9th July 1850

Reached Fort Bridger and we camped for the night. There is a doctor at Fort Bridger and he charges mother $5 for a bottle of medicine which he says will help little Billy .

15th July 1850

It is very hot today and little Billy is very sick. Captain Wayne has decided not to take the direct route because it would mean having to travel through about 110 miles of desert. Instead we would head Southwest to Fort Hall and little Billy could see another doctor. This route would be easier on the animals and the people on the trail.

20th July 1850

Billy died last night. In the middle of the night I heard my mother and father crying. Captain Wayne and some of my mother and father's friends gathered round our wagon. Father told Jake and I that Billy had died from cholera. I just can't believe that I will never see him again.

21st July 1850

Some of the men on the wagon train came to our wagon in the early hours of the morning. It was still dark and they started to dig Billy's grave. They were doing this in the dark so that the Indians would not see them and not know there was a grave there. Close friends came to the grave and we all sang a hymn and we all said the lords prayer. Billy's grave was an unmarked small mound of earth and before it was time to go a fire was lit on his grave and then the wagons rode over the grave so that the Indians would not realise that there was someone buried there and they would not disturb his grave looking for clothes or any other possessions.

25th July 1850

Reached Fort Hall today. Mother has not stopped crying and father just walks beside the wagon in silence. Jake and I met up with some friends we had made on the trail and we told them what had happened to little Billy. Some of our friends had also lost members of their family because of cholera and typhoid. Fort Hall was the place where people had to make the final choice whether they were going to California or Oregon.

29th July 1850

We have travelled 40 miles from Fort Hall and now the trail forked. The trail to Oregon followed the southern bank of the Snake River and the trail to California turned south along the Raft River. We said goodbye to the Smith family who we had become friendly with as they were heading to California and we continued on our journey to Oregon.

3rd August 1850

Father said we had now reached the hardest part of the journey. We had now to cross 300 miles of desert.

10th August 1850

Our wagon had a broken wheel today. Luckily my father and Jake were able to make a new wheel using my mothers good kitchen table which we had brought with us from Indiana. Mother was upset that her table had to be chopped up but there was no other way we could continue without making it into a wheel. Father and Jake worked as quickly as they could, as we did not want left behind.

19th August 1850

We are really hot and tired today. People are suffering from mosquito bites and exhaustion. We passed lots of dead oxen today; the heat and the long journey are just too much for the animals

21st August 1850

We reached Fort Boise today, we stopped here for a resting place. We are making good time; it is not September yet and hopefully the snow will not come early and trap us in the mountains.

25th August 1850

I saw a terrible accident today. I saw a small girl falling out of a wagon and being crushed beneath the wheels. There was nothing anyone could do to save her.

28th August 1850

We have know left the Snake River and followed the Powder River valley into the Blue Mountains. Everyone is starting to get excited at the thought of arriving in Oregon.

1st September 1850

It is starting to get very cold at nights. Jake and I are scared that the snow in the mountains will trap us like the wagon train in 1846. On that train only half the people survived and did so by eating the bodies of those who had died.

3rd September 1850

It's my birthday and when we set up camp for the night mother prepared a special meal for me. It was all my favourite food such as beans well greased with bacon and pancakes. It is now so cold at night that we all have to huddle together to try to keep warm.

5th September 1850

Now heading down the Umatilla River and into the Columbia River. We are feeling a bit sick today. Mother is so sick that she has to lie in the back of the wagon but the movement of the wagon makes her feel worse.

8th September 1850

We have now reached a settlement called the Dalles; soon we will be in Oregon. Many of the cattle have died on the trail and the bodies are piled up as we pass.

12th September 1850

Captain Wayne thinks that we will reach Oregon in two days time. We just keep following the road called the Barlow Road and it should lead us to Oregon City.