. . . My parents and four children sailed from Liverpool in the ship George Washington about the 26th day of March 1857 and made the trip to Boston in 22 days. I was not seasick. On the landing we at once took train through Albany, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Rock Island and to Iowa City, Iowa. We camped out without shelter for about ten days or two weeks when we got wagons and cattle and started crossing the plains, the next stopping at Florence, Nebraska. We then renewed our outfit and went on to Salt Lake. This letter is too brief to explain the details of that trip and I expect to write more in my journal about it. We arrived in Salt Lake City about noon on Saturday the 12th day of September 1857, having been nearly six months without ever having slept in a bed or house. On that day I first ate a piece of watermelon and liked it, I have not changed in that regard. . . . [p.2]

BIB: Booth, John Edge. [Journal Excerpt] IN Stringer Family by John Henry Stringer. p. 2. (FHL)
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