Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
sand miles of travel ahead. Kainsville was situated on a little stream
in a valley between high hills. (The bluffs along the Missouri River.)
'Ve camped there several days, along with hundreds of other emigrant
outfits, among them a big Mormon train. 'Ve began to get a scent of
the great plains. The stores were filled with Indian made goods;
buckskin clothing, especially beaded moccasins and all kinds of goods
for trading' with the Indians.
We youngsters did delight to climb the high hills and look away off
over boundless plains to the west. To the left we could get a glimpse
of the Missouri, with an occasional smoke from a steamboat.
Just before coming into Kainsville we passed through a little valley
where the }formons wintered by digging out caves in the side of the
hills. This was after they were driven out of Nauvoo, in Illinois. One
of the leading bishops was camped near us, having in charge a lot of
women, families, and a number of young women from the old countries,
all journeying to the "promised land". The bishop was an Eng~
lishman. Mother and Father called on him one Sunday. Mother gave
him a piece of her mind. The idea of an Englishman of intelligence
becoming so depraved and misleading those poor, ignorant proselytes
aroused all of her British ire.
vVe moved our camp down close to the banks of the Missouri River
and camped under some very large cottonwood trees. I saw the picture
of our camping place years afterward, with its grove of big cottonwood
trees, and I wanted to keep the picture.
On Monday morning we commenced ferrying across the river, five
or six men with big oars pulling the flat boat across the swift, muddy
river. 'Ve took two wagons at a time, without any stock. They swam
the stock across at another place. I know I crept under one of the
wagons, the first to cross, in order to get ahead of Brother Thomas, as
he had to herd the cattle while the men were preparing the wagons to
cross. The next trip, as I was standing on the Nebraska side of the
river, I saw Mother sitting in the front of one of the wagons and as
she looked out over the border of the great plains we were about to
embark upon, the tears were coming to her eyes. It kind of made me
feel sober, after trying to outwit Brother Tom.
Here was a lone Indian of the tribe of Omahas, the first live Indian
we had seen. 'Ye took quite an interest in him and finally he climbed
up on the side of a bluff and sat there looking at us, like some of the
scenes we see of an Indian watching the white people coming in to possess
his hunting grounds.
Here again we found caves where the Mormons had wintered.
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