Autobiography of David Stoddard Part 2
"Fig Tree in Zion" by Mary Ellen Stoddard Smith
We left in April and were six weeks on the road to Winter Quarters. We were compelled to stop here a long time for the rivers had over flown their banks and it was impossible to take the old road up the Platte River or the old Mexican trail, so we were compelled to send out scouts to locate a new route. After a delay of several weeks we were organized with a train of 50 wagons so as to be strong enough, so we joined Captain Cardon’s company to cross the plains. After a weeks travel we were discouraged as so much time was wasted. We all had good drivers and good teams and it didn’t take us long to hitch up in the morning, but we had to wait for the others to get hitched up before we could start. A different team of ten would lead every morning and we had to wait about four hours every morning for the rest to be ready to travel.
The captain of our ten, John Easton, called us all into council and asked us if we were willing to travel alone as a company of ten and leave the others. We all agreed to do this. So in the morning we started out as soon as we were hitched up. We got about half a mile out from camp when a man overtook us on horse back and told us that Captain Cardon said that we must stop and fall in behind for we were the lead ones yesterday. Our captain told him to go back and tell Captain Cardon that we were going to travel alone. So we kept going ahead.
As near as I can remember, about the fifth day of our travel we saw a great cloud of dust in the east, about one mile away. Captain Easton called a halt to our wagon train. We thought it was a band of Indians coming and we would surely be devoured, but to our surprise it was a large heard of buffalo, about 5,000 head, and the herd was one mile long and one-quarter mile wide. Some ran behind the wagons and some ran in front of the wagons and some even ran between the wagons. We had all we could do to save our wagons from being turned upside down. You may believe that we were very glad when they were past and the teams, wagons and all were safe.
Another day we came in sight of a large Indian camp. We passed by the camp in peace and camped about two miles from them. We had just made fires and were preparing our suppers when suddenly the camp was surrounded by about 200 Indians. Our captain called us all together and told us to give them anything they wanted for if they were hostile they would not have brought their wives and children with them. We gave them tea, coffee, flour; bread, potatoes, and they went away hopping and hollering and left us in peace.
After a great many days traveling we reached Salt Lake City on October 5, 1851. Saturday, October 6th, we all went and worked on a threshing machine and received our pay in wheat.
Sunday it was conference, and with happy hearts and contrite spirits we all attended church. On Sunday evening, William Muir, a resident of six or ten miles from Salt Lake hired me to a place four miles from Hot Springs called Sessions to work on a new house. I got all the doors and windows framed and the joists laid and ready for the (adobe) layers so they could come the next week and do their work.
My brother John came out with the team and told me that Brigham Young had called me and others on a mission to Iron County to work in the iron works and work for nothing except enough seed wheat to supply us. To make a long story short, we again went in one company and arrived at Coal Creek. We were the first settlers there for there was nothing, only water in the creek. We all camped near this creek. The next morning, my brother John and I started cutting cottonwoods to make a house for our father and mother. We were able to finish our one room log house on Christmas Day while all the others were thinking what they would do and how they would do it.
We suffered many hardships. We had to grind our wheat with a coffee mill for the nearest grist mill was in Provo. In the spring of the next year, 1852, our leader called upon John Easton, William Stone and myself to go up the canyon to look for a coal mine. The snow was very deep, especially in the canyon. My shoes were made out of rawhide with the hairy side in, and before we got to the mines my shoes were all to pieces. We had no matches and I tried to make a fire with my gun but failed. I then crawled under a big rock, got my dog near me, put my feet in its flanks and sat there all night. In the morning I hollered out, “well, boys, how are you? Do you see that black spot up yonder? That is where we have to go, and what do you think about it?”
Mr. Sloan said, “I’m going home.”
I said, “Not I, I will see that place before I go home and be able to make a report. How is it with you, Easton?”
His reply was, “I am with you.”
I will say it did look bad with the water running everywhere and the rocks all covered with ice for one-half mile up the canyon. We were almost frozen to death, but we started on our travel that morning up the canyon. We agreed we would do our best. We somehow made our way up, secured coal and returned with a good report.
I was ordained an Elder of the Church under the hands of Calvin Smith and Lee in the spring of 1852.
We labored for several years trying to develop the possibilities of manufacturing iron for the benefit of the State of Utah. We tried hard to get the right system but the iron ore was too rich for the flux at our command.
My father died here in the spring of 1854. The following spring I married Mary Williamson on Friday at 4 PM on March 23, 1855 at Cedar City, Iron County, Utah. I just about missed my wedding because on the way to be married I stopped to do some jumping (a favorite sport of mine), and the time slipped by. Mary said that she would wait five more minutes and if I didn’t show up then she would still have her wedding. She would marry her old boyfriend that she went with before she met me. I finally arrived, a little late, but in time to marry Mary. I received my endowments in the Endowment House the same day Mary and I were sealed for time and eternity. This took place 17 November, 1862.
I worked on the iron works for nothing and built a sawmill so people could get lumber to build their homes. Brigham Young came and visited us at the iron works May 31, 1855, and was well pleased with our work.
I left Iron County in the spring of 1859 and made a home in Wellsville, Cache County, Utah.
(As far as has been written was given by David Kerr Stoddard himself two weeks prior to his death 28 August 1913 at the age of 83 years.)
