Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily JournalsWoodruff, Wilford
Religion
Wilford Woodruff, Fourth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: History of His Life and Labors, as Recorded in His Daily Journals
Woodruff, Wilford
Woodruff, Wilford, 1807-1898
"In the evening the flour, meal, and bacon which had been earned from
the Missouri company for ferrying them over were distributed through
the camp equally. It amounted to five and one-half pounds of flour, two
pounds of meal and a small piece of bacon for each individual in the
camp. It looked as much of a miracle to me to see our flour and meal
bags replenished in the midst of the Black Hills as it did to have the
Children of Israel fed with manna in the wilderness; but the Lord had
been truly with us on our journey and wonderfully preserved and blessed
us.
"At daylight the next morning the first two tens were called together
to make arrangements for crossing. Some of our party did not like the
mode proposed of lashing wagons together, as the current was so strong,
so we appointed Brother Grover as our captain to direct the rafting and
concluded to put our poles into a raft and carry our goods over in a
boat and ford our wagons on the raft.
"We commenced at 5 o'clock in the morning and in four hours we had
landed eleven wagons of goods upon the north shore with our little
leather boat, and during the day we got over all the wagons belonging
to our tens, there being eleven wagons in all.
"The rest of the encampment--being twelve tens--got over only the same
number of wagons as ourselves. They floated their wagons by tying from
two to four together, but the wagons turned clear over each other,
bottom side up and back again, breaking {300} the bows, covers, and
boxes to pieces, and losing ploughs, axes, and iron that were left in
the boxes.
"Most of our company were in the water from morning till night, and all
were very weary when the work was done.
"Just as we had drawn Dr. Richards' two wagons to the shore and loaded
his goods into them, a storm struck us. I sprang into my carriage, tied
all down very tight and applied my whole strength in holding my wagon
cover on, but the rain, wind, and hail beat so heavily that it was a
task, and my bed and things were nearly drenched. It lasted only seven
minutes, but was severe on our wagons and goods, and our horses ran two
or three miles in the storm. I crossed the river, went after them, tied
them up, and returned weary, but had some pleasant dreams that night.
"I felt unwell next day from the exposures of the day before. My teeth
ached. I had suffered much from them on my pioneer journey. It was
quite windy and our companies crossed the river very slowly. Another
Missouri company came up with us.
"President Young thought it wisdom to leave a number of the brethren
here until our companies which were expected to follow us should come
up. Those who remained were to keep a ferry for the emigrants on the
road not of our people. Such immigrants were to pay $1.50 per wagon in
flour at $2.00 per cwt., and in cows at $10.00 each.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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