To Col. Wilson Andrews
North New Salem
Franklin Co., Mass.
Postmarked: Boston 5 cts 16 JUL
Camp of Israiel, Winter quarters
Indian Territory April 1847
Dear Brother, and sister, I fear you have not received my last letter as I have not received an answer, I went to the office found a letter I thought it must be from you, but it was from Francis mother, I was disappointed. I assure you the time has now arrived that we are preparing to pursue our journey. Expect to arrive at our place of rest, before we stop again, only for repairs &c, about two hundred pioneers started two weeks ago, they calculate to get there and put in seed of various kinds long before we get there, the teams were mostly mule and horses. Francis was among the number5 and Thales is to be our teamster. He thinks he can manage three yoke of oxen. Irene says he is a young man, he has grown tall and stout, his flesh is hard and health good. If he only had Albert here to go bunting with him he thinks they should kill lots of prairie hens wild turkeys geese ducks and maybe a deer or buffalo, his business this winter past has been chopping the wood at the door, and the care of one cow. Our other cattle have wintered on rushes forty miles up the Missouri river with five or six hundred others. There was ten men chosen to herd them, and keep the indians from killing them, Francis was one of the ten, had 2 dollars per head. We have lived in our log cabin through the winter very comfortably. We have a brick chimney and hearth, (two thirds of the people have them made of sods and they do very well), a window with four lights of glass 10 by 12, gave eight cents a light, the furniture consists of sacks barrels chests trunks and two wild bedsteads with curtains from eaves to floor, my chest for a table, We have had plenty of provisions except vegetables, we have had beans enough and some potatoes, this spring there is abundance of wild onions and artichokes first rate, there is a store opposite of us with every necessary, English and west Indies, goods coffee sugar, salaratus all fifteen cents per pound. First best sugar house mollasses one dollar per gallon, I think we shall get along first rate, there is companies organized of hundred, and Captains of fifties and tens, we are going in brother Wallace's Company of fifty.6 The Woodburys are going with the same company. They are twenty miles from here. Thomas has been here and staid over night. Where William is they do not know. Brother Aikins family are at Garden Grove some distance back, Samuel came on with brother Ponds family and died here away from father and mother, I suppose you have heard of the deaths in brother Ponds family. The children are all dead but Elizabeth [and] Loenza, when they were on the way here they turned from the main road into a settlement where he and Samuel could earn two dollars per day with their teams. It proved to be an unhealthy place, They were all taken sick and they came away as soon as they could, but they were unable to take care of themselves on the road and suffered for the want of care, Lowell died before they arrived, the rest lived to get here and then dropped away one after another, Sister Pond has not recovered and I fear she never will, Brother Ponds health is very poor. Sister Clark died on the way here. She wore her self out with hard work I think, I never saw a female that could live and do as she did, The children came on with P. Rockwell7 they have the first rate families to live in. Hiram lives in the same family with Emiline. She thinks them the best people in the world. She is as happy as a queen, has everything to eat, drink [and] wear. She instructs the children has the care of their clothes and does as much or as little as she pleases. Tell mother sister Murdock is here with her family. Where brother Harris is we do not know. Sister Brimhall is well. She did not grieve much for the Prichards loss. We have now and then a newspaper from New York. Shall we believe the cracking asunder of the Union of the United States, Yes, sooner or later the Lord will avenge the blood of his martyred Prophets and persecuted Saints, Unless they repent and restore their right. Irene read President Polks message. It's as harmless as milk and water. I think he is as Eliza Smith said about my going to singing school I should not do any hurt if I did not any good. The ship Brooklyne has landed we hear and printed a paper.8 I suppose Uncle Sam has received one by this time. I expect Francis will see husband before we shall. How are all the people in the old neighborhood? Still by the ears or has Mr Orcutt left them to their destruction. I should be happy to see him and wife and little Dwight [as] he runs and talks by the side of his father. Give my love to them and all the rest that inquire. How is mother. Has she had one of her hard colds, if she has I fear she had not recovered, how is her lame toes, tell her