“Old Captain Bridger and Kit Carson’s…
source date: 1891
availability: public-domain

ture. I had a slave freed to cross the plains with me. I left Independence on May 4, ’49, reached Bridger’s fort on July 3. The next day thirty sat down on the grass to a spread that embraced a barbecued beef and numerous dainties including twenty gallons of Kentucky bourbon. “Old Captain Bridger and Kit Carson’s squaw, Mary, were our invited guests. After our patriotic dinner was over Jerome Davis, who was our captain, and myself, rode into Salt Lake, eighty miles. It required our wagons five days. Davis had previously been with Fremont to the Pacific slope, (had lived on mule meat sixty- seven days) and assisted in the survey of the Salt Lake Valley, and thus became known to the Mormons. Through Davis, the writer was kindly treated by the Mormon elders. Our train was loaded with merchandise, just what the Mormons were in need of. We remained in the ( 92 ) city ten days. Young then had only seven wives. Davis and myself visited all the elders homes. Polygamy, in practice, was decidedly a novelty to us.”