(To the editor of the Leigh Chronicle.)

Dear Sir,--I think a few words from an old resident of Bedford, Leigh, would undoubtedly be interesting to a majority of the patrons of your valuable paper. I left with my family from Bedford on the second day of September, 1873, and landed in Liverpool the same day, and started or set sail on the 3rd day of September, on the ship Wyoming, with 1000 persons on board, of which number 600 were Mormons on their way to Utah, or, as it is best known, the Great Salt Lake. We sailed very comfortable till we got to the banks of Newfoundland, when, to our surprise, we struck on a sand bank four feet deep, and were delayed in that position about six hours. During these few hours the sailors and others were throwing the luggage, freight, and other things overboard, and a great many very valuable things were lost. There was also firing of cannons and ascending of rockets for aid, but none arrived. After a great deal of labor we got away from the sand bank at midnight and sailed from thence to New York, arriving safe on the 19th September, and on the 20th started for Ogden, Utah, a distance of 4500 miles, where we arrived on the 27th, at 7 o'clock in the evening. There we met our son James (who came the year before us) with a span of horses and wagon ready to convey us to our destination, a distance from Ogden of 40 miles. I must here mention that on the night of the 27th we camped outdoors, or, as a great many of our Lancashire people would call it, on a common, and cooked our supper over a big fire. After supper we went to bed and slept out-of-doors, which was unusual to us. From there we proceeded to Hyrum City, Utah, where we arrived on the 30th, and partook of one of the finest suppers a man could wish, at G. P. Ward's, Esquire. Since then we have resided in Hyrum, a city which numbers about 2050 persons, all of whom are Mormons, and there is a co-operative store, two steam sawmills, one flour mill, no public houses or jerry-shops, and no houses of ill-fame. We have an organization of city officers, consisting of mayor, magistrates, and city council, making it a perfect organization for city management. We have only had two cases before the magistrates this last two years, and they were for taking the name of the Deity in vain. The first work I did when I arrived here was stripping and cutting sugar cane to make molasses, or, as you call it, treacle, and I got ten gallons for my share. The next job was when a man came to me and asked me if I was going to weave in the winter, and I told him yes, but I had nothing to weave with. I then went to a man in a settlement close by and purchased a loom for 35 dollars--15 dollars in money, 10 dollars in weaving, and 10 dollars in treacle. When we receive material for weaving from people it is in the hanks, and I had to size it, spool it, warp it, and then wind it on bobbins and weave it--all for 16 cents a yard, 36 inches wide. Weaving here is not quite as well paid for as in England, but food such as beef, flour, mutton, pork, and potatoes is very cheap. This makes up the difference. The very best of beef is six cents per pound, leg of mutton nine cents per pound, new butter 20 cents per pound; flour 2 cents, potatoes 30 cents per bushel or ld. for four pounds, bacon nine cents per pound, sugar 18 cents, currants 15 cents, raisins 20 cents, and a rabbit for eight cents. I have been keeping a tollgate the past summer and earned 202 dollars. I am doing first rate in this country and am glad to be here. I have got two cows, two oxen, four acres of land right in the town, and I expect to have nine acres of farming land this spring. I have got a house of my own upon the land of four acres. We have a harvesting machine here which will go in the field, cut the grain, bind it, and lay it down, with one man driving two horses. Please publish this for the information of my friends, and oblige yours respectfully,

Enos Wray

Formerly a weaver at Le Mare's mill.

Hyrum City, Cache County, Utah, United States [p.316]

BIB: Wray, Enos, [Letter], Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star
39:20 (May 14, 1877) p. 316. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)