Sarah Ann Eyre

Mormon Pioneer:

"...It was very hot and bad for the sick, but they soon got better after we moved to West-port. Then we started on the way. There were Indians and one day some Indians of the Seiou [Sioux] tribe—one of them asked my Mother if she would give me to him. She said he would give her seven ponies and heaps and heaps of money. But of course they could not buy me. I was afraid. Then we traveled on to the Platte River.
Oh the herds of buffalos! There were hundreds of them. When we got to Laramie the soldiers and Indians had been fighting. The Indians had killed thirteen soldiers.

The wagon train had stopped. I went to picking up beads. The wagon train went on and left me quite far behind. To catch up I took a short cut and saw the hole that they had burried the soldiers in. There were pieces of bed ticking and soldiers hickory shirts and stockings.

That was the year of 1854—the grass hopper year. In crossing the plaiins the grass hoppers flew over us and shaded the sun. They flew to the Salt Lake Valley and laid their eggs. The summer after when they hatched out we could hardly step. They flew in our faces.

We got to Salt Lake and camped on Arsnell [Arsenal] Hill..."

SOURCE: Eyre, Sarah Ann Gillins, "[Auto]Biography of Sarah Ann Gillins Eyre," 3, in Bangerter, Geraldine Hamblin, Eyre-Walker Genealogy and Pioneer Histories, July 1990.