Day in the Life

May 26, 1847

Journal Entry

May 26, 1847 ~ Wednesday

26th we travled 6 1/4 miles & nooned in good grass about 2 miles
above Chimney rock we travled in the Afternoon 6 1/4 miles
& camped for the night. The Hunters brought in four Antelope
we passed much good grass to day. I rode to day with Br Kimball
& Benson to look out the road I have during the last two days
read Mr Hastings account of Oregon & upper Calafornia. He has
greatly exhagerated the account of upper Calalafornia.

Just before camping at noon while travling on A smooth prairie
An Accurance took place which liked to have proven of serious
consequence to our camp. An Indian Horse that was bought of the
Sioux ran away with A whi singletree to his heels & gave A trem-
endious fright to the cows, oxen, & horses that were Attached
to the waggons And in an instant A dozen or more waggons
were darting by each other like lightning & the Horses & mules
flying as it were over the ground some turned to the right &
some to the left some run into other waggons, the Horse & mule
that Br Fowler was driving leaped with all spead, with Br
Little hold of the lines & Br Fowler hold of the bits they darted
by my carriage like electricity & came within one inch of A
collission with my wheels if they had locked we should have
been a wreck Another waggon followed by in the same manner
with a pair of Mules & one yoke of cattle upon A keen run which
would also have smashed my carriage if they had hit it but
my own horses by this time started to run but was soon
held up by the driver. Br Fowlers waggon continued to rooll
regardless of rough or smooth ground for about fifty rods &
he draged the whole distance by the bit which was the
case with many others, but all was soon stoped & returned
to there lines without any accident to any team or waggon
which Appeared to me truly A miricle William Smoots team
run away also with great speed. It give us sumthing of an
Idea what An Indian yell would would do in such an encamp-
ment with teams hitched to waggons A person can hardly
concieve of the power that is manifest in Animals esspecially
mules when in such A fright. But I felt thankful that no
accident happened.

By An Imperfect measurment, by A Trigonometrical observation
by the sexton Professor Pratt made the Chimney rock to be 260 feet
above the level of the river. distance of the day 12 1/2 m

People

Browse people Wilford Woodruff mentioned on this day in his journal. Click on the person's name to view a short bio and other pages they are mentioned on or click on "View in Family Search" to view their FamilySearch profile.

Benson, Ezra Taft
22 Feb 1811 - 3 Sep 1869
378 mentions
Apostle
Kimball, Heber Chase
14 Jun 1801 - 22 Jun 1868
1456 mentions
Apostle
Little, Jesse Carter
26 Sep 1815 - 26 Dec 1893
178 mentions
23 mentions
3 mentions
Historical Figure
Pratt, Orson
19 Sep 1811 - 3 Oct 1881
1082 mentions
Apostle
Smoot, William Cochran Adkins
30 Jan 1828 - 2 Feb 1920
34 mentions

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.

California, Mexican Cession Territory
Chimney Rock, unorganized U.S. Territory
Oregon 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.

May 26, 1847