Sixty Years of California Song | Page 7

Sabbath school and choir.
We made visits with our parents to the sick and the poor. Because we
spoke nothing but the German language, we were obliged to go to
school. My oldest sister, Mary, was soon established in the German
department of the public school. She was graduated from the
Monticello Seminary, St. Louis, before coming there. She taught during
the week in the public school and on Saturday taught English in the
synagogue. On the Sabbath she played the melodeon in our church. It
was there that, as a child, I learned the grand old German hymns of the
church under her guidance and which helped to make me the singer I
am today.
We had now been seven years in Cincinnati and the church had
flourished so greatly that a second German Reformed church was the
outcome of father's ministry. It was built on Webster street for the
purpose of housing the overflow of the first church on Betts street. In
all this prosperity California gold and missionary fields were opened
and discovered in November, 1847. Father was chosen for California,
and the only way to go was over the plains. What a sad family was ours
while preparations were made which would take father and brother
George, who was now 17 years old, away, as we thought, to the other
end of the earth. At last the hour came and the tie that bound pastor and
people, father, mother and children was severed. My brother George
told me the story of the trip as follows:

"The party left Cincinnati down the river on the steamer Pontiac about
May 10th, 1849, arrived in St. Louis four days after the fire, May 18th,
and remained four days at Weston. We purchased a yoke of oxen. At St.
Joseph, Mo., we purchased two more yokes. On the 28th we went up
the river and crossed over on flatboats. Here we camped for the night.
As far as the eye could see it was one level stretch of land. May 29th
we started on the long journey across the plains to California. Our first
mishap came in crossing over a bridge made of logs, called a corduroy
bridge. In crossing over this bridge one of the oxen was crowded too
near the edge. He was crowded off into the water below and was
drowned before we could give aid. After traveling for seven days more,
the first days in June, we came to Ash Hollow. At this place the party
came in contact with a whole tribe of Sioux Indians. They were
peaceful, and we traded with them and gave the squaws some necklaces
of bright colored beads. After passing the Indian tribe, about five miles
away, we camped for the night. We reached Fort Laramie by noon the
next day. Here we purchased a fine cow to take the place of the
drowned ox. She worked well. She supplied the party with fresh milk
as well. Fort Laramie consisted of only the fort and a blacksmith shop.
We continued next day and made several stops before we came to Fort
Bridger, occupied by the man Bridger and his family. He had a squaw
wife and six children. When he learned that father was a missionary, he
brought his whole family to our camp and they were all baptized. This
was father's first missionary work.
"After leaving here we traveled for days before we got to Salt Lake
City, passing through Wyoming. At Salt Lake City father and Brigham
Young had a long and heated argument. A number of men and women
joined in. Among the women were several who did not believe as they
were compelled to, and they were on the side of the missionary. We
remained here a week, and we drove the cattle to feed and the
Mormons stole them two different times and compelled the company to
pay fifteen dollars each time as find money. Rather an expensive stay
for one week. When the party left, the women who favored us came out
with baskets filled with fresh vegetables, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and
squash. With tears in their eyes they said farewell. When we left we
employed the services of a Mormon guide. He purposely led us on the

wrong trail for sixty miles. It was necessary for us to return and get the
right trail. When we started once more he misled us the second time
and directed us into a deep canyon. In order to get out of this difficulty
we were obliged to take the wagon to pieces and piece by piece we
carried them out into safety. His object was to tire out our oxen and get
us to desert them so he could appropriate them. At last we discovered
his treachery and