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Pioneer Date Summary
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04/18/1847 - Crockett
- Location: Fremont, Nebraska - Location: 41:26:00N 96:29:52W
Elevation: 1195 feet
Date: April 18, 1847
On the Platte River, Nebraska:
The morning was "snowy, blustering, and cold." Ellis Eames left
the pioneer company to return back to Winter Quarters. He traveled
with the traders who had camped nearby, and took letters back
for some of the pioneers. The rest of the camp rested on this
Sabbath day. Horace K. Whitney wrote, "Today being set apart
by the Lord for his people to rest, we do not intend to travel."
At 10 a.m., seven more trader's wagons arrived from the west,
loaded with buffalo robes and furs, heading toward Council Bluffs.
They shared with the pioneers some buffalo meat. The weather
cleared in the afternoon.
At 4:30 p.m., James case was chopping down a cottonwood tree
when the wind blew it the wrong way. One of the limbs struck
an ox on the neck, knocked it down, and poked an eye but it seemed
to recover alright.
At 5:00 p.m., the officers gathered to meet with Brigham Young
to officially write the rules for governing the camp. "At 8:30
p.m. the bugle would sound and all should retire to their wagons
and bow before the Lord and offer up their supplications before
going to bed, and all fires should be put out; also the bugle
would sound at 5 a.m., when all would arise and offer up their
thanks to the Lord, and at 7 o'clock be ready to start. All the
spare hands were to walk by the off side of their wagons with
their rifles loaded."
Wilford Woodruff wrote about the Platte River: "It is the most
singular river I ever beheld. It is from a quarter to a mile
wide & its shores & bed one universal body of quick sand. It
is a rapid stream yet many places a person can wade across it.
Frequently nearly the whole bed of the river is covered with
but few inches of water & at other places it is deep & Rapid.
Notwithstanding it is quick sand. Horses & cattle can walk down
to the edge of the river & drink like walking on the edge of
a smooth sea beach & some times while walking on the apparent
hard beach or bed of the river a man or hose will suddenly sink
into the quick sand & the more he struggles to get out the more
he will sink & will soon perish if assistance is not near. Many
horses & men have been lost in this way on the Platte."
Winter Quarters, Nebraska:
A Sabbath meeting was held in the morning. John Taylor gave
a history of his journey and mission to England. He told that
Saints how the Saints in England were be drained of their money
by the Joint Stock Company under the pretense that it would help
them emigrate to America. But Reuben Hedlock had taken the money
for his own use. He reported that this association had been dissolved.
Hosea Stout attended a meeting at the Council House. He heard
a letter read from the Twelve, written on April 16. The High
Council then discussed problems with the Omaha Indians driving
off the Saints cattle.
Hosea Stout recorded: "They will lay around in the grass and
groves untill an oppertunity offers and then sally forth and
drive all the cattle in their power, even some times they will
rush in among the herds, when there is no men present and attempt
to drive them off before our eyes or they will appear on horse
back and run all the cattle that stray off, away. The amount
of cattle killed by them the past winter & spring is incredible."
In the Evening, Mary Richards took a walk with Lyman O. Littlefield
who was about to leave on his mission to England. Sister Richards
wrote, "Spent the evening very plesently. I tried to appear as
happy as possable so the he might carry the news to my Samuel,
thinking perhaps it might add to his comfort to know that I was
well and appearing happy." [Her husband, Samuel W. Richards was
away in England on a mission.]
Summer Quarters, Nebraska:
A cattle drive passed by on the way to Winter Quarters from the
northern herding grounds. John D. Lee found a few of his cattle
in the herd. In the afternoon, he started for Winter Quarters with
four yoke of oxen to obtain provisions and to move some of the
families in his care up to Summer Quarters. Moses M. Sanders and
G. Lemons went with him. They arrived at Winter Quarters after
dark but could find very few provisions. A young man from the other
side of the river informed them that a load had just come in from
Missouri.
Between Tahiti And Hawaii:
Elder Addison Pratt, in a ship that crossed the equator a few days
earlier, viewed for the first time since 1843, the North Star.
He was anxious to return home from his long mission and wrote: "This
reminds me that I am draing near my native latitude."
Sources:
Watson, ed., Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 540
Luke S. Johnson, Pioneers Journal of 1847, typescript, BYU, 2
William Clayton's Journal, 79-81
"Excerpts from the hitherto unpublished Journal of Horace K. Whitney," Improvement
Era, 50:203
Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 3:151
Howard Egan's Diary, Pioneering the West, 25-6
Kelly, ed., Journals of John D. Lee, 1846-1847 and 1859, 151-52
Brooks, On the Mormon Frontier, The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1:250
Ward, ed., Winter Quarters, The 1846-1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker
Richards, 119
The Journal of Nathaniel V. Jones, Utah Historical Quarterly, 4:15
Journal of Henry Standage in Frank Alfred Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion,
218
Bigler, The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith, 82
Ellsworth, The Journals of Addison Pratt, 326
- Source: 150
Years Ago Today
- ©These materials have been created by David R. Crockett.
Copies of these materials may be reproduced for teacher and classroom
use. When distributing these materials, credit must be given to David
R. Crockett. These materials may not be published, in whole or part,
or in any other format, without the written permission of Mr. Crockett,
Tucson Az, crockett@goodnet.com.
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