Alfred Boaz ( conclusion)

Westward At Last!

There was great preparation for the Pioneer trip which was to locate the spot for the remaining saints to follow and settle, and they were determined to take me with them and leave my wife helpless in bed.  I would not consider it and got excused, but Melissa being improved I made ready and started with the first company which followed.  I, however, helped fit out President Brigham Young’s company, which set out, and we then fell to preparing those to follow.  There were a number of blacksmiths, and all were busy.  After completing or fitting 665 wagons, all were ready and we moved out as far as the Elk Horn, which was a deep, ugly river, and dangerous to ferry.  Here Elder Weatherby and I were detailed to go back with a demented woman and leave her at Winter Quarters...

We began our journey and had travelled half way when suddenly there stepped before us three Indians armed with rifles, and directly in our path.  I immediately  would have made friendly signs and reasoned with them, but Elder Weatherby lost his head, and jumping out of the wagon, grappled with an Indian.  I, of course, followed on the other side, grappling with the second, taking his gun away.  The third fired at my companion, and he fell, mortally wounded.  I grappled with the slayer of Weatherby, taking hold of his side, and taking a piece out with my hand, for he was naked.  He yelled with pain, and the sick woman seeing her chance, waved her shawl to frighten the wild steers, and away they dashed, wagon, steers, woman and all.  I was left with Elder Weatherby, and the Indians took to their heels...I overtook Bishop Whitney, who returned to the spot and lifted Elder Weatherby into his carriage and then struck out rapidly in search of the woman.  I looked in all directions and finally found the wagon run into a willow thicket, but the woman was not to be seen...finally I saw the top of her bonnet peeping in the tall grass, and then it vanished.  I came to where she was, but she stubbornly refused to get into the wagon.  I picked her up and sat her, a little ungently perhaps, in the wagon.  Finding travelers going toward Winter Quarters, I relinquished the woman, steers and wagon to them with my commission to deliver her safely, if possible, at Winter Quarters.  I then turned single-handed And alone, to retrace my footsteps toward my family and the camp on the Elk Horn...

We now took up our journey to the Salt Lake Valley, receiving a message or two from the pioneers before we reached our destination.

I was the only blacksmith in the company which had sixty five wagons, and I kept them in repair the entire trip, and I never received nor charged a cent for the work.  Besides repairing the wagons, etc., I had the lame cows and oxen to look after, and they gave me little time for sleep...

Alfred finished his story and leaned back in his old armchair, which had been made by his own hands in the early days in the valley.  He seemed lost in thought; his white hair bleached by many winters, lay soft and beautiful about his strong head.  His once sinewy arm rested on the handle of his rocker.  What a world of thought in that glance backward upon a lifetime of work and adventure!  Yes, a lifetime, for the sands were all but run.  Shortly afterward he was called to meet his Maker, and render his account to the Most High for the stewardship he had held.

—-From Our Lambson Family: Barnabas to Boaz, pp.206-210

Next Week: The Youngest Brother...James Farley Lambson, last child of Boaz and Polly