Item Detail
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Bullock, Martha
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MSS 886
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Diary
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Unknown
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This collection consists of Martha's diary entries from December 1, 1868 to January 14, 1869 describing her family's journey from Provo, Utah to 'the muddy,' which they were sent to settle. The entries are 29 pages long and are photocopied from a holograph of the diary. This makes the writing slightly difficult to read, although some pages are more legible than others. The diary begins '14 in family of BK Bullock's trek to the muddy.' Martha wrote every day, describing the landscape, the weather, the food that she prepared, the condition of the roads, and trouble they had with the teams. She drove a team and fed her family of 14 all the way there. Throughout the entries, Martha refers to Kimball and Ann helping her on the journey. They appear to be either her older children or other adults from the company. Along the way, the company passed through several towns where they bought food and visited with old acquaintances. They stopped in Spanish Fork, Salt Creek, Fillmore, Beaver City, Parowan, Dixie, and St. George. Partway through the entries there is map that Martha sketched; however, it is difficult to interpret. In the early entries, Martha records that the camp was in good spirits despite some small problems: 'There we found that the folks that had gone on ahead and Kimballs and my team stuck calf tail and all got in to camp at about dark then we got supper and then put the children to bed. There I took my pen up and scratched this it is now halfpast nine o clock and all is well in camp and in bed but BK and myself and we soon shall be.' Once it started to snow, their journey was more difficult. One day Martha records 'snow about 4 or 5 inches deep and so many little children crying with cold.' Feeding all of the children was a constant struggle. On Wednesday, December 9th she wrote 'About the same melting snow and cooking tramping [illegible] washing dishes feeding the children and they say ma my meat and bread will freeze before I can eat it ma give me something to cut ma Aunt Martha give me some bread and butter ma give me some cheese and Kimball says it is all for the building up of the kingdom he often sings cheer up my lively gals their better days ahead well for all that Ann and me often get in to the wagon and have a nice cup of tea.' Martha includes some delightful descriptions of the children in camp. 'Ezra is abaking seeat cake, He makes a first rate hand to assist me but it takes a heap of grub to fill up the boy.' And, Little Ralph is laughing at the fun and Alonzo's face is all screwed up in such a frown we are afraid it will freeze when his mother says come and take the baby.' One event that Martha records in detail is driving the wagons though a narrow, winding canyon in a black ridge. She was nearly frightened to death driving the team on such bad roads: 'talk about Provo Canyon that is nothing to it.' Martha also recorded some of the other company members' comments on making it though this canyon. Martha enjoyed St. George and wished that they could stay there, but they continued on. She said of this time, 'Every day gets worse and worse and more of it but we try not to grumble any more than we can help.' In the final entry on January 14, 1869, she records, 'We arrived at the top of the hill that is here we can look down to the Muddy and we all felt discouraged for we could find no wood no grass no nothing but ran in water.'
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1844-1896