Day in the Life

Apr 21, 1847

Journal Entry

April 21, 1847 ~ Wednesday

21st Cloudy with a light sprinkle of rain wind
in the east our road runs west to begin with
the ox teams started at 7 oclok the Horse teams
at 8, 15 minutes to 9 An Indian appeared on a
mound mounted on a poney about 5 miles fro
us He went out of sight & again appeared
He then approached the camp full speed was
met by the brethren & shook hands was son
followed by others were 8 in all they went

through the encampment & then returned
with us the road runs 20 degrees south of
west 7 miles then turned 10 d[e]gress North
of west at half past 12 we came in sight of
70 Indian Horses & Mules soon we came in
sight of a large Pawnee Indian village on the
north side of the lou fork & also a large one on
the south side of it. we drove on by the villages
& they soon began to sally out to come to us. we
camped in a half moon the bank of the river
forming A parallel line in front the indians to the
number of about 200 on the south side of
the river came down to the shore some waided
over about 75 came into camp including the
grand chief of the Nation with many war chiefs
we met them Before we left the ground & made
them presents of about 4 lbs of tobacco 15 lbs lead
powder fish Hooks beads flour salt &c but still
they were not satisfied considering our num
bers they thought they ought to have had
more & when we left the ground they appeared vary
dissatisfied we however Harnessed up our teams & drove on
to looking glass creek & camped at its mouth for the night
upon the bank of the loop fork after our Horses were turned
out we were called together & in consequence of the dissat
isfaction of the Indians A guard of 100 men was called
for the quorum of the Twelve with nearly the whole
camp volunteered to stand guard one half the fore part
of the night & the other the latter part we had A picket
guard also of 5 men & mules at a time I with my mule
was on picket guard. we had hard wind & rain in the
Afternoon which continued A part of the time while I
was on guard I rolled myself up oin my buffalo & let the wind
& rain beat onto me we were releaved at about 1 oclok
& went to rest. But no Indians appeared during the
night

Places

Browse places mentioned in Wilford Woodruff's journal entry on this day. Click on the place names to view other pages where they are mentioned.

Looking Glass Creek, unorganized U.S. Territory
Loup Fork, unorganized U.S. Territory
Platte River, unorganized U.S. Territory

Events

View selected events in the two months surrounding this date in Wilford Woodruff's life. Click on the dates to jump to that day in Wilford Woodruff's journal.

Apr 21, 1847