1866-06-06-John Bright

Autobiography and Diary of William Grant

Grant, William. Autobiography and diary (Ms 1956), pp. 9-16,19,. (CHL)

... Soon after daylight next morning all was bustle and the cry of land, land was on every tongue. I hastened up on deck and there was the New World, America, before me. We were now passing up the Hudson River and oh, what a beautiful sight, and how glad all hearts were. [p.13] The sight along the banks 2 or 3 miles distant was most charming, though we had but a bird's eye view. The fortifications, the islands, and the scenes were most delightful, was especially [to those] who had not seen a speck of land for over 5 weeks. The thought of fresh food & water, also, friends we expected to meet in port help us some and the thought of the dangers past and God's blessing in bringing us safely through made us glad indeed. The sick were soon well; the disheartened were happy; my wife and all of us felt strong and better much. At noon we were opposite Castle Garden and were much interested with the passing of the various sea vessels. Also at viewing the distant towns of New York, Brooklyn, New Jersey, &c.

Next day at 11 a.m. we went ashore on a small steamer and was glad to set our feet on terra firma once more. It seemed quite a change and funny to me to walk on land after walking those decks 5 weeks and 3 days. We soon registered, changed our little stock of money, and was ready to go further on our trip. Took a walk a short distance and made a few purchases and though me and my little family were alone, we felt well. We were instructed to stay at the Castle till night and then go forward. At 10 o'clock the signal came for all to move and get to the dock on the other side of the town for the steamer we were to sail on left at 11 p.m. While at the Castle I took out my cornet and played a an hour under the great dome and it sounded beautiful and attracted much attention as there must have been 2000 people in the hall. But all is bustle and we must go.

We pack up and start on a dark night. We have all our children asleep and they must be packed, besides we have 8 or 10 parcels to go and I am loaded down like a horse. A friend packs [-] for us and we [p.14] have left the Castle Garden. Our load is far too heavy. Louisa has to walk and cries. Mother packs Lizzy. The crowd of hundreds whom we started with have gone right along not having such burdens as we have. We cannot keep up and so we are lost in the streets in New York at 11 p.m. Mother is in great alarm because baby is gone but the service of the kind policeman soon puts us on the way and we see the beautiful steamer all lighted up ready to rush down the Hudson River. Being late we can find no place to even sit down, so great is the crowd and we are thrust into the engine house to lie down on the floor with an hundred others. I remember my head was within about 6 inches of the stroke of the beam of the engine and the rattle of the machinery was most fearful but we was tired enough to sleep anywhere and at 4 the next morning at break of day we arrived at New Haven where we took the cars for a long trip. ...

Autobiography of B. H. Roberts

Roberts, B. H. Autobiography (Ms 106), bx. 1, fd. 1, bk. 1, pp.1-2, 15-21, 36-37. (University of Utah)

It was June the 6th 1866 in the old Castle Garden on the upper bay of New York, the landing place where nearly all European emigrants filed into the United States- that a lad, midway between nine and ten years of age, might have been seen seated on a bench- on the south side of Castle Garden- waiting the time when the large company of Mormon emigrants, which filled the Garden, would embark for the zig-zag route across the United States, through Canada, for the distant valley of Salt Lake, Utah.

He was a boy of no prepossessing appearance. In the first place he was clad in just a pair of barn-door trousers and jacket, made from the old trousers of an English policeman, a pair of iron-rimmed wooden clogs; and on his head was what was supposed to be a jaunty Scotch cap, faced with bright plaid around the rim and ending in two black streamers behind, a headgear which the lad heartily despised. His eyes were restless, keen, blue and deep set, a nose decidedly ill-shaped and upturned, and the face was freckled, the lips full, but not tender nor sweet. The head appeared to be crunched down into the shoulders, amounting almost to a deformity, the teeth were ugly, misshapen, and a wide gap between the two frontal ones through which the lad had learned to send forth a shrill whistle on occasion. The body was rather heavy, such as is described for lads as "chunky"; the hair was of light mouse-colored hue, ill kept, slightly wavy and unruly of management, no amount of training seemed to affect it. On the whole he was stolid and sober faced. There was no joy of boyhood in his appearance, no disposition to mill around with the seven hundred other emigrants thronging the old Castle Garden. He seemed to be without companions and doubtless would have been repulsed by him if they manifested friendliness. He was a boy evidently who was accustomed to being alone-apart from the throng. He was not restless, but rather solemn and gloomy. He seemed, however, to be watching somewhat, and trying to keep within vision, a young girl about nineteen years of age. She was rather shabbily attired and the dress she wore was not only threadbare but torn in places. Her head was uncovered and the hair, glossy black, was pasted close to her head. She had the lad's ill-shaped nose- it evidently was a family defect-her brow was high and broad and there was nothing to relieve the plainness of the face except the deep set, hazel eyes, intently bright and the friendly smile which at times graced the generous mouth and full lips. She was sociable and evidently having both a sad and a cheerful time in manifestations of social meetings and the prospective partings with the friends that thronged about her. Her social disposition was in marked contrast with the surly disposition of the ill-favored lad on the bench. They were brother and sister, on the way with this great throng of nearly a thousand emigrants bound for Utah. By the side of the boy were several packages, some [p.1] in canvas wrappings or small canvas bags. These proved to be pieces of fat-side bacon, made greenish by the intense pickling of the pork to make it suitable for food on the long voyage by the sailing vessel, which had just ended; some loaves of bread; some packages of hard tack, common to sea voyages, which lasted, for sailing vessels over six weeks in duration in crossing from Liverpool to new York in those days (1866). It had been a terrific voyage this crowd of emigrants had made in the ship John Bright of the Guin Line. The ship still lay some distance out in upper New York Harbor. ...

