| Section 9 Traveling West to Utah George Grant had always been my friend until Johnson came there after which
he appeard distant and cold, but in all my trials Soloman stood by me to the
last and always took my part which was right and honorable
A few days before we got ready to start about the time the camp at Summer
Quarters moved in, the oxen ware drove in from the farm my cattle was thin
and I was affraid they would not stand the journey, but I said nothing about
it for fear that they would think that I was finding fault the 1st camp was
5 miles out whare we camped a week or 10 days waiting for Brigham and the
rest when he came we all started out for the Elk horn we built a raft and
crosst the river on it with our waggons this river was about 10 or 12 rods
wide and 10 or 12 feet deep we camped on the west side of the river till
sometime in June when we took up our line of march after organizing
ourselves into companies of 10s 50s and 100s each company with their
respective captains Alen Tailer was captain of our hundred and John
Harvey of our 50 and Alva Hanks of our 10 which was 1st hundred 1st 50 and
2d 10
We traveled on guarding ourselves nights by taking our turns My
turn came once in 5 or 6 days the fateagues of the journey was vary
great, watching our cattle against the Indians and while thare we heard that
William Weeks had gone back to the states from the valey he was the
Architect of the Nauvoo temple he also worked with me on the mill under T.
Kesler they had the spirit of apostacy in them while there they szaidk much
against the authorities of the Church in my presance and it troubled me and
I had a ream I thought that a number of us ware standing on a piece of
ice about four rods square which was hard and sound and all around it the
ice appeared thin and rotten, on the south and East we could see no land but
on the North and west we could I did not mingle with them in conversation
but I saw that I had on a beautiful pair of scates and I looked all around
to if anyone else had any but found none, and stoping short began to look at
them and I saw them going off to the south and south East and after they got
off about 4 or 5 rods they would fall through the ice and that was the last
of them I saw till all had gone but myself and Weeks and Fredrick
Kesler and they two stood yet talking, finely, sais Kesler, come boys let us
go whareupon he started. Weeks hesitated a little and turning to me
sais come brother Cook lets go. No said I. I cant go that way.
then he started on and left me alone I stood still and watched them
and saw them both go through the ice one after the other I then began
to think how I should get tot he land in safety. finely I concluded
tot take a circle around to get under headway and then strike off onto the
rotten ice in a west direction toward the shore which I did and as I struck
the rotten ice I could feel it crack and give under my feet which mad
my hair rise, but as I turned my face to the west I came to another hard
piece of ice like the one I had left and it became wider and wider till it
came to land, and I went so fast without any exertion that it nearly took my
breath till I landed at the top of the mountain and awoke This made me think
that sooner or later they would apostatis and I must not felowship the
spirit they had. About 3 or 4 days drive from fort Laramie one of my oxen
was taken sick at night and died before morning, this was an ox that Brigham
had let me have in place of the one that George had sent to the mountains
the year before, this caused me much trouble but they let me have another to
fill the place of it The next day I found my leaders ware feeling as I had
before thought they would do the next day in the morning one of them had
hard work to get up alone I went to Brigham and asked him what I should do
he told me to leave him and if he got better some of the brethren would
drive him along and if he died it would be all right, and I could have
another yoke in their place this was hard for me to do for he was a favorite
ox but Brigham had told me to and it was law. When we started out he got up
and followd on he kept up to the company with a little urging by the
brethren till within two miles of the camping place for noon he then turned
out of the road and laid down tired out.
