The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-03
MARTINS EzsBCARI
COMPANY, 1856
BY Josiah Rogerson.



opposite Fort Kearney, Neb., l resume
my narrative with paragraph as to
The order and discipline of the camp.
From the date we left Iowa hill,
Iowa. July rs. sc, Brother John Wat
kins was our bugler. and his cornet
was heard every morning to wake up"
between and o'clock. Then again
We heard his cornet to strike tents"
and to meeting-not later than or
Z g. m.
These meetings every morning last
ed from fifteen minutes TO half an hour,
when prayer was offered, verse or
two sung from one of our hymns, then
few remarks from Captain Martin.
Tyler and the captains of the hundreds
as to the health and condition of their
companies and suggestions as to facil-
itating our progress; then our break
fast cooked and partaken of with
haste; the tent poles and (about this
date) the tents were taken TO the four
mule team, the bedding rolled up. the
cart packed, and We were generally in
line in single file and on our journey
by 1880 to a. m, at the latest.
Mode and Manner of Travelling.
Father George P. Waugh. then be-
tween Go and 20 years of age, would be
seen and heard calling between the
tween and 1880 a. m. These consist
ed of all the aged that could walk at
all, and not required to pun at the
carts; our fathers and mothers, from 40
TO Sc. Away they would start ahead
of our seven wagons and the carts
singing and talking and cheering each
other with the hallowed "reminiscences
of the early days of the gospel IN the
British isles, and the days of Orson
HuAa Do MI D-af
Richards. Travelling three to five miles
or more in this manner. the mother
with the babe in arms and one by the
hand, the widow and the aged WldoWer
with their walking cane and stan,
would rest a few minutes for our COM
ing in sight, then on at IL again till
noon. but betimes leaving the little
ones and the young for their father
with the cart to pick up and bring to
camp. The oldest and most feeble
of this advance guard would be picked
up by the wagons as often as possible,
and as the loads were lightened by our
daily rations.
The able and hardy of this advance
guard captain Martin would general
" ride ahead of us a few miles and
locate the noon camp) would be there;
the matron and the sire also. with their
-four and packs filed with fuel TO cook
the noon meal.
An hour or two for our noon rest,
then were We're going again, the same
aged advance guard ahead of us, with
Father Waugh. who was returning
from his mission of three years to
Scotland, and one of the most devoted
Scottish worthless that ever came to
Utah. Stopping for noon, We all
dropped our carts, single file, in line
in our several hundreds.
At nights we made camp In the same
manner-the tents in line, one above
or below the other, and the carts I'M
loaded at the back or rear of the tent
and a rod or more space between each
line of tents, as the location and
evenness of the ground would permit
At times, and particularly from the
Loup Fork to Fort Kearney, and TO
Fort Laramie. our six-OX and provi-
sion wagons, the four-mule wagon and
the light spring wagon of Captain
Martin would be placed in the center of
the camp, on account of the hostility
of the Cheyenne Indians, that had had
a brush" or two with the United
States troops near there a week or two
before, and of which the commander
at Fort Kearney appraised us by his
letter nailed on a cracker box on a
post as. we passed in front of Fort
Kearney.
Our mules were picketed at nights
and over them a very vigilant watch
was kept. The oxen and fifty head of
COWS and some beef cattle were guard
ed faithfully by Tyler's platoons night
ly
There were three companies of Unit
ed States troops stationed at Fort
Kearney at this time, and l find in
Captain John A. Hunts journal, a few
days after we passed, that the COM
nander there or one of his captains
seeing Hunts wagon company passing,
rode out and cautioned him to see to
their arms; be on their guard day and
night till they passed Laramie; advis-
ing them of the recent trouble with the
Cheyennes, and that the Sioux ahead
were not more to be trusted than the
Cheyennes.
Guard Duty.
Our night guarding begun as soon
as the oxen We're unyoked and the
mules embarrassed, not later than to
2 D. m The moment we dropped our
cart we had TO spring to this arduOus
duty every other night for six hours.
One week, every night as soon as we
reached camp, until midnight (our
mothers, fathers or sisters bringing us
a bite of supper after they got it
cooked. and while still on guard, and
the next Ncch every QUIET night
reused from our quilts by midnight,
and on guard till a. m, when the
oxen and mules were ordered TO be
brought for yoking and Harvesting,
and one of the most trying and i'm
portant of our annals right here in
place, that the most hardy and sound
of body that ever crossed the plains
of Nebraska and Wyoming could en-
dure. was six whole nights, straight
ahead, guarding one week; pulling the
cart every day, twenty to twenty-four
miles a day, between Kearney and La
ramie, and the only ''winks" the writer
got in this service was from 10 a.
m. while his mother was cooking him
q little breakfast.
Recorder Bleak speaks of a heavy
thunder shower during this week
which I well remember, though only a
boy of Is years of age. 1t was between
midnight and 3 or 3 a. m. My COM
panion on guard had sung out the hour
and "all we'll" The rain clouds seemed
only a few feet from the grass on
which our oxen were trying to fill up
for the next days journey. Dark as
pitch, the rain commenced to fall as
il only does fall on the meadows of
Iowa and the prairies of Nebraska,
and the vivid lightning flashed so that
we could see clearly the shape Of the
HE color ExhanStpd and weary