. . . the time for us to leave England was in the early in January in the year and we left accordingly. We the good ship Jersey we eight hundred Latter-day Saints on board of her four hundred Welsh & four hundred English and the president over the company with [-] of the priesthood asked me to be it so I went for to serve out to the people their provisions and the water. It was a great chore for so many people but someone had to do it and as I had some experience in those matters and as I have had to do so much for the people in the years that had been passed and gone so I concluded to do as my Brethren asked me to do in that matter. Although to do so I had to engage someone to help my family as it took my entire time and I never received a cent for the labor. And nothing of any very great importance occurred as we passed over the sea to New Orleans as all of our emigration all passed that way in those days. So in due time we arrived in the above port all safe and in good health. In this same year my third living child was born and it was a son and we named him Moreland. On our arrival at New Orleans the captain of the Jersey he was a kind and good man so he gave the ship provisions that was left to the people so that we should not have to buy much as we went up the river to St. Louis. So as soon as we had taken the steamer for St. Louis the brethren sent for me and said that the only way that they could pay me as they could see was to get me to serve out to the people the provisions that the captain had gave to them to use on the river between New Orleans and St. Louis. So I agreed to do so. So in time we arrived at St. Louis. Now I must refer again to the time that I lived in in [SIC] my native town and to a dream I had before I [p.37] left. It was had a dream or a vision I cannot say which but I saw a large wide river and ran to the south and seemed to be standing on the east bank of the river and west and I saw my old president on the west bank of the river running down the bank toward the river as though he would run into the river and I saw that he looked very much scared and he had no hat on and as he ran down to the water his hair did or was blowing back and rest was not ballooned so that was blowing back too often. I had come to myself, I concluded that thing had happened to him so I kept the date as near as I could and after sometime we had a letter from his family stating that Brother John Halliday died in the St. Louis of the cholera and by comparing the time of his death as stated by the letter and the vision or the dream that I had was one and then I concluded that the river that I saw was the Mississippi and the St. Louis is on the west bank of the above river. I said that my father before I left seemed to have a desire that I ought not to leave until I had seen him buried but my father had been ailing for some years and I hoped that he yet may live for sometime to come but as I said I left in January and Father died on the fourteenth of Feb. so at that time as a matter of course, I was one third of the distance across the Atlantic, but my father came to me as I was on the ocean. I saw him just as plain as I ever saw him in my life and as I saw him he looked so pleased and happy. So soon after I arrived in St. Louis I had a letter informing me of the death of my father and as near as I could tell corresponded with the time that I saw him on our ship and so peace to his dear memory.

I said that we arrived all well at St. Louis. All well so for sometime we continued making our arrangement expecting in due time to leave for Salt Lake City and for some it never entered into our [p.38] hearts but that according to the arrangements that in due time we should leave for Salt Lake City this year, but day after day passed away and month after month after month and yet we were left in St. Louis. As a matter of course I am speaking of the Coth Company that had been engaged to go to Salt Lake City. Finally the agent for the company informed us that all of the money that was in his hands belonging to the company had been spent. That there was likelihood that as it was now late that we must get something to do as we could not go to Salt Lake City this year. So we were so much disappointed yet we turned to get something to do. So I soon found a situation. One of our elders named Westwood was a salesman in a Hat Store on Broadway. His employers name was William Keevil and Brother Westwood had been there in Mr. Keevil's employ for some time and he was about [to] leave for Salt Lake City, so I applied for the situation and Mr. Keevil employed me to fill the place vacated by Brother Westwood. So in a few days I was duly installed in Mr. William H. Keevil's Hat Store and it was a large fine store and we had good business and I agreed to serve him one year. I told him that I could not stay with any longer as my destination was Salt Lake City. He seemed much pleased with the frank manner in which I talked to him. As a matter of course that business in which I had just embarked was entirely new and novel to me but I felt a great desire to excel in it and I applied myself to the task and had confidence in it and in myself and it was not long until my employer seemed to have more confidence in my ability as a salesman then he had in himself for I have often seen him trying to sell to a customer and he fail to sale him so sometimes he then would say Now Mr. Dunford will you please try to sell to this gentleman as I cannot. So then before his face I have often taken up the very goods that he had been trying to sell and have sold to the person some of the very goods that he had been trying to sell to him. Sometimes after the customer [p.39] had left in his most blandest manner he would, Mr. Dunford, it took you to do things properly. I will say that I took much real pleasure in this new business and my employer seemed to take very much