FREIGHTING IN THE EARLY DAYS

 

FREIGHTING IN EARLY DAYS
By N. S. Nielsen, 1936

Only a very few of our early Pioneers are with us now, but their memory will ever be; my first experience in freighting began in 1868. We were three weeks with ox team crossing the plains from Fort Steel to Salt Lake City. Now you make it in half a day. I next began freighting in 1876, from Mount Pleasant to Frisco and to the mines in Tintic and Stockton, and to Salt Lake City. We were paid one dollar per hundred pounds to Frisco and seventy-five cents to the other camps, and to Salt Lake City. It took two weeks to go to Frisco and return, and about ten days to Salt Lake City.

Those were happy days of freighting.

We camped in our wagons, cooked our meals at the camp fire,and enjoyed it all. I never heard anyone complain about hard times. The Pioneers were a hardy lot, worked hard and continually without murmer or discontent; yet no one without the experience can imagine the hardships they endured. We knew nothing about automobiles or picture shows, and nothing about what we now call modern comfort, so we had nothing to be discontented with; we knew nothing but hard work, and plenty of it. The pay was meager, still we saved something for a rainy day; such was the life of the Pioneer in Utah. To endure hardships unbelievable, was their uncomplaining lot, and it is a real wonder how they survived, but there was nothing else to do, hence it was endured. Our rising generation would now exclaim "Impossible, it can not be done," but it was done, and most of the pioneers lived to a ripe old age.

My friends and fellow citizens, in honoring the Pioneers you are showing a commendable spirit, and honoring yourself by honoring them. All hail to the Pioneers, and blessings to their descendants. I thank you.


P.324 Mt. Pleasant History by Hilda Madsen Longsdorf