From Nauvoo to Salt Lake in the Van of the Pioneers. III

From Nauvoo to Salt Lake in the Van of the Pioneers. The Original Diary of Erastus Snow. EDITED BY HIS SON, MORONI SNOW. III. In the last number of the Era, we left the advanced com- pany of the pioneers encamped on Locust creek, midway between the settlements on the Chariton and Grand rivers, in the early part of April, 1846, with their tents pitched in mud and snow on the creek bottoms. Continuing his journal, Erastus Snow records as follows: Colonel Rockwood and myself rode fifteen miles to a small town at the junction of East and West Locust creek, to purchase some cows, but on our return were overtaken by a dark night in the woods, without a road, and we lost our way, and laid out with- out means of making a fire, and suffered much with cold before morning. From this lesson I have learned not to be caught away from camp without fireworks— flint and tinder-box. During our stay on Locust creek, our cows, oxen, and mules did very well upon browse, but our horses failed. About the mid- dle of April, grass began to start on the bottoms, and the season to make preparations for spring crops being already upon us, a council of all the officers of the different companies was called, and it was determined, instead of going to thi settlements on Grand river, to bear northwest and strike East Fork about the line of Missouri, and there seek a location for putting in seeds. We

FROM NAUVOO TO SALT LAKE. 491 accordingly started on the 16th, and traveled only a few miles in a day, stopping wherever we could find either grass or browse for our teams. We took a divide on the east side of East Locust, and headed for West Locust, and struck the head waters of Medicine creek. Here we found a little better range for our stock, and, halting for a few days, burned coal, did some blacksmithing, and held meeting on the Sabbath, etc. On Tuesday we crossed the head of Medicine creek, follow- ing, for the most part, a divide for the distance of about twenty- five miles, after which we struck a beautiful grove of timber on the east branch of the Grand river, on the 24th of April. Here we formed a camp, and resolved to make preparations for putting in spring crops, and named it Garden Grove. The rear companies were soon up, and all united as one man enclosing a large field of some hundreds of acres, built some cab- ins to shelter the families and goods [of those] that should tarry. Here it rained almost every day for about two weeks, and as usual our camp-ground, though dry and healthful at first, soon became a perfect mortar bed, as all the companies were encamped in the grove, to and from which all our horses and cattle were driven daily. But the warm rain brought forward vegetation rapidly, and our teams began to thrive. In about three weeks, the field being nearly enclosed and cabins nearly finished, it was determited in council to remove about forty miles northwest on to the middle fork of Grand river, and there commence a similar settlement, and send men to search out a road on a divide, from this place to the settlements in Iowa, which might head Medicine. Locust, Chariton and Fox rivers, and thereby open a safer and more practicable road for the balance of our emi- gration from Nauvoo, all of which was subsequently executed. The second location was upon an eminence on the east side of the middle branch of Grand river. Councils were organized and presidencies appointed to regulate the affairs of the Church. In these places such families v ere left as, for want of sufficient teams and provisions, were unable to continue their journey. These settlements were on the tract of country owned by the Pot- tawattamie Indians, and from thirty to fifty miles south there were settlements in Missouri from which they could obtain provisions to

sustain them until they could raise a crop. Instructions were left in these places for such as were obliged to leave Nauvoo without a sufficient outfit, to locate and sustain themselves in these places until a further door opened unto them, or until a permanent loca- tion should be found for the Church, and provisions raised to sustain them. (This second location was called Mt. Pisgah). From Garden Grove, a brother, Joseph Phippin, who had accompanied me thus far with his team, returned to Nauvoo for his family, and on my provisions also falling short, I was under the necessity of procuring more teams and provisions, or of abandon- ing, for the present, the further prosecution of the journey. I accordingly directed my family to proceed to Mount Pisgah and there wait for me, and I returned to Nauvoo to endeavor, by sale of property, to procure my necessary outfit. I left Garden Grove with Brother Edmond Ellsworth on the ]5th of May. We met many teams between there and Nauvoo, loaded with Saints who were upon our track. I was unable to accomplish the object for which I returned, until about the first of July. I finally succeeded, by sale of my property at about one-fourth its former value, in paying my debts and procuring two more teams and a rupply of goods and provisions. I took with me my mother and a Widow Aldrich and her family, consisting of six, whom I fitted out, and started from the western bank of the Mississippi river, July 5, accompanied also bv my brothers, William and Willard, and their families, and some other families of the Saints. When we struck Fox river, we followed up the east side and bore on to Soap creek, and took the new road before mentioned and reached Pisgah the latter part of the month. I found my family anxiously waiting for my return. The Twelve, with the main body of the Saints, were then as far west as Council Bluffs, on the Missouri river, building boats and preparing to cross- After a few days halt in Pisgah, we continued our journey until we reached the Missouri, a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles. Our road, though tolerably direct, was, neverthe- less, winding and uneven. We crossed the head waters of the Nodaway, and east and west branches of the Nisnabotna, Silver, Cagg and Mosquito creeks, besides their numerous small tributa- ries with which the country is intersected. When we arrived at