Had considerable trouble in Liverpool arranging for the Saints comfort and in getting them on board the ship Idaho, which vessel myself and the Saints sailed in on the day Wednesday October Twenty-second 1873.

I gave my note for £2.2.0. for the remainder of my passage what the ship's company would not allow. President [Albert] Carrington, Elders John I. Hart, John Neff were returning to Utah. The four of us have very comfortable cabin passage.

I here related a little circumstance which happened on our going out of docks and the River Mersey. A young man by the name of Thomas Baker kept company with a young sister by the name of Gouch [Gooch]. They had been living in the Wind Hill Branch. They seemed to love each other. He had thirty pounds by him in the Emigration Fund at Liverpool. The mother and five other children, family of this young sister, who was about seventeen years age, had been living without the husband and father for seven years. He had had [SIC] emigrated to Utah. The family did not belong to the Church of the Latter-day Saints, and at the time that he (the father) left home, the family never expected to go to Utah. But the father arriving at Utah kept constantly writing and finally the whole family joined the Church, and as soon as he sent them money or orders sufficient for mother and three of four of the children, they agreed to emigrate.

While I labored in the Branch of Wind Hill, I advised this Miss Gouch [Gooch] and her beau (Baker) to emigrate with the mother. But they were afraid that the father would not give his consent, so they concluded not to go to Utah, but stop and in six months to get married and then go to Utah. Now I advised him to trust God in getting the father's consent to marry his daughter, and to pay his own and the girl's passage which would amount to sixteen pounds two shillings each, and by so doing the whole family could all go at the same time. They would agree with my counsel at times and then they would break the agreement. Finally they both agreed that they would see the mother off at Liverpool and then they would return to the Branch at Wind Hill (Yorkshire, seven miles from Wakefield.)

I told Mrs. Gouch [Gooch] that if they would both go to Liverpool (the Miss Gouch [Gooch] and Baker) I thought that through the assistance of the brethren we could manage to get the daughter off clear as she was under age according to the Emigration Law. So accordingly the mother paid the girl's passage and had it so arranged that if the girl missed getting off, the elder brother could go. Baker and the young girl got on board and went out in the [Mersey] River with us and waited for the tug boat to come and take them ashore. When the ship's officer came to separate the passengers from their friends and to pass the Government Doctors, I informed them that Baker did not belong to the passengers and ought to be put off, but that the girl was a passenger and was under age and under her mother's protection. The officers understood it and they put off Brother Baker to his shame and mortification.

We laid in the river until Thursday October Twenty-third and then sailed. Had headwinds almost all the way. I was considerably sick on our voyage. Miss Gouch [Gooch], before landing in New York, was well satisfied with the course I had taken. We landed in the River Hudson at New York November Fourth, but did not get on shore until November Fifth, which is just twenty-six years from the time I first landed at New Orleans and landing from my mission.

Attended to the organizing of the New York Saints. Brother William Thain, the general agent of emigration, gave me five dollars and fifty cents for the purpose of buying provisions for myself to pass through the states and over the plains. I helped Brother [John] I. Hart to organize the Saints, numbering five-hundred and thirty souls. Brother John Neff joined with me in provisions and for our comfort.

While in New York a Miss Talmage (from Ransbury, Berkshire) of the London Conference gave us (the Elders) the slip after we had had [SIC] considerable trouble with her in crossing the Ocean to keep her from going astray with some of the crew, but she seemed determined to have her own way and go to destruction. We had a good time on the railroads and had no accident at all. Had one birth while the train was going about twenty-five miles per hour. The mother did well, and was able when we reached Ogden to walk off to her friends at which place she stopped. We landed at Ogden about Twelve o'clock on the night of the ___.

Left again at eleven A.M. and arrived at Salt Lake City.

My wife Elizabeth, daughter of Malinda, and my son Ethelbert met me upon my arrival. Those of the Saints who had no relatives or particular friends, went the Tithing yard where they stayed until the homes were provided for them in Salt Lake City or in the other towns south. [p. 33]

BIB: Barton, William Kilshaw, Copy of Diary and Missionary Journal of William Kilshaw Barton, Pioneer of 1852 (1828-1887), (privately printed), p. 33. (CHL)
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