...after which the vessel's course was once more in the direction of New York Harbor, where now on the sixth day of June, as notice in Part I, the John Bright came to anchorage in Upper New York Bay and its passengers were temporarily lodged in Castle Garden, waiting to be loaded upon the low-lying steamboats which would take them up Long Island Sound to New Haven, when the journey by rail and riverboats would proceed into the middle-west of America.

It was an extremely zig-zag and indirect course which this company followed and it can not be understood how it was that the journey from New York was made by boat up the Long Island Sound to New Haven; ...

Diary of Caroline Hopkins Clark

Clark, Caroline Hopkins. Diary (Ms 8306 1 #10), pp. 1-5. (CHL)

... June 3--Raining very fast. About one o'clock we saw a boat coming along, which proved to be the pilot. So, we are nearing land. There was great shouting for joy. Sorry to say the baby keeps very ill. Little Frank is some better.

June 4--Very hot all day. Smoked out again. Great preparations for the inspector to some and look over the ship. Martha, in a great hurry to come downstairs, came down all at once--has not hurt herself much. We are all very tired. We have worked hard since we came on board. Goodnight, until tomorrow.

June 5--A beautiful fine day. The tug has just come to take us into New York. It is the grandest sight I ever witnessed: to see the things as we go up the river. We have just gone upon deck to pass the doctor. He never took any notice of any of us, so we passed first-rate. Frank and the baby are a little better.

June 6--We are still upon the ship in much confusion. They have taken our berths down. We expect to go into Castle Garden today. It is a grand sight to see the things. Sam and Emma Pike came to see us. They look well and are doing well. Baby is better.

June 7--We were taken into Castle Garden today about twelve o'clock. We had to stay there until twelve o'clock at night. During this time we went into New York. We went and found some bread and cheese, and a little something else. The things are very dear. We had to pay at the rate of a pence for a small loaf. Martha and I bought a hat for traveling. They are one yard and three quarters around. If you get a piece of string and measure with, you can see how far it is around our hats. At ten o'clock we had to [p. 3] walk about two miles to a steamboat. The lame, old, and children had to have cars, so we fell in with that number. We had to sit in the boat all night, so you guess how comfortable we were.

June 8--We rode all night. At break of day we were hurried out to go to the train. ...

Diary of John Lunn

Lunn, John. Diary (Ms 9281 1), pp.1-21. (CHL)

... Sunday, June 3 - Today is expected to be the last Sunday meeting on board as usual and the pilot met us.

Monday - We are driven rather cross and foggy but we see some fish boats at different times. [p. 19]

Tuesday - Very foggy and the sea still but we are making a little headway. The steamer met up. Very foggy till noon when all at once the fog cleared away and the grandest sight opened to our view that ever our eyes beheld. On each side of us some of the most beautiful houses and gardens that ever we seen in our lives. We were all very lively. All that could muster on deck did to see and hear the joyful news. [p. 20] After this comes the doctor to see us which we thought to be more like an old farmer than a doctor. He passed us without much difficulty, only 2 that ailed anything of [the] moment and that [had] not fever. We then went forward till we came in view of Castle Garden. We then anchored down. We then made ready for the night which we all enjoyed being so still.

Wednesday [ABRUPT END OF ACCOUNT] ...

