Pioneer Stories - Mrs. Evens

Mrs. Evens - "...a rider on a horse came back looking for us..."

Emigrants of Welshmen made up the Third handcart company -  Stories from a journal...

"The flour was self rising and we took water and baked a little cake. After the few weeks of traveling this little cake was all we had to eat and after months of traveling we were put on half rations and at one time, before help came, we were out of flour for two days. During this hard journey I was expecting my first baby and it was very hard to be contented on so little food. My husband had lost a leg in his early childhood and walked on a wooden stump, which caused him a great deal of pain and discomfort. When his knee, became very sore, my husband was not able to walk any farther and I could not pull him in the little cart, being so sick myself, so one late afternoon he felt he could not go on so he stopped to rest beside some tall sagebrush. I pleaded with him to try to walk farther, that if he stayed there he would die, and I could not go on without him. The company did not miss us until they rested for the night and when the names were checked we were not among the company and a rider on a horse came back looking for us. When they say the pitiful condition of my husband's knee he was assigned to the commissary wagon and helped dispense the food for the rest of the journey. I hated to see him suffer so but it was with relish that I ate his little cake when he was too miserable to care for food. We were allowed to bring 17 pounds of clothing, there was one tent for a dozen people. There were five mule teams and wagons to haul the tents and flour. Words by Mrs. Evens