. . . With my parents and brothers William and Harry and sister Nellie we crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the sailing vessel the Hudson embarking at Liverpool June 20th, 1867. We were fifty-eight days crossing the Atlantic. I was a very delicate child and was laced in the berth most of the way to keep me from falling out and to keep me dry for the old ship would rock so that the big air funnels, three or four feet across, would scoop up the water and flood the deck where we were. It was a very old ship, this being the last trip it ever made. Father being a sailor and my brothers were allowed to help in many ways, in this way helping to pay our passage.

My parents were advised to stay in Brooklyn for a year because it was unsafe to journey west at this time, as the Indians were on the warpath through the Black Hills that year. My father and brothers obtained work in Brooklyn and the next year we started across the plains in Captain Seeley's company journeying as far as Laramie, Wyoming by train, this being the end of the railroad, most of the way in cattle cars, with just boards put across for seats, no back to lean against. I remember, as a child of six, how dreadfully the cars smelled. . . . [p. 1]

. . . We arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah in August 1868 and were met by my oldest brother, Alfred who arrived in Salt Lake in 1862, and my sister Esther and brother George F. who arrived in 1864; our parents having sent them on ahead to a great unknown country, preparatory to coming themselves with the remainder of the family. What a reunion! I wonder could we do the same? . . . [p. 2]

BIB: Simmons, Mary C. Autobiographical sketch (formerly in Msd 2050), pp. 1-2. (CHL)
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