William Clayton's Journal: A Daily Record of the Journey of the Original Company of "Mormon" Pioneers from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Valley of the Great Salt LakeWilliam Clayton's journal; A Daily Record of the Journey of the Original Company of "Mormon" Pioneers from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake (1921) |
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon ahead antelope appears arrived banks better bluffs brethren Brother buffalo cattle cold cows creek crossed Diantha distance eight Elder Kimball Elder Pratt feed feel feet wide foot Fork formed our encampment Fort Bridger Fort Laramie four miles FRIDAY grass half a mile half miles half past halted Heber horses Howard Egan Indians John Pack Joseph Hancock journey killed lake land Laramie looks Luke Johnson meat miles farther MONDAY morning mountains Nauvoo night nine o'clock noon northwest Orson Pratt oxen passed Pawnees pleasant plenty Porter Rockwell prairie President Young rain returned ridge river road rock rods wide sandy SATURDAY side soon spring started steep stream SUNDAY teams teamsters three miles three quarters miles THURSDAY timber trav traveled TUESDAY twelve Utah Lake wagons weather WEDNESDAY William Clayton wind Winter Quarters Young and Kimball
Popular passages
Page 81 - Each teamster to keep beside his team, with his loaded gun in his hands or in his wagon where he can get it in a moment. The extra men, each to walk opposite his wagon with his loaded gun on his shoulder, and no man to be permitted to leave his wagon unless he obtains permission from his officer. In case of an attack from Indians or hostile appearances, the wagons to travel in double file. The order of encampment to be in a circle with the mouth of the wagon to the outside, and the horses and stock...
Page 136 - I have counted the revolutions of a wagon wheel in order to get the exact distance we have traveled. The reason why I have taken this method which is somewhat tedious, is because there is generally a difference of two, and sometimes four, miles in a day's travel between my estimation and that of some others, and they have all thought I underrated it...
Page 80 - Then the people will engage in cooking, eating, feeding teams, etc., until 7 o'clock, at which time the train is to move at the sound of the bugle. Each teamster is to keep beside his team with loaded gun in hand or within easy reach, while the extra men, observing the same...
Page 309 - The brethren immediately rigged three plows and went to plowing a little northeast of the camp; another party went with spades, etc., to make a dam on one of the creeks so as to throw the water at pleasure on the field, designing to irrigate the land in case rain should not come sufficiently.
Page 271 - In the valleys southeast of the Salt Lake there is an abundance of blue grass and red and white clover. The outlet of the Utah Lake does not form a large river, neither a rapid current, but the water is muddy and the banks of the river low. Some of his men have been around the Salt Lake in canoes. But while they went out hunting their horses were stolen by the Indians. They then spent three months going around the lake in canoes hunting beavers, the distance being 550 (?) miles.
Page 273 - He never saw any grapes on the Utah Lake, but there are plenty of cherries and berries of several kinds. He thinks the region around the Utah Lake is the best country in the vicinity of the Salt Lake, and the country is still better the farther south one goes until the desert is reached, which is upwards of two hundred miles south of the Utah Lake.
Page 136 - ... This morning I determined to take pains in order to know for a certainty how far we would travel today. Accordingly I measured the circumference of one of the hind wheels of Brother Kimball's wagon, being the one I sleep in, in charge of Philo Johnson. I found the wheel exactly fourteen feet eight inches in circumference, not varying one eighth of an inch.
Page 303 - After traveling 1% miles we found the road crossing the creek again to the south side and then ascend a very steep hill — so very steep that it was almost impossible for heavy wagons to ascend, and so narrow that the least accident might precipitate a wagon down a bank of three or four hundred feet, in which case it certainly would be dashed to pieces.
Page 335 - ... Battalion, as well as the Pioneers, have not their families here; and do not expect that they are in your Camp, we wish to learn by Express from you the situation of your Camp as speedily as possible. That we may be prepared to...
Page 83 - I walked some this afternoon in company with Orson Pratt and suggested to him the idea of fixing a set of wooden cog wheels to the hub of a waggon wheel, in such order as to tell the exact number of miles we travel each day.