William Clayton diaries, 1846-1853
April 16, 1847 entry
Location:  MS 1406/f0002
Churh History Library


Friday, April 16

This day is gloomy, windy and cold. About 8:00 a.m. the camp was called
together, and organized two captains of 100's viz. Stephen Markham
and A. P. Rockwood were appointed, also five captains of 50's
and 14 captains of 10's. There are 143 men and boys on the list of
the pioneer company, three women and Lorenzo Young's two children.
There are 73 wagons. C. P. Rockwell has gone back to camp with
J. C. Little. Bishop Whitney, Lyman, Wm. Kimball and J. B.
Noble returned from here to Winter Quarters. The following is a list of
all the names of this pioneer company. To wit:

Wilford Woodruff, John S. Fowler, Jacob Burnham, Orson Pratt, Joseph
Egbert, John N. Freeman, Marcus B. Thorpe, George A. Smith, George
Wardle, Thomas Grover, Ezra T. Benson, Barnabas L. Adams, Roswell
Stevens, Amasa Lyman, Sterling Driggs, Albert Carrington, Thomas
Bullock, George Brown, Willard Richards, Jesse C. Little, Phineas H.
Young, John Y. Greene, Thomas Tanner, Brigham Young, Addison Everett,
Truman O. Angel, Lorenzo Young and wife, Bryant Stringham, Albert
P. Rockwood, Joseph L. Schofield, Luke Johnson, John Holman, Edmund
Elsworth, Alvarnus Hanks, George R. Grant, Millen Atwood, Samuel Fox,
Tunis Rappleyee, Harvey Pierce, William Dykes, Jacob Weiler, Stephen H.
Goddard, Tarlton Lewis, Henry G. Sherwood, Zebedee Coltrin, Sylvester
H. Earl, John Dixon, Samuel H. Marble, George Scholes, William Henrie,
William A. Empey, Charles Shumway, Thomas Woolsey, Chancy Loveland,
Erastus Snow, Andrew Shumway, James Craig, William Wordsworth, William
Vance, Simeon Howd, Seeley Owen, James Case, Artemas Johnson, William
A. Smoot, Franklin B. Dewey, William Carter, Franklin G. Losee, Burr
Frost, Datus Ensign, Franklin B. Stewart, Monroe Frink, Eric Glines,
Ozro Eastman, Seth Taft, Horace Thornton, Stephen Kelsey, John S.
Eldredge, Charles D. Barnum, Alma M. Williams, Rufus Allen, Robert T.
Thomas, James W. Stuart, Elijah Newman, Levi N. Kendall, Francis Boggs,
David Grant, Heber C. Kimball, Howard Egan, William A. King, Thomas
Cloward, Hosea Cushing, Robert Byard, George Billings, Edson Whipple,
Philo Johnson, William Clayton, Appleton M. Harmon, Carlos Murray,
Horace K. Whitney, Orson K. Whitney, Orrin P. Rockwell, Nathaniel
Thomas Brown, R. Jackson Redding, John Pack, Francis M. Pomroy, Aaron
Farr, Nathaniel Fairbanks, John S. Higbee, John Wheeler, Solomon
Chamberlain, Conrad Kleinman, Joseph Rooker, Perry Fitzgerald, John H.
Tippets, James Davenport, Henson Walker, Benjamin Rolfe, Norton Jacobs,
Charles A. Harper, George Woodard, Stephen Markham, Lewis Barney,
George Mills, Andrew Gibbons, Joseph Hancock, John W. Norton, Shadrach
Roundy, Hans C. Hanson, Levi Jackman, Lyman Curtis, John Brown, Mathew
Ivory, David Powell, (Hark Lay, Oscar Crosby, blacks) Joseph Mathews,
Gilbroid Summe, John Gleason, Charles Burke, Alexander P. Chessley,
Rodney Badger, Norman Taylor, (Green Flake, black) Ellis Eames.

There were 72 wagons, 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, 19 cows, and 17
dogs, and chickens.

The names of the females in this camp are: Harriet Page Young, Clarissa
Decker, and Ellen Sanders. The names of the children are Isaac Perry
Decker Young and Sabisky L. Young, making a total of 148 souls who have
started to go west of the mountains as pioneers to find a home where
the saints can live in peace and enjoy the fruits of their labors,
and where we shall not be under the dominion of gentile governments,
subject to the wrath of mobs and where the standards of peace can be
raised, the Ensign to nations reared and the kingdom of God flourish
until truth shall prevail, and the saints enjoy the fulness of the
gospel.

The following are the names of the captains of 50's as appointed at
this organization, viz. Addison Everett, Tarlton Lewis, James Case,
John Pack and Shadrack Roundy. The captains of 10's are as follows:

Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson, Phineas H. Young, Luke Johnson,
Stephen H. Goddard, Charles Shumway, James Case, Seth Taft, Howard
Egan, Appleton M. Harmon, John S. Higbee, Norton Jacobs, John Brown,
Joseph Mathews. For the names of the guard and the gun division see
under date of April 30th.

Stephen Markham was appointed the Captain of the Guard and ordered to
select out of the camp, fifty men for guard, such as he had confidence
in who are to be considered as a standing guard, to attend to the
wagons each night, twelve of them to stand at a time, and to have
two sets each night, that is, 12 each watch to stand half the night.
In cases where the horses and cattle are tied some distance from the
wagons at night, an extra guard is to be selected from the balance of
the company or camp, the standing guard not being permitted to leave
the immediate neighborhood of the wagons. After the organization was
over, I wrote a letter to Diantha, and put it into the hands of Bishop
Whitney, together with the one I received yesterday from father and
I. McEwan, also the one from Ellen to James. Up to 12:00 a.m. I had
no place to put my trunk and clothing, and did not know what to do
with them. However, soon after Heber told me to put them in Appleton
M. Harmon's wagon, which was done. At 2:00 p m. the camp started out
to proceed on the journey. I bid farewell to to Bishop Whitney and
his brother Lyman and son Joshua, who all returned from this place,
also Wm. H. Kimball and Joseph B. Noble. We traveled about three miles
and encamped in a line about six hundred yards from timber, where
there is plenty of cottonwood and some rushes. This night I slept
with Philo Johnson, but having only one quilt, and the night severely
cold, I suffered much, and took a very bad cold. The country in the
neighborhood of the Elk Horn is one of the most beautiful I ever saw.
The bluffs on the east are nicely rolling and beautifully lined with
timber, and some very nice cedar groves. From these bluffs a little
above the ferry you can see the meanderings of the Platte River, and
the beautiful level bottom on the north of it, about fifteen miles wide
for many miles up the river. The Horn is a beautiful river about 150
feet wide and about four feet deep.