More from the…

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

Indian remedy cures Eleanor’s eyes. New Year’s ball provides something to talk about for weeks. A wedding followed by a dance. Mark Twain makes an appearance. Spring arrives with better weather. An intruder enters Eleanor’s room. The emigrants formed a vigilance committee.

The emigrants who had families were mostly poor people and their men folks out doing any odd jobs they could find, the women staying at home busy with housework and children, so I had very few callers. The Piutes often brought their squaws and babies to my house and I found much amusement in their queer language and dress. They soon found that I was not afraid of them. I often gave them food for beads and once in a while they would give me some of their pine nuts.

I showed them that I was sorry for them and they tried to show me kindness. I had had very sore eyes when I started on the trip and they were very weak. The snow shining on the mountains which were so near to us almost blinded me. A doctor from Genoah had given me something to put in them which had made them worse instead of better. One day an old Piute came to our house and told me to go every morning to the spring which was near by and bathe my eyes. “It is all the same as snow” and that he would bring me something that would cure them. I did wash my eyes at the spring as he told me and it took the fever out. In a few days he brought me some rabbits which he told me how to use. It was to take the fat from around the kidneys, fry it out and oil my eyes with it and to my great surprise this remedy cured them. I have always had a great sympathy for the poor Indians.

We are now preparing for a New Year’s ball. The emigrants all joined together to get up a supper. Butter was seventy-five cents a pound and eggs were very scarce. An old Mormon woman by the name of Hawkins was the only person we knew of that had any eggs. She knew that we were determined to have them so she charged us a dollar apiece for them. We succeeded in getting the supper ready for the ball and all enjoyed the dancing and of course the supper. We had something to talk about for weeks.

Our next excitement was the marriage of Miss Margaret Preston and a Mr. Lawrence who was a butcher in Genoah and very well to do. Margaret, a handsome brunette, was the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Preston one of the emigrant train. Lawrence gave out the invitations to all his friends and she invited hers and after the wedding we all went to the dance hall and danced until 12 o’clock. I tell you that any one who witnessed that wedding will never forget it as it was not only interesting but amusing. I would not kiss any one but an old fellow was very persistent and a Mr. Clemens told him to stop bothering me or he would knock him down. Clemens was Mark Twain. My husband was at the dance but was with my children. I may say that most of the men and women kissed after the ceremony. Lawrence had nice home for the bride and the last that I heard of them they were happy and doing very well.

The winter is now over and the spring weather is very lovely. My husband came home from town and said he thought he would go over to Owens River soon to buy some cattle and that Rufus Adams was going with him. I did not want him to leave any money with me so he put what he did not need in Boyd’s safe at Genoah. I told him to look out for cattle thieves. The next day after he had gone two men came to our house and asked for Mr. Brittain. I told them he was not at home and they went away. There was another man with them who did not come to the house and I supposed they had all gone away together. I did not think any more about them. When my brother Samuel and cousin Tom Graves came in from herding cattle I told them about the men coming to the house and that I thought they had acted queerly. My brother said that the men might have been looking around to see if they could buy some cattle, but I was not satisfied. After the men got their own supper they all went up to Genoah. My brother and cousin came in to my part of the house and said if I did not mind being left alone for a while that they would go to town for the mail. I told them not to be long.

The house was built in two parts .The front was plank and was in one large room below and a loft above. I suppose it was intended to be divided into small rooms. It was an old Mormon structure. The back was of logs one room a fireplace and one small window with a shutter made of rough boards and one door. We had no locks but there was a wooden button to fasten the door. There was a loft overhead where my brother and his cousin slept. There was no way for them to get up to their room but by a pair of steps out of doors between the two houses. When they left they told me to call Mr. Brown from the blacksmith shop, that he was always there.

My two children were already asleep and I began to get sleepy so I went to bed and was soon asleep. Suddenly I was wakened by something pressing on the side of my bed. The fire was still smoldering in the old log fireplace and giving enough light for me to see a man bending over and trying to get something from under the bed. I yelled for Mr. Brown and the man said hush and unbuttoned the door and ran out toward the mountains. I got up and called again for Mr. Brown and he saw the man running as he came to me. The boys came in soon and Mr. Brown told them what had happened when they stopped in the blacksmith shop. My brother made light of me when he came in and said it was only another of my false alarms. Cousin Tom took it more seriously and said, “Sam, we won’t leave Ellen alone again.”

He began to look around the room and looked under the bed to see what the man had been trying to get there, and found a large trunk made of black and white cowhide with the hair still on. The bedstead was only a scaffold made high enough for the trunk to go under. Scaffold beds were just as good to us in those days and we slept as soundly on them as we do now on walnut or oak. Tom raised up and looked around to see if he could make any more discoveries, and exclaimed, “Sam, Ellen is right, look up there.” The loft was all torn up. I told my cousin and brother that I would know the man if I ever saw him again and then when my husband and Rufus Adams came home I told them what had happened and described the man who was in my room. My husband and Adams both said the three men who called at the house and asked for Mr. Brittain were Lucky Bill Thornton, Lute Olds and John Adams, who claimed to be related to Rufus but he denied the relationship.

A few days after that John Adams came up and spoke to some of the men who were in the yard and when I saw him I said, “There is the man who came to my room.” My husband asked me if I was sure about him and when I said “Yes.” He got out his revolver and commanded John Adams to throw up his hands. By this time Rufus Adams came out and said to Adams, “John, Mrs. Brittain says that you were in her house the other night.” Adams denied being there but I told him, “You were with the two men that came and asked for my husband, but you did not go away when they did. Instead you went up the back stairs outside and got in the loft above my room and stayed there until you knew I was alone and asleep and then you entered my room.” He could not say another word but shook like a leaf blown by the wind. My husband and the men gave him a few hours to leave the territory and told him never to set foot in it again of he would be shot. He climbed on his horse and made tracks fast and he was never seen any more.

We were convinced by now that we were surrounded by a band of robbers. There was no civil law so the emigrants formed a vigilance committee.

Previous

Crossing the Plains from Missouri to Nevada in 1857, May 21, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: On to Missouri, May 25, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Setting Out, May 27, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Nebraska to Wyoming, June 5, 2024

“
Gublet’s cutoff, quicksand, and gravesites, June 15, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Reaching the Rockies, June 20, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Anticipating attacks, Ellen arms herself and prepares to fight, June 27, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Lawson’s Meadows to the Truckee, July 4, 2024

Eleanor Knowlton’s Memoirs: Snow storm forces the train to return to Nevada, July 13, 2024