Happy 24 of July!

I thought that in honor of the 24 I would do a tribute to one of the many pioneers that contributed to our being here in Utah. This is an excerpt from the journal of Allen Joseph Stout, the father of John Henry Fisk Stout, who was the father of our grandfather, Emerald Erwin Stout. He was baptized a member of the Church April 22, 1838 after almost two years of study. His is a remarkeable pioneer story. I decided to just put in the part about his coming across the plains. I hope you enjoy it and appreciate the sacrifices he made for his posterity!

"Now I was making every preparation to get off to Utah so I got what bread stuff and other things for a fitort that I could and got a wagon by hauling 600 pounds of freight for Elder Hyde. I then got three yoke of wild steers of John Brown, the agent for the Perpetual Emigration fund and on the 20th of May 1851, we left…and went to camp… Now in consequence of the high waters we set out on the 4th of July to head the Elkhorn River which was overflowed from bluff to bluff, so that we traveled one hundred fifty miles out of our way to get around the river.

"We had to roll through sand, mud, and water over hills and through trackless plains, except by Indians and buffalo so that when we struck the old road my team was badly used up…

"My health was very bad…When we struck the Sweet Water, at that what is called Independence Rock, my wife was taken with inflammatory rheumatism, and was not able to get out of the wagon until we got to the valley…so that I had to cook for my family, tend on my sick wife and five babies, and manage my team,...So we rolled on up the north fork of Sweet Water, where my wagon broke down, and I had to cash my freight and go leave it. We now set on again and rolled on until we came to Bog Sandu, in ten miles of Green River where our company collapsed...We rolled on through the mountains and up and down the canyons till the 2nd day of Oct. when I rolled my wagon up to my brother Hosea’s house in Great Salt Lake City."