Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

About This Item:

Title: Volume 070-4 - October 2016 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2019-06-07 08:39:50 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:33 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:33

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 6  

NCHS Bulletin October 2016 At this time we saw a prairie fire, which I had read so much about. The grass was dry and the flames leaped like animals. It did not reach the house where we were staying, for some reason. I do not remember. The next place of note that I remember was Larimie’s grove. No trees were growing there. They had all been cut down to build two little houses. They were crowded full of emigrants. We soon came to the Missouri river at Council Bluffs crossing, as it was called then. We were now at the edge of the plains. We stopped on the Iowa side of the river waiting for the ground to dry. We had a jolly time waiting because so many families were camping there. We had the use of a large old house with a number of other children. There were many large houses like hotels scattered about, and some small ones, all very cheaply built with as little lumber as could be used. On the 24 day of April, my twenty-second birthday, we crossed the Missouri on an old steamer and landed in Nebraska. It was just the plains then. Looking up the river, we could see Council Bluffs. This place was just mounds where the Indians used to meet in council. They must have been covered with some dark evergreen trees. We were where the city of Omaha now is, but no building of any description was in sight. It was then as desolate a place as could be imagined, cold, rainy and dreary. The wagons were heavily loaded with provisions for ourselves and grain for the horses, for there was no good grass to be had. The horses climbed hillocks and wallowed through mud-holes till they were nearly exhausted. When we got to the Elkhorn river there was another stop until a raft could be built to take the people across. Then it was better traveling. If I remember rightly, we traveled up the North Platt. The road had been traveled by QHD years before, and by the Mormons, and wound around through the bluffs, or little mounds, so we could hardly see ahead. Then we thought, what a good place it would be for the Indians to attack us, but no one ever molested us. Such quick showers would come up that we would get soaking wet, and then the sun would come out warm and bright. The water in the Platte was very shallow and muddy and when used for cooking purposes we sprinkled in corn meal to settle the mud. There was no shrubbery along the way for the banks were level and green. The saddest sight of all was where old graves had been dug out by wild animals. Skeletons were scattered around and fragments of quilts and other things that had been used for burial. We saw the skeletons of many small children. In a portion of the country was the cactus. Many of the graves was covered with these plants, and then they were safe as if covered with stone. Some graves had no covering. It was said that Indians would dig into them to get guns that were wanted, or other articles. The emigrants would bury or burn the guns to keep them away from the Indians. Many of the graves were those of the Mormons who had died during the flight from Nauvoo to Salt Lake. One day a large number of wagons fell in line with us while we were traveling on a high ridge that overlooked a large level region of country. We went down a short steep hill there was a spring of water and many cottonwood trees. There were many surly looking Indians here, with faces scarred with running sores. Indian women were near by with their ponies loaded with all their household articles. The loads were fastened on long poles, as you have seen in pictures, and tied to the sides of the horses. One had a basket with puppies on one side and a basket of babies on the other—all happy. We traveled along until we got to a long grassy place. Then our party had a consultation. They made a large circle of the wagons, keeping the horses in the center, and stood double watch that night. The horses knew there was trouble, for they would eat a few mouthful, then throw up their heads and sniff the air. In other places too, when the men could see nothing, they scented danger. A trader who was near said we were in danger, for the Indians were seeking revenge, as they had taken smallpox from the whites. Many of these Indians died. We were among the early emigrants and it was the later ones that suffered from the Indians, and contagious diseases. There were a great many teams that kept along with the horses—slow but sure. The poor creatures would drop to the ground when they stopped—too tired to eat. There was a very sandy, hot strip of country this side of Salt Lake, covered with carcasses of dead cattle, dried like mummies. Near by was one of the prettiest little lakes that ever was seen, shaded with lovely trees. A drink of that water at the right time would have saved these thirsty creatures. There were many beautiful pictures here. One was a large spreading hemlock on the bank of the Green river. No other bush or tree was near, and the grass was short and green. I shall always see that picture as it looked to me then. We stopped in the Salt Lake country two weeks to recruit the horses. Children would bring little onions and lettuce and milk and butter. A neighbor in a tent asked a little boy how many wives Brigham Young had. He said, “Forty that he keeps count of, I do not know how many that he does not keep count of.” It was a lovely country, but it was filled with unhappy, dissatisfied women. Soon we got to [what later became] Nevada state, crossing the desert in the night to avoid the heat, for the horses were to be considered all the time, as everything depended on them. When we were on the Humboldt river we found a large shrub with whitish green leaves and bark, bearing a very small red berry. We had plenty