. . . After presiding in Scotland a year, President Wells sent a telegram directing me to come to Liverpool and take charge of a company of Iceland Saints, twenty-three in number, who were going to Utah. On receipt of this telegram I left Brother Richie in charge of the office and hastened to Liverpool, where I found the emigrants were already on board the ship which was ready to sail. There was little time for exchanging compliments with our co-laborers in England, so after shaking hands with President Wells and the brethren and sisters in the office, Brother Robert Campbell and myself boarded a tug in the harbor and steamed out to the noble and majestic Guion Finer, Alaska, which sailed out of the harbor in about an hour with we two and the Icelanders abound for America, this being the 10th of July, 1886.
During my labors in Scotland, I took up seven companies of Saints from Glasgow to Liverpool, led five souls into the waters of baptism, and endeavored to do what good I could, and where I failed I hope the Lord will accept the will for the deed.
The voyage across the Atlantic was, in general, very pleasant. When we reached New York, I had some trouble in Castle Garden with an over officious and insulting immigration agent, who seemed determined to detain some of the Iceland Saints and prevent them from prosecuting their journey to Utah on the absurd plea of their being paupers and their liability of becoming a public charge to the state. After demonstrating the fact to him that they had sufficient cash in their possession where-with to defray all necessary expenses to Utah and that they were all able and willing to work for a living, he very reluctantly consented to let them pass. Next morning we took train for the West. Passing over some amusing incidents occurring by rail, suffice it to say that we reached Ogden all safe and well at six o'clock p.m. on the 24th of July, 1886, fourteen days after leaving Liverpool. In Ogden, I had fourteen minutes wherein to transfer the Iceland Saints and luggage from the Union Pacific cars to the Utah Central, myself and effects to the Utah Northern, both trains leaving Ogden at the same time. Fortune favored us and we made the transfer in time. I reached home incognito a little after seven in the evening. My family was greatly rejoiced to see me. [p.289]
BIB: Burt, John Davidson, [Autobiography], An Enduring Legacy, vol.3 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1880) p. 289. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)