. . . On the 15th April, 1863, we hired a team to take us into town, and from there we took a steamboat for Copenhagen, Denmark.

My father and eldest brother were left standing on the port, and I felt as if my heart would sink within me. My brother came the following year, with an old man who wanted company, but my father was never seen by us again-having taken pneumonia and died on Good Friday on the 14th day of April, 1865 at the age of 52 years, five months and three days.

Before we left Malmo, my father had given the captain of the Mormon emigrants $30.00 to keep us going until we were settled, but when we arrived in New York this man denied that father had given him this money, and we underwent a great many hardships because of not having the money.

The first night out on the steamboat, someone stole part of our bed clothes. The next day we landed in Kiel, Germany. From there we went by rail to Hamburg, which was 11 miles from the harbor, and we had to walk from the depot to the shore and carry our things. I was so tired I fainted which frightened my mother very much. We now boarded a freighter for England, traveling on the North Sea when we got in the Catiga. [UNCLEAR] A heavy storm came up and we were very nearly drowned. Here we had to cast anchor for two days near an island called Cuxhaven with over one hundred men, women and children on board. [p. 9] We were a week getting to England whereas we should have only been two days.

We arrived in Grimsby, England, but had to wait a half a day until the tide came in and they then opened the flood gates so we could land. After we did land, I was unable to walk naturally.

After we landed, another boat landed and they mixed their boxes with ours, so the other company took our boxes and we never had as much as a comb to comb our hair with until someone gave us an old one. Before we landed in Liverpool we had to pass through five tunnels in one or two of which we nearly succumbed with the smoke and dust.

In Liverpool, England, and there we boarded a three-mast sailing vessel named John J. Boyd. They would not take less than 1,000 passengers on a regular steamer, and our company only numbered 850. I was so used to walking "sailor fashion" that I felt fine on the Atlantic.

After we had been sailing for about two weeks we ran into five icebergs. We came so close to these that we could see the large chunks of ice floating in the water. It was very cold and a number of people nearly froze.

While on our journey five people died on the ship--three old people and two children. I had the experience of seeing them bury the first person--an old man. They wrapped him in a blanket, head to the East, then laid him on a plank and tied a sack of coal to his feet, and while reading the sermon they tipped the plank down and he went in the water. It was an [p. 10] awful sight to see. Some of the people watching screamed and some fainted, so they never let them see anything like that again.

After we had been on the water about 25 days we saw the coast of Greenland. One day a small boat came out with a doctor on board to see if any of us were sick, but we were all well, and the next day when we landed in the harbor of New York a small boat came out to our vessel, then all of the sailors left the captain and threatened to kill him and also the Mate if they came ashore. Sometime before this the captain and the sailors had had some trouble while out to sea. We landed in the harbor on Thursday, but this trouble with the sailors and the Captain kept us on the ship until Monday, then a boat came and took us to Castle Garden, and that was my first glimpse of New York.

We only stayed in Castle Garden long enough to get our baggage through the custom house and on the train. Castle Garden did not appeal to me in the least. In the middle of the street I saw a dead cat and dog and filth and dirt existed everywhere. Nevertheless, we were all glad to be on land again. We were on the Atlantic one month and two days.

I remember the first night we were off the ship. I sat up all night drinking in fresh air, as it seemed wonderful to get off the ship with its stench and terrible odors.

After considerable trouble our president of the Mormon company obtained a ticket for us with eleven changes from [p. 11] New York to St. Joseph, Missouri.

Before leaving Sweden my father had given the captain of the Mormon emigrants $30.00 for mother to keep us going until we were settled, but when we arrived in New York this man denied that father had given him this money, and it was only the hand of fate that kept us from starving to death again. The emigrants gave us some of their sea cakes, and it was indeed hard on mother as she had a nursing baby.

When we arrived in Chicago we were nearly starved to death. Mother told the president if he did not give us money to buy food she would let people know he was letting us starve so he gave us one dollar. With this dollar I went to buy some bread, and on my way back from the store I met a lady with some bologna so I traded her two loaves of my bread for some of her meat. This was the first time I had ever eaten or seen white bread, as we had been used to dark bread in Sweden.

