During this week, the company passed Chimney Rock, one of the most famous landmarks on the entire trail. The landscape has changed dramatically. The grassy plains have given way to drier vegetation, and sage and cactus will be common throughout the remainder of the trek. This is vegetation that was completely unknown to our Carson ancestors.

On Saturday, the 16th of August the Garden Grove Company of pioneers reached Fort Laramie. Fort John, as it was known in 1851, was a military post and post office. William Clayton described it as a "trading establishment, and about twelve houses, enclosed by a wall eleven feet high. The wall and houses are built of adobes or Spanish brick." Adobe as a building material was something new for the pioneers, but something that would become very familiar to them in the years to come.

The was also a blacksmith’s shop which did "considerable business in supplying emigrants with horses, mules, grain, outfitting goods etc." Susan Zimmerman remembered that all of the oxen and cows which they saw for sale along the route were very nearly dead.

The Fort was 500 miles from Winter Quarters, almost exactly half way between Winter Quarters and the Great Salt Lake Valley. There was also a ferry, although during most of the year the river could be forded.

Just a few weeks after the Garden Grove Company was at the fort an important even in U.S. and American Indian history would take place there. In September, D. D. Mitchell, superintendent of Indian affairs, would meet with the leaders of eight of the mountain tribes to sign a treaty between the government and the tribes. It is estimated that between eight and twelve thousand Indians were camped in the area. They must have begun gathering weeks before, and were probably seen by the pioneers.

August 17th was a Sunday, and Crooks wrote in his journal that they "laid by." They resumed their journey the next day. Crooks wrote two words: "went on."

A few of the histories give us some clues to the lighter side of the trek. The days were grueling, but however difficult and strenuous, it seems that when the chores were finished in the evening there was time for singing, dancing, and story telling.

George and Ann Carson have three unmarried sons traveling with them. The twins, David and George, both age 23, and their brother Washington, age. 21. The three brothers are unmarried.

David Carson recorded in his history that "they would drive all day through the hot sun and at night by the campfire the young men would clear away the sagebrush and they would dance and sing the songs of Zion."

Christina Zimmerman recorded that "we had many good times. We would camp at night, get supper, make our beds and do our chores, then the boys would scrape the grass off and we would dance as if we were not tired. We had two good fiddlers and several good callers in camp."

One of the fiddlers was William Barton, age 30, a left handed fiddler who played "Bonapart’s Retreat and other tunes in a delightful manner." Traveling with the Bartons is John Anderson, who is married to William Barton’s sister. John Anderson would later be a "dance master" in Snowflake, Arizona.

In addition to the dancing, we know that John Telford had a good tenor voice and that he enjoyed singing. "He also loved poetry and all good books. He knew and often repeated appropriate quotations from poetry, fiction, or the scriptures to fit every situation or occasion."

They must also have told stories around the campfire. Here is one that Clark Roberts told about his father Dr. Roberts. Clark wrote that his father’s "one fault was that some times he depended too much upon his liquor. One time, when under its influence, he had a quarrel with a man and struck him. The man had him arrested. The next day in court the Judge asked, ‘Well, Doc, just how hard did you hit him?’ The doctor stepped up to the Judge and said, ‘Oh, about so hard,’ and knocked the Judge off the bench. The Judge joined in the laugh, and dismissed the case."

As well as the dancing, the songs, recitations and stories, David Carson remembered that they also sang the songs of Zion. By this he meant the hymns which are so much a part of Latter-day Saint culture. We don’t have any record of what hymns they sang, but there is a good chance they sang some of the following. By far, the most popular hymn sung by the early Church members was "This earth was once a garden place," or Adam-ondi Ahman. The hymn is still sung today, although the tune was altered slightly by the British musicians who joined the Church after the Nauvoo period. They felt it sounded more like a folk tune than a hymn. Those members who had joined the Church in the early 1830's also loved to sing "There is a feast of fat things for the righteous preparing." A rollicking good tune that invites the Saints "to the supper of the great Bridegroom." The Carson’s were probably still singing "The Spirit of God" to its original melody of "American Star" rather than the more stately tune we sing today. "Come, come ye Saints," was still largely unknown and was probably not sung by the members of the Garden Grove Company.

Next week we’ll celebrate Billy Carson’s eighth birthday.

 

Part 9

Part 11