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MEMOIRS OF MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDMOTHER,
ELEANOR HOWARD (THOMAS) BRITTAIN KNOWLTON
November 1834 – August 1908

Through Wyoming to the Rocky Mountains. A coward leaves. Reaching the Green River. Bad water kills several oxen. Indians attack a train and several people are killed. Ellen believes Mormons are profiting.

Court House Rock And Devils Gate

I had been told to look out for an immensely tall rock which could be seen at a great distance from the road. Two men who had seen it said that it was a great curiosity and from what I could see of it with our field glasses I am sure that it was. This rock was in Wyoming and the first emigrants had named it Court House Rock. There was another place which I was anxious to see. It was called the Devil’s Gate. The gate was cut through a chalky substance of a different color from the body. I was walking the day we came to the Gate and was the first to pass through it and carved my name on the wall.

Dr. Wolf’s Train

I must confess that I never thought of writing this story of my trip to California and so never kept dates. I remember that on the 4th of July we had what the boys called a good dinner which consisted of bacon and beans and fried peach pies and plenty of good creamy milk. We camped at Pacific Springs and had a dance there with good music. Dr. Wolf’s train had some ladies on it.

We are now going through the Rocky Mountains, I think through the South Pass. We thought some of joining Wolf’s train but did not because he had had some trouble. A man by the name of Manafee and his brother-in-law had been eating together. They had a quarrel and were dividing their provisions. Manafee got mad over a sack of flour and shot Brown dead. He left a wife and two children a boy and a girl. Afterward Dr. Wolf took care of the widow and her children and never allowed the quarrel mentioned in the train.

Dr. Wolf was captain of his train and one of the best men I ever knew. He had been to California once before and brought cattle both times and was a good guide. It will be proven to you later in this story how really good he was. We kept ahead of his train and were alone for some time.

Western Slope Of The Rockies

We now have come to the Green River which empties into the Pacific Ocean. We camped on the river and several Indians came to us for bacon and whiskey. We had a little scare and one of our horses was stolen. The man Bacon again was very frightened and resolved to leave us as soon as he could get with a larger train. In a few days he had an opportunity to do so but did not let us know until a few moments before leaving. He was on foot and had nothing but his clothes and a revolver. He asked for them and I gave them to him.

My husband asked Bacon what he was going to do and he replied that he was going on with the man just ahead of us that the man had a few horses. Mr. Brittain was on his riding horse and he reached down and got hold of a lock of Bacon’s hair, swung him around several times and said to him, “I will show you how to treat a man who has fed you when you were starving, who was your captain and whom you have been in the habit of leaving every time he was in distress!” I said, “Let him go, we are better short of a coward than we are with him.” That night my husband had to guard camp as the rest of the men had to guard the cattle. He was tired for he had been up the night before. I spread blankets on the ground and sat down on the ox yoke and he rested his head in my lap and went to sleep. Finally one of the mules brayed and I woke him for that was a sure sign that the animals were being disturbed. He got up immediately and wanted me to rest but my bed was not very enticing, an ox yoke for a pillow so I said I was not sleepy.

We traveled on and had no more trouble for weeks, and then we were in alkali country, the water red with it. Good grass and water was scarce. The cattle ran through it and drank of it and we lost some fine cattle, some of our best oxen which we worked died. We had to throw away some of our clothes and leave one wagon. I told those Yankee boys they might have it, for it was a small one and only fit for a two horse wagon and theirs was an old ramshackley one.

There were three Fenner brothers and two cousins whose names I do not remember. The youngest of the Fenners was a sick man and the other two boys said that he had consumption when he left home. He grew worse as the weather began to get cold and they did not have enough bedding to keep him warm. I did not have any bedding to give him but a prized quilt I had made of some of my dear mother’s dresses after she died as I though I could keep them longer in a quilt. Mother would have wished me to give the quilt to them if it was all I could spare so I gave it. As the weather was so cold and our train was so much slower than they could travel with their team they bade us goodbye and joined a man who had a herd of horses. We were sorry to see them go. I was so glad to see them leave with a nice new wagon which I had been able to give them and they had a good span of mules and had not used many of their provisions when they traveled with us. I never saw them again on the plains but I will tell you some more of them later in this story.

We were again left short of hands but we soon came up with old Captain Turner’s train which was one of the largest and best equipped on the plains. Captain Turner invited us to join him as Indians were ever now and again attacking small trains. I liked to have my husband travel alone as it was better for our stock and I was never very much afraid of the poor Indians. I always gave them something to eat and any clothes I could spare and believe that if all the emigrants had treated them more civilly and had spared them an ox and something more to eat when they knew they were starving, they would have saved a lot of trouble. The Indians did not know the value of money but those Mormon traders did. They would induce the Indians to drive our stock off then the Mormons would take them themselves and amassed great fortunes.

My husband and the men who helped him drive his stock would never believe this but I will prove it to you before I finish this book that I was right.

Against my wishes we traveled for weeks with Captain Turner’s train.

A few days before we reached the place where we were separating, Holoway’s train was attacked and Holoway’s child and five men including Holoway himself were killed and his wife scalped. Mr. Brittain, Captain Turner and every one in the train tried to get me to go the southern route but I was determined not to go through Salt Lake. This morning we were to leave Turner’s train my brother told my husband to do as he wished that “Ellen was only showing more of her contrariness.” The dear old captain came and bade me goodbye. He said, “My daughter, this is a bad thing for you to do for the Indians are liable to kill you and take those two dear little girls.” I went around and bid everyone in the train goodbye.

There was one old lady in her wagon. Her name was Cooper and she was about eighty years old. She had her young daughter and two grand children with her and I do not know whether there was anyone else. Our train was pulling out and the men were all in the pouts. My husband told them to do the best that they could that day, for some of them to take care of the cattle and the others to take care of the horses. I suppose I was of no consequence, but I said nothing. He then left us and said he would go back and meet Dr. Wolf’s train which he thought was not far behind us. He expected to return that night and said we would know it was he by his whistling, then he waved goodbye and was gone. We had a very nice place to camp, better than we were accustomed to, but it was very quiet as I was the only woman and the men were busy at their regular duties and my two children asleep.

After awhile my brother Samuel Thomas came rushing up to me all out of breath. I asked him what was the matter and he said that he had fallen asleep and than when he awoke the men and all the cattle and horses excepting his own saddle horse were gone.

“You are to blame and will have to stay here alone, for I hear a bell maybe three miles away and if that is not them I do not know what has become of them.”

To be continued….

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