BY JOHN BLOOMFIELD JR.
FROM ARTICLE "THAT THEY MAY LIVE AGAIN"
DAUGHTERS OF UTAH PIONEERS
     I was born May 2, 1831, in Bungay, Suffolk County, England. I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Hammersfield by Elder Job Smith, September 1, 1850, and started for America in 1856. I joined the Saints who were going west and in the spring of 1860 our company began the long journey across the plains.
     I was assigned guard duty for about one hundred nights and took up my guard duty at midnight.
     As we traveled along we decided that there must be a caravan of immigrants about two days ahead of us. We had been told at Omaha that one such company had left, bound for Oregon, and their campfires and tracks indicated they were a couple days ahead. About the fifth day out we camped near a little dry arroyo or wash.
     I went on duty as usual at midnight. It was my job to circle the camp about every two hours. Along about dawn I heard a queer noise. I stopped to listen but the noise stopped too. Soon I hear it again and I wondered if it could be a panther. I heard that sometimes made noises like a baby crying. Sure enough! There it was again. The noise seemed to be coming from up the small wash. I shouldered my gun and walked up the way about a quarter of a mile, and there came upon a fearful sight: a woman lying there, also a little naked baby boy.
     I spoke to the woman but she gave no answer. Then I knew she was dead. The poor child was cold so I took off my coat and covered it. I then ran all the way back to camp and got two of the women and two men and we hurried back. The poor mother had evidently died soon after her baby was born, from a hemorrhage. The naval cord was dried up but still uncut.
     I took out my pocket knife and cut it and one of the women wrapped the little orphan in my coat and took it back to camp. After getting some shovels the two men and I dug a shallow grave and soon after sunrise we buried her. We were never to know who she was, her name or why she was there.
     We surmised that she knew her time had come, and had walked up the wash to give birth to her baby while the camp slept, then died and no one knew her whereabouts.
     Well, sir, one of the good ladies who was a member of the company had a baby three weeks old. She said she had plenty of milk for the two babies and was sure the Lord would bless her so she could feed them. There was a cow along in the camp and the owner gave the kind mother milk to drink so she could feed both. The sister said, "Our gospel teaches us that we should care for those who are hungry and cold, the poor and needy and the orphans, and this little boy qualifies on all counts." The company traveled on and the baby grew and thrived and was loved by all.
     When we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley the family who took care of the baby boy was sent north to colonize and I never heard of them again.

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