in their lives you may guess we had a picnic. We moved a few miles only. Next day tried again.
Friday, June 9th Brother [August J.] Harper and myself started out with others to get our teams, and when about 200 yards from camp were both stricken with cholera. We crawled our way back to the wagons and everything was done for us that friends could devise, but about 5 o'clock in the evening Brother [August J.] Harper died, and the disease slowly began to abate and I shortly regained my activity. Some of the younger men dug a grave for our beloved friend and brother, and joining two clothes chests end to end together, the adjoining ends being removed, a sort of coffin was improvised and the body buried with all the attention and detail possible on such an occasion. Monday the 18th another victim was claimed by the cholera in the person of my wife's mother, Mrs. Fowles, as we had no lumber or boxes to be had, some elm bark was taken from some growing trees and placed around the body and the body buried as sacredly and decently as the conditions permitted. These two were the only deaths which occurred in our company. We now soon got our teams under control and commenced to travel in earnest. Loads that proved to be too heavy for their teams were on appeal lightened by leaving such articles or weight and little value as the families could spare.
The company had subscribed and purchased for me a mule and saddle which gave me an opportunity of riding forward and selecting camping places, searching for god feeding grounds, etc. We made good time every day except Sundays on which day we always rested and once in a while for a general washing day. We also gathered for prayers at night, after which guard was set, every man taking turn half a night. Good order observed and religious services held on Sundays. In this way we made moderately good speed and kept our teams up in good spirits, and soon passed the behind ones which had traveled too fast at first and thus worn out their teams.
W. W. Burton our company clerk some years later wrote for the Juvenile Instructor relates the following incident which occurred on the journey and which I called to mind when I read it. A brother John Ford fell sick on the way, and badly needed a little brandy. Henry Jarvis who had three wagons loaded which merchandise had brandy. Henry refused to dispose of any except for cash. Brother Ford's cash had all been spent for his outfit but offered his watch as security for a pint of brandy. But Jarvis was inexorable and refused. Talking the matter over at night around the camp fire the clerk reported that the captain of the company remarked that Jarvis's brandy would never reach Salt Lake City. Nothing more was afterwards thought about brandy until coming down Emigration Canyon the wagon carrying it overturned the demi john containing the brandy broken and the brandy spilt into the creek. Near Laramie an episode occurred which is related in the August 1908 number of the Improvement Era, which see.
Before arriving at Green River we met Elder John Taylor (apostle) who gave us a letter of introduction to Elder Washington Jolly. He with a large drove of Mexican cattle were some distance ahead of us, and asking in our behalf a few pairs of cattle to strengthen our teams and as our force was now growing low. In company with Henry Jarvis who owned four of the wagons I rode ahead and overtook Brother Jolly at Black's Fork. We gathered and yoked up 24 head of Mexican cattle out of his herd, with which we returned to camp at Green River and after distributing them where most needed we started again and passing three other companies on our way reached Salt Lake City September 25th, 1854. . . . [p.42]
BIB: Smith, Job Taylor, 1828-1913. Autobiography [ca. 1902]. (CHL)
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