"That winter ws a sorrowful time for the church. 500 of our young men were demanded by the general goverment through the influence of old Tom Benton, who was a noted mobber in the first Missouri persecutions, and was then in the senate. This left the church with old men, children and many poor women, while their husbands were fighting the battles of the United States."
(Fortunatley, none of the Mormon Battalion were required to fight in any battles. They did contribute greatly to helping establish parts of San Diego.) Zerah's young daughter, Sarah, traveled with the Battalion as did Zerah's nephew, David Pulsipher. If you ever go to the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center in San Diego you can look up David and find a little bit more about him. Why Sarah went when none of her brothers or her father were there is a mystery. I believe she was only about ten years old at the time.
"There were not well people enough to take care of the sick and dying. My boys continued to team through the winter till they both got sick. John was laid on the bed and was near the gate of death for a long time, when I was called in to see him breathe his last. He was taken with pneumonia which many people think to be a certain sign of death. He looked very much like it to be sure. When I came in the doctor and my family stood around the bed. I called to him and he opened his eyes. I said, "John, you are not going to die now. I cannot spare you now. You must get well to help us move through the mountains." He immediately began to vomit a large quantity of the most filthy matter I ever saw come from any person's stomach, as black as ink. From that hour he began to recover and soon was able to drive a team.
In the spring the church leaders organized a company of about fifty wagons and we started for Salt Lake. I was advised to take ten wagons and go ahead and assist in making roads, but such storms followed us as I never saw. The highest and driest land in the country was soaked with water so that it was difficult to get along with a wagon. One morning I got on my horse and rode back a few miles to see how the company was getting along. I saw a man walking with a rubber coat on. I asked him how they got along and he said, "'First rate." He put his hands in his pockets and they were full of water.
Parley P. and Orson Pratt and myself went forward to look for a location for the poor, and such as could not go on. We found a grove of timber and called it Garden Grove, a convenient place for a settlement. I then unloaded my wagon and delivered my load of flour and bacon and went back to look after my family. I met them not far from the Mississippi River in the year 1847. One boy got his leg broken and one man broke his arm in my company, but I set them and they soon got well."
Zerah does not share any details of the trek to the western mountains, but we know he was a captain of 100 and the Burgess family was a part of his group. Again, this family traveled together from the time they left Kirtland, Ohio until they eventually settled in Southern Utah.
The next post will begin with their arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley.
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