"The fall of 1845 found Nauvoo, as it were, one vast mechanic shop, as nearly every family was engaged in making wagons. Our parlor was used as a paint-shop in which to paint wagons. All were making preparations to leave the ensuing winter. On the 9th of February, 1846, in company with many others, my husband took me and my two children, and some of the other members of his family (the remainder to follow as soon as the weather would permit), and we crossed the Mississippi, to seek a home in the wilderness. Thus we left a comfortable home, the accumulation and labor of four years, taking with us but a few things, such as clothing, bedding and provisions, leaving everything else for our enemies. We were obliged to stay in camp for a few weeks, on Sugar Creek, because of the weather being very cold. The Mississippi froze over so that hundreds of families crossed on the ice. As soon as the weather permitted, we moved on West. I will not try to describe how we traveled through storms of snow, wind and rain--how roads had to be made, bridges built, and rafts constructed--how our poor animals had to drag on, day after day, with scanty feed--nor how our camps suffered from poverty, sickness and death. We were consoled in the midst of these hardships by seeing the power of God manifested through the laying on of the hands of the elders, causing the sick to be healed and the lame to walk. The Lord was with us, and his power was made manifest daily. At the head of a slough where we camped several days, we were visited by the Mus-Quaw-ke band of Indians, headed by Pow-Sheek, a stately looking man, wearing a necklace of bear's claws. They were fierce looking men, decorated as they were for war; but they manifested a friendly spirit, and traded with us. The next move of our camp was to the Missouri river bank. The cattle were made to swim, and our wagons were taken over on a flat-boat that our people had built. We made two encampments after we crossed the river, when we found it too late to proceed farther that year. The last encampment was named Cutler's Park. The camps contained about one thousand wagons. Our men went to work cutting and stacking the coarse prairie grass for hay. The site for our winter quarters was selected and surveyed, and during the fall and winter some seven hundred log-cabins were built; also about one hundred and fifty dugouts or caves, which are cabins half under ground. This was on the Missouri river, about six miles above the present city of Omaha. My husband built four cabins and a dug-out. Our chimnies were made of sod, cut with a spade in the form of a brick; clay was pounded in to make our fireplaces and hearths. In our travels the winds had literally blown our tent to pieces, so that we were glad to get into cabins. The most of the roofs were made of timber, covered with clay. The floors were split and hewed puncheon; the doors were generally made of the same material, of cottonwood and linn. Many houses were covered