During the beginning of July 1855 we were very busy preparing to leave the home & land of our childhood. We received notice to be in Liverpool ready to sail on the ship Cynosure which was to sail on the 28th day of July for New York.

When we arrived in Liverpool we received a ship ticket with our names and ages which are [p.11] as follows: Samuel Handy, age 36 years; Hannah Handy, age 35 years; William Handy, age 13 years; Joseph Handy, age 11 years; Mary Handy, age 9 years; Eliza Handy, age 6 years; James H. Handy, age 4 months.

I paid 22 [pounds] 10.0 [shillings] to F. [Franklin] D. Richards' agent George Turnbull. The president of the Warwickshire Conference, John A. Hunt went with us to Liverpool. We sailed from Liverpool, Sunday, July 29th. George Seager, president of our company W. [William] Rogers and W. [William] J. Silver, counselors.

We had considerable seasickness in the family across the sea--there were some 300 passengers on this ship; only a part of them being members of the Church, 159 in number. Captain Pray, master of the ship.

We were nearly 6 weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in New York, at Castle Garden with about $15.00 in cash in my pocket. Stayed at Castle Garden about 3 days. Then went to Williamsburg where we stayed till about Christmas.

My sons, William and Joseph, were both baptized at Castle Garden on the 7th day of September 1855 by Ebenezer Bunten [Bunting]. Mary was baptized also at the same time by Brother Bunten.

Joseph was sick on board ship and after his baptism was confirmed by W. Rogers on the 14th of Sept., he died on the 18th and was buried on the [p.12] 20th of September 1855 at Flatbush, New York.

At Williamsburg, we suffered for food. I was searching for employment for about 2 months, and finally obtained employment at Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey, where I lived two winters and one summer. I was chopping cord wood through the winter, and worked loading schooners & other kinds of employment in the summer. I saved money enough at this place to take me to Iowa City, & my employers loaned me $20.00 to help me on my way. The employer that loaned me the money was named Edward Ivins — his wife was a good Latter-day Saint. The part of New Jersey were we lived was swampy & well timbered--we lived close by the seashore; we could get plenty of fish cheap, and lived much better than we did in England. Our journey across the sea was very different from living in England; for my family we had 17-1/2 lbs. of Navy bread, 5-1/1 lbs of flour, 11 lbs. of oatmeal, 5-1/2 lbs of pork, 5-1/2 lbs of beef, 5-1/2 lbs of peas, 5-1/1 lbs of rice, 2-1/2 lbs. of sugar, 11 oz. of tea, 11 oz. of salt, weekly, 16-1/2 quarts of water daily, 11 lbs. of butter, and 5-1/2 pints of vinegar for the voyage.

When we left Toms River in the spring of the year 1857 we sailed on a schooner to New York City, and took the ferry boat for Jersey City, where we got aboard the railway for Iowa City in the state of Iowa.

Nearly all the money we had we spent in railroad fare. There was one more family left New York when we did and traveled with us to the terminus of the railroad. At Iowa City we found a branch of the [p.13] Church, presided over by a man named William Williams--during our stay in this place John Taylor succeeded Brother Williams in presiding over the Iowa City Branch. Edwin Stratford, three Brother Taylors and others, with their families made quite a nice little branch of the Church. I went to work immediately on my arrival, and got $1.25 per day and my dinner all through the summer, and in the winter I carried the buck & saw & sawed wood and made about 75 cents per day--some days only 50 cents and some days I was idle. We paid some 2, 3, and sometimes 4 dollars a month rent while we were at Iowa City. My wife went washing while we lived there and assisted considerably in getting our outfit for Utah.

In the spring of 1859 I got ready for Utah. I had purchased a yoke of 4 year old cattle the summer previous to leaving for $45.00 also an old wagon. We had plenty to eat on our journey to the valley. There were about 12 wagons of us in our company among whom were George Sparks, William Sparks and 3 families of Campbells. We had good times in coming through Iowa, plenty of grass, our teams improved, and we arrived in Florence in good trim.

We stayed in Florence, old Mormon Winter Quarters about a month. Here we found lots of Mormon emigrants preparing for crossing the plains. Our company from this place consisted of 63 wagons, James Brown, captain...[p.14]

BIB: Handy, Samuel. Autobiography (Special Collections, File MS #92) pp. 11-14 (Utah State University)
(source abbreviations)