History of Brigham Henry Roberts

Roberts, Brigham Henry. History (typescript), pp. 21-30. (CHL)

...the vessel's course was more in the direction of New York Harbor, where now, on the sixth day of June, as noticed in Part I, John Bright came to anchorage in upper New York Bay and its passengers were temporarily lodged in Castle Gardens, waiting to loaded upon the low-lying steamboats which would take them up Long Island Sound to New Haven, whence the journey by rail and riverboats would proceed into the middle west of America.

It was an extremely zigzag and indirect course which this company followed, and it cannot be understood how it was that the journey from New York was made by boat up the Long Island Sound to New Haven; thence to Fort Lawrence, to Niagara, as Harry remembered, it by train; ...

Personal History of Harriett Weaver Taylor

Taylor, Harriett Weaver. Pioneer personal history. (Ms B 289), bx. 10, pp. 1-3. (Utah State Historical Society).

... Mr. Weaver and his oldest son, John, did the cooking on the boat for the company of Mormon immigrants, in return for this work they were to receive a pass to Utah for their entire family. They had paid their fare to New York. The ship was six weeks on the ocean, and when they arrived in New York, Mr. Weaver went in search of the captain of the company, in order to complete the arrangements for the pass that would transport them from New York to Utah. "Father couldn't find the man at first," said Mrs. Taylor, "but he did see another man who told him where the captain was, but he also told him that he was afraid he would be disappointed about the passes because he was certain they had been given to someone else. Father just couldn't believe that anyone would be so dishonest, but nevertheless when he found the captain, such was the case. Father felt pretty badly to think that he had put so much trust in this man, and he had betrayed him. My brother was so angry, of course he was quite young, that he apostatized from the church. Father said there was no use feeling that way about the whole church just because [p.1] of one dishonest man, but my brother refused to see things that way. He said if that was a sample of Mormonism he didn't want anything more to do with it. He stayed in New York, married and raised a family.

From the minute my mother had set foot on the boat she became very sick and lay in her bed the entire six weeks of the trip, getting up only long enough to have her bed straightened. I was the oldest girl in the family and it was up to me to help look after Mother and care for the younger children. It was pretty big job for a girl my age, but I did the best I could. When we reached Castle Gardens, (now Ellis Island), mother was taken from the boat on a stretcher. They had to clean the boat and get it ready for the return trip. Father was away looking for the captain of our company, and I sat on the side of the stretcher with mother and waited for him to return. Mother looked more dead than alive.

When father came back and told us about the passes being given to someone else, he decided to stay in New York and work at his trade as a stone mason until he could earn enough money to make the trip across the plains to Zion. We lived at Williamsburg (Brooklyn). Mother had been so sick on the boat that she was put under a doctors care for a year while we lived in Williamsburg.

I guess it was the hand of the Lord that kept us from trying to come across the plains at that time. Years later when Father was visiting with me, and the incident of the passes was mentioned, I told him he should be thankful for it, because we were the ones that were blessed. He asked me how I figured, and I told him that mother's mission on earth was not completed at that time, and as sick as she was she could never have made the trip across the plains. People much stronger and more able to travel than she, had died and were buried on the plains, but she was able to regain her health and by the time we came to Utah [p. 2] the railroad had been completed and our trip was made easier. She had one child born while in Williamsburg and four more after we reached Utah. Altogether my mother had fifteen children. Father said when we looked at it that way, he guessed I was right, and that instead of it being so bad as it seemed at the time, it was really a blessing in disguise.

While we lived in Williamsburg I went to a good school. I had the grandest teacher, she was very musical. It was a free school, but we had to pay rent on the school house. In order to raise money for the rent, the teacher got up a program, and we were the entertainers. We used to have to stay after school to practice, and sometimes I didn't like to have to stay every night. Mother made me a nice new dress for the entertainment. When we got to the school house it was crowded with people. I was so little I had to stand on a stool so I could be seen, and when I saw all of those strange people, I was terribly frightened. The teacher told me not to be afraid, that the people wouldn't hurt me, but I just stood there until I finally saw my father and mother. Mother waved to me, and then I felt better and sang my song. When I was through, they clapped so loudly I had to sing the chorus again. Most of the children who were in the entertainment got big bouquets of flowers, but I didn't get any flowers, I got a lovely big doll. I was always quick to learn and father would often say that if we'd have stayed another year or two in New York where there were good schools, this girl would have known something.

When we came to Ogden the train didn't come clear to the depot where it comes now, it stopped out at Taylor's Mill in Riverdale. We arrived in October 1869. We had to take our lunches on the train. When we came to a river we had to get out and be ferried across and take another train because the road wasn't all finished yet. ...