History draft; handwriting of , John L. Smith, Jonathan Grimshaw, Robert L. Campbell, , , and ; 101 numbered pages plus several inserted pages; CHL. This manuscript covers the period from 1 March 1843 to 31 December 1843.
dark That Night <&> camped abut 2 miles below Ottow<ay> near the , <*> <* having travelled over 200 miles in 2 31 days & 18 hours with the same horses, which had become very tired—> left the company about an hour before Sun— Sit and proceeded by himself to Ottoway about dusk <& again> crosed the and arrived in<to> Ottoway and put up at s There learned <for certain <positively>> that theStage Contractor <propriter> between and Ottow had taken his Stage to Convey Gen Jos Smith towards from towards Joseph had come as far as , where he was informed that Judge [John D.] Caton was absent, & had returned to to <&> obtained another writ of , intending to go to <& had started in the direction of> , <Adams Co.> and also that had taken his Stage Coach to convey a portion of the people <brother Joseph> to
when he had obtained this information he left orders for the Maid of Iowa to return with all speed to
<Thursda[y] 29> Early next <on the> morning <of the 29th.> returned to his Company & gave them the information, when the Company started on their return for , came as far as the ox Capn. Haws’s &. staid all night, who gave us the use of his barn to sleep in; on in conversing with the Citizens of Magnolia they <approbated our course, & ◊ manifested a warm feeling, & offered to help us <with their artillery company> if we stood in needed their assistance.> told thus that they would fight for us
<Frida[y] 30> On the 30 we made a direct course for the Narrows <4 miles> above , where we <re>crossed the , & camped near the Town; <(>here we again found & <27> who had been up to Peru on the Maid of Iowa, learnt our report, & returned to ;<)> the Maid had continued our <her> journey towards
<1 July> 1 July we pursued our journey <Travelled> <over 40 miles> & camped on a branch of Crooked <small> Creek near a Farm house where the entire company had an abundance of milk while they staidthere <for the night—>
<2> 2 July we continued our journey to where we learnt the full particulars of bro Joseph’s safe arrival, & <&> trial before the Municipal Court when we made merry, <composed a song> sang & danced <& this day they returned to >
<3> 3 July after breakfast again started <singing the new song> & arrived betw in about Noon, went down to the when bro Joseph came out to us shook hands with each individual & blest us all in the name of the Lord
During the entire journey the weather <heat> was extremely hot oppressive, and as the necessity of the case was <very> urgent they had not time to sleep it may be safely said to be one of the most rapid & arduous <fatiguing> marches made that is on record having travelled <with the same horses between 4 & <about> 500 miles> over 400 hours in 7 days. [5 lines blank]
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