Charles Keneda was in the company next behind and he came along in about
half an hour after our company and saw him and knew him. he started him up
drove him on and overtook us at camp at the crossing of Laramie river, he
came up to my waggon and said, Cook, I have picked up your ox and if you
will give him to me I will take him through I told him what the president h
ad told me in the morning and if he was a mind to give him to him I had
nothing to say, but for my part I should not give him away for I did not
consider it would be right to give him away. He then went to the president
and told him I had given him the ox He told him he could cure him and he
would take him along if he said so. he then said that he might take him He
then came back to me and asked me again to give him the ox he said the
president had given him his claim on him and told him to take him along,
well sais I if he has given him to you I have nothing to say. A few days
after while camped at horse shoe creek the ox came along and I was with
Brigham and as he passt by I said to Brigham is betting better. Yes, sais
he, Charles sais you gave him to him. no sais I, I did not, but he told me
that you did. he then said I must get you and Charley together, sais I that
would just suit me, but it was never done, and Kenada kept the ox, and sold
him in the valey, saying to others that if I would not say any more about
the ox, he would give me the 12 dollars I owed him for wintering my oxen in
winter quarters
I told him after we arrived in the valey that I wanted my rifle and I asked
him to bring it home, he said he would do so the next day, the next and the
next week passt away but I saw him not nor the rifle, one day as I was
passing by his waggon, I calld and he was away. I told her I wanted my gun
she handed it to me out of the waggon, I took it and went away, but when he
came home and found I had got it he said he wished he had took it with him
and then he should got pay for taking care of the cattle, which he knew was
unjust, after lieing to me, to ; and to Brigham, and taking my ox wrongfuly
and then not satisfied I thought he was an oppressor,
We crosst the Platt about 1/2 a days below fort Larimee that day Ann Eliza
turned over her teapot and scalded her foot which was vary sore till Mother
Angel gave her some camphor, which soon healed it and stopt the pain
immediately this is an exelent remedy for a burn if it is not so raw that a
person cannot bear it. When I was in winter quarters Brother Brigham had an
orphan boy by the name of William Dunkin his father and mother had died
about a year or 15 months before he was about 7 years old his father gave
him to Brigham in his will before he died Brigham wanted me to take him and
when he was old enough he wanted me to teach him the carpenters trade which
I promised to do he came and lived us for 7 years which brought him to 14
years. I then began to try to bend him mind to the trade but this was of no
use he did not like it and from that time he sought an excuse all he seemed
to think or care about was a horse or something of the kind, he was a dull
scholar as to learning for I sent him to school enough that he might have
had a desent education if he had improved his time, he was an enemy to hard
work but he was as smart both mintaly and piscaly as common boys but he was
not to be trusted, he at last got mad for a trifling thing and that was I
would not consent to his bringing home pupies to rais. so one night he went
out and did not return. I had the trouble of boarding him and sending him to
school till he was large enough to think he could take care of himself then
he was off, which is generaly the case with the most of such boys in these
days
When we got to the head of Sweet Water or near it in the neighborhood of
independance rock we came to lakes of saltwater whare we gathered large
quantities of it, formed in a crust from one to 6 inches thick, when we got
to the last crossing of the sweet water we camped about two weeks waiting
for help from the valey While we ware camped in that place many of our
cattle died I lost one out of my team and another was sick. I boared their
horns and took a syrring and forced red pepper tea into them but one was so
stuborn I could not hold him to do it neither could I do anything for him,
Brother Brigham told me that if I did not do something for him he would
die, I told him I had tried my best to doctor him but I had not been able to
do but little for him, but I would try to again I got two or three of the
brethren to help me to put some tobacco down him roaled up in meal balls,
but he acted so bad that we ware obliged to give it up in the morning he was
dead they all said I had done my duty in trying to cure him he was one that
Brother Brigham had furnished me which made me more anxious to save him. the
other one that was sick was one that I had of S. C. Hall in Michigan this
left me with ownly one well ox Kenada had one and one was in the valey, one
sick which left me at the mercy of the brethren, but the Lord had made a way
for my passage. A man by the name of Orin Porter Rockwell
a stranger to me but well known in the church as an old friend of Josephs,
he told me that he had 4 mules to hitch to some ones waggon and take it to
the valey with a man to drive it. I went and asked my captain Alva Hanks to
let him hitch to my waggon which he did and took it through to the valey I
drove a team with lugage for Brother Brigham to green river after which I
drove sister Augusta Cobbs waggon (a woman belonging to Joseph Smith) the
rest of the way to the valey
Ann Eliza had a hard time with her little ones, the mules ware quite
fractious in bad places but the waggon was good and lightly loaded ownly
about 14 or 15 hundred besides the family
I tied a circular saw to the reach of my waggon under the box hopeing to
have it when I got to the valey Brother Brigham told me that I might have
anything that I could find among the old irons which had belonged to the
church in Nauvoo, but I did not find much but that which I thought was worth
taking, it had an iron shaft in it, but when I came in to the valey to my
surprise one day Brother Kimble (Heber C. ) came to me and said he wanted
his saw that I took from him at winter quarters, I told him that I brought a
saw, but I did not suppose it was his for I was told that whatever I could
bring that was among the old irons I was welcome to, as my own, he said he
did not give me that promice and he must have it I then told him to take it,
but he did not take it at that time but about as often as I met him he spoke
about it, but when I was sent to SanPete I left it in care of Brother
Brigham at the house near his Uper Mill on big Kenyon creek whare I lived
telling him whare it was and how I came by it
|