After landing in Liverpool we reported ourselves to the presidency of the mission in Liverpool at the office of the Millennial Star. I was appointed to preside over the Bristol conference in the place of George Halliday who was released to emigrate. I presided there about three months, then I was called to care for Mr. Clayton's field of labor, he being sent home. That field included Sheffield, Bradford, and Lincolnshire conference. I labored there two years then was released to preside in Scotland which included the conferences of Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I labored there one year then was released to come home. There were about five hundred emigrants, all Saints, and some returning elders on board ship and presided over by Daniel Tyler. [p.7]
The voyage was pleasant with the exception of one storm during which one sailor was drowned. We landed in New York, at Castle Garden, thence by rail to St. Louis, then by steamboat up the Mississippi River to Iowa City, which place we reached in the month of June, 1856. Here the company were fitted out with handcarts. I was given charge of a Welsh Company and left Iowa City, June 28, 1856. We procured our provisions and teams to haul our supplies at Council Bluffs. After leaving Iowa City we encountered some heavy rain and wind storms which blew down our tents and washed away our handcarts. I got a heavy drenching which brought on a spell of rheumatism that confined me to my bed a portion of the journey.
I had for my counselors brothers Grant, a Scotchman and a tailor by trade, and MacDonald, a cabinet maker, neither of whom had had much experience in handling teams. Both were returned missionaries. The Welsh had no experience at all and very few of them could speak English. This made my burden very heavy. I had the mule team to drive and had to instruct the teamsters about yoking the oxen.
The journey from Missouri River to Salt Lake City was accomplished in 65 days. We were short of provisions all the way and would have suffered for food had not supplies reached us from the valley. However, we arrived safely in Salt Lake City, October 2, 1856. . . [p.8]
BIB: Bunker, Edward. Autobiography (Ms 1581), pp. 7-8. (CHL)
(source abbreviations)