interest in me so I my employer paid me a good salary and I was able to make my little family comfortable and so the time passed away and Mr. Keevil seemed to have unlimited confidence in my ability and integrity for very soon he left his business to me almost entirely and in all my arrangements I always sought never to betray the confidence imposed in me by those with whom I have to do. I had not been in this situation only about five months until Mr. Keevil one day said to me that shortly he would have to go to England to settle up an estate of his father's and that he wished me to take the entire charge of the business and his private house and that part of his family that he did not take with him to England. Mr. Keevil had a partner in the business but he so arranged that partner should not interfere with the business during his stay in England. So I had the entire control of all of their interest to buy and to sell and to do just as though it had been my own affairs. We had a man in the store, a Mr. Williams, and he had been in the employ of Mr. Keevil for some years and when he was informed that in the future I was to be his employer it seemed to be too much for to endure so he done all that he could to induce Mr. Keevil to change his mind so that he might be prepared before me and I told Mr. Keevil that I too thought Mr. Williams could do better as he understood matters and things better than I did. But it was all to no purpose. He Mr. Keevil said to me I have made up my mind and said he to me you are the man so when he had completed his arrangements he took his [p.40] leave of me and for sometime of the city of St. Louis. So after Mr Keevil had left it having come to my knowledge that he
, Mr. William, had sought to injure me. The morning after Mr. Keevil had left Mr. Williams said to me I now suppose since you are my employer that you will not long want me, now I told him in reply that if you are faithful and attend promptly to your business that is all I ask of you. So him and I did pretty well until the return of Mr. Keevil. So nothing very unusual occurred to disturb our daily affairs. I will here say that as a matter of course I would not take charge of the business until after Mr. Keevil and I had taken an account of the stock in the store. And so in this so in all other entirely day after day and week after week and month after month passed away and in this way passed away nearly six months since Mr. Keevil left and at the end of the time above stated he arrived in St. Louis with his wife all well and he found me representing his affairs ready to receive him with pleasure. And he seemed to show me all of those marks of kindness and respect as though I had been his brother
. So after he had rested some I prepared to turn over to him his business again. So when he was ready we took stock again and after this was all done I again took my place again in the store as his salesman. So after he had got up amount of stock and could see what had been done during the time he had been gone he and his partner expressed themselves entirely pleased with the result of my efforts during the time that I had the entire control of their business. And so one day Mr. Keevil so verbally expressed himself but at this time I had not the knowledge of men and things as since that time I have had to learn and sometimes by sad experience. So Mr. Keevil called me up to the desk he said addressing me, Mr. Dunford, you have far exceeded [p.41] our most sanguine expectations in conducting our business during my traveling in England. At that instant just as though a voice had spoke to me and said if those services had been satisfactory to you please so state in writing. He, Mr. Keevil, answered
, certainly Mr. Dunford if that will be more pleasing to you. So he put the above approval into writing and wished me to take the paper to his partner and when I presented the paper to him he looked it over, he in answered certainly, certainly. So after it had been signed by Mr. John McNeal, the partner of Mr. Keevil, he then signed it and so this important trust had been completed. I certainly seemed very much pleased and since that it had met the entire approval of those that had placed so much confidence in me. I will here say that I have been rather minute in stating my experience with this Mr. Keevil because I shall have an occasion to refer to him again. I will say that during this time of which I am speaking it seemed to be wise in my brethren to have me to preside over the church in St. Louis and this all occurred in the years, so by this time the year that I had agreed to stay with Mr. Keevil was fast drawing to a close and so I had to begin to make my arrangements accordingly but in this year I had by great care been able to send monies to a brother and a young lady by which they had been able to join me in St. Louis. The number of souls that by this means joined me from England was 13 Thirteen, so as the time drew near for me to leave for our mountain home Mr. Keevil would ask me to prolong my stay for a few years in St. Louis and if I would consent so to do he proffered to open and stock for me one of the best stores in the city of St. Louis. As a matter of course I had to decline those [p.42] tempting offers but to show how much he was in earnest, before I left him when he could not induce me to any longer to stay he offered to put up a stock of goods for me to take to Salt Lake city and as I had no money to pay for transportation he paid that and all the expenses so that when I arrived in Salt Lake City late in the month of September I had to take a store to dispose of the goods that soon arrived after me and so the Lord in His providence suffers one thing after another to take place. . . . [p.43]

BIB: Dunford, George. Reminiscences and journal, (Ms 1722), pp. 37-43. Acc. #25790. (CHL)
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