Another Account of Trip Westward

[from The Life of Nancy Ella McNees]

"Nancy, her husband, and two small children, left with twenty six other families in April 1877 and traveled by wagon across the prairie states, finally arriving in New Mexico. The journey was filled with trials and afflictions. There was a lack of food with hunger making tempers run high. Death took several members of the wagon train, including a new baby of Nancy’s in-laws. Her oldest daughter, Ada age four, was run over by the wagon resulting in a broken leg above the knee. During a dust storm, the wagon train took shelter in an Indian village. One of the Indians had red blotches, and ten days later, small pox broke out among the wagon train members. They weren’t allowed into settlements, several people died, and they were delayed in New Mexico for awhile. Some of the travelers ended up staying in New Mexico, but most continued on to Arizona. By the time they arrived, they were destitute and some were on foot. Most of the group stayed in Arizona, but Nancy and her family moved north to Utah."