We now traveled on and crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry, then we arrived in Missouri . This was during the Civil War and all of the passenger cars had been burned as they locked us up in cattle cars which had straw floors. There were no seats. We passed a soldiers' camp and it was here we ran into a place where logs had been placed to disrail the cars. I happened to be standing up when the cars struck the logs and the jolt threw me head foremost to the other side of the car among the women and children. Everyone was crying and screaming. A few were hurt.

The cars were put back on the tracks again and we proceeded on our journey and arrived in St. Joseph, nearly starved, [p. 12] about the 15th day of June 1863. We had no food nor no money to buy any with. All we had was a necklace of cherry colored beads that my aunts and given me. I asked a man to give us some bread and a cup of something warm for mother to drink, in exchange for my necklace, but all he gave us was a cup of coffee and one piece of bread. We children did not get a thing to eat.

We were then hurried on and we boarded a steamboat on the Missouri River. That afternoon mother saw our president buy bread as she went to him and told him we were starving and the children were crying for bread, but he refused her. She started to tell what he had done, so he told someone to give us a loaf of bread, and that was the last we received for the $30.00 father had given us for our expenses. We later found out for a certainty that he had received the money, for when we arrived in Utah father sent word and told us he had given the money to the president.

We were on the steamer on the Missouri River two days and two nights. On the first day about noontime I had to pass the sailors when they were eating lunch and one of the men gave me a large piece of pie, but I was afraid to take it and went to the end of the boat and threw it into the river, for I had heard and seen so much of the bad sailors that I thought they wanted to poison me.

The boat could not travel at night on that river because of sandbars, and on the second day another boat came alongside of ours, and we had a terrible scare for they tried to steal a woman, and they did steal a man's clothes, watch and keys [p. 13] when he was bathing while the boat was stopped. He called for someone to bring him a blanket to wrap around him to enable him to get back to the boat so he could break into his trunk to get something to put on. Evidently some sailors who had taken leave off their ship had stolen his clothes.

On the third night we landed at Florence, which is six miles north of Omaha on the banks of the Missouri River at 11:00 p.m., June 15, 1863. Here we had to lie on the ground until the next morning with nothing over us, for all of our things were put in one big heap and we could not find any of our bedding until it was light.

In the morning mother walked to Omaha which was six miles to get something for us to eat. She was able to get some bread so we were alright for that day. It was scheduled that the next day we would get our allowance of flour and bacon which was sent to us from Utah by the Mormons that were already there and were now helping new emigrants to come. Mother sent me to get our allowance, but when I arrived there the place was so crowded that I sat down in a corner and fell asleep. I did not come home and Mother was worried and came after me to see what was the matter. The place was all closed up so we did not get anything to eat until the third day. They told me to come back and hep make tents and wagon covers for two or three days.

Then mother talked with some of the apostates in Omaha and they told her to send me down there to stay and not go on to Utah, as the journey was so hard we would die crossing the plains. They told mother they had a job for me cleaning house, and I [p. 14] received 50 cents per day and by doing this was able to get me a new pair of shoes. Some of the apostates in Omaha wanted us to all stop there and not come to Salt Lake, as they said we would die crossing the plains, and they persuaded me to get a room ready for us to move into, but a terrible feeling came over me every time I thought of it, but mother thought we should stay. Then someone told me if I stayed I would not get away and this made me more determined than ever to go. I told mother I was going on to Utah and would not be persuaded to stay. Mother then said if I was going she would have to go too, as she could not make a living for the children all alone.

The third week we were there, there were ox teams which arrived from Utah. Captain John Murdock and Mr. Hatch were in charge of this expedition.

We were afraid we were not going to get to go with this company, as it was entirely filled up, but one man became ill and the captain told them that he was too ill to make the trip, and advised them that it would be better to stay and wait for the next train. Because of this man's dropping out, we were able to load our things and go in his place. . . . [p. 15]

. . . We arrived on the 8th Ward square, (which is now know as the City and County building grounds) about 3:00 p.m. on the 2nd of September. We were three months coming form Omaha to Salt Lake City and we made from 15 to 20 miles per day. . . . [p.19]

BIB: Soffe, Mary Charlotte Jacobs. The story of my life (Ms 5293), pp. 9-15, 19. (CHL)
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