to enjoy herself and be prepared for a part in the first resurection, and live and reign with Christ on the earth a thousand years, if it not worthy of our whole time and talent. How is dear Waldo and all the rest of your little ones. Kiss them and tell them Aunt Lula sent it to them. I am not Aunt Lula here, it is sister Hascall, mother and grandmother. Francelle runs about and takes hold of my dress and wants I should take her, she looks like your children, very much as Phebe did at her age. Give my respects to Grandfather and mother Andrews. Tell them the mormons have built one of the best grist mills that ever was seen in the States. Although this is the indian territory when they leave it the next company will use it and so on untill all the mormons have passed along. It ground twelve bushel of corn an hour the first few hours. but they took it down to six bushels when they made a business of it. You spoke about dancing. I filled my other sheet before I thought of it but now I will tell you. The Mormons (as they are vulgarly called) do not have any guess work, in their exercises, they have a rule and the order of God, for all their movements, Thales attended dancing school this winter, they open their school with prayer and so they always do at their dancing parties or feasts. They have all the good and fat things they can procure for supper, I never saw a larger supply at any place. Each grade had a feast until they went through the camp, I went with the wives of the elders that are sent on missions, widows and soldiers wives. There is some of the smartest and best men and women here there is in the world, They dress superior to your New Salem people if they have had to winter in log cabins. I send this [letter] by a sister that is going to Boston to visit her friends. [She] returns in october. Her name is Sabra Granger. direct your letters to Francis M, Pomeroy Huntsakers Ferry Austin postoffice Atchinson County Missouri, to be forwarded to the Camp of Israel.
Your affectionate U B H
I send you a piece of my new sun bonnet the handsomest one you have seen.
*Irene Hascall Pomeroy (1825-61), Ursulia B. Hascall (1791-1875). [These] letters are taken from the Hascall-Pomeroy correspondence. The mother (Ursulia) and daughter (Irene) were baptized in 1842. Irene and her husband arrived in Nauvoo in 1845 and were followed the next year by Ursulia and her son Thales. Ursulia's husband, Ashbel Green Hascall, went with Samuel Brannan on the ship Brooklyn. He died before reaching Salt Lake City. Irene, the mother of eight children, suffered a burned hand and subsequent amputation. She died at thirty-six at the home of her friend, Emeline B. Wells. Ursulia reared the children until Francis, Irene's husband, became well located in Paris, Idaho. Ursulia remained in Paris until her death in 1875. The letters represented in this book were selected from the twenty-four written between 1845-1850 and published in the Utah Historical Quarterly, 25 (1957). Footnotes are those supplied in that publication.
5. Francis Pomeroy was a member of the original band of pioneers, numbering 143 men, 3 women, and 2 children, which left the Missouri River on April 14, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.
6. George B. Wallace was converted to the LDS Church by Joseph Smith. In 1844 he traveled extensively throughout the country electioneering for the Prophet for the presidency of the United States. In Nauvoo he was an undertaker and followed that occupation later in the Salt Lake Valley. Wallace was a captain of fifty in the A. O. Smoot Company, and upon arrival in the valley on September 26, 1847, built one of the best houses in the Old Fort. Many important meetings of the General Authorities of the Church were held in his cabin during that first winter. He was among the first missionaries in the valley who were called to go abroad.
7. Porter Rockwell was a close associate of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was also a member of the original pioneer band, in fact, a member of Orson Pratt's advance company which entered the valley ahead of the others. He was closely associated with the Overland Mail and the Pony Express, one of the stations being at his home twenty-five miles southwest of Salt Lake City. He served as deputy marshal of Salt Lake City for a number of years.
8. Samuel Brannan and his company of 238 Saints, 70 men, 68 women, and 100 children, sailed on the Brooklyn from New York, February 4, 1846, by a coincidence the same day that the Nauvoo people fled across the Mississippi for the unknown West. The press on which was printed The Prophet and The Messenger was stowed aboard. Upon arrival in California (Yerba Buena) on July 31, 1846, the Saints set up the press. It was used for various kinds of printing, and the California Star, the first paper in San Francisco was issued.
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