Happy Pioneer Day!

Family Search is running a ‘find your pioneer ancestors‘ thingummy today.  Check it out.  It would be an act of filial piety.

Using it, I found one of my family I hadn’t heard of before.  Catherine Camp crossed the plains with the Shadrach Roundy company when she was 12.    Her recollection of the trip is more whimsical then hardy.  I like her:

On the trip across the plains we had one of the funniest couples with us, from England. They had a little two-wheeled cart, and one little bull to pull it. They called him “Bullie,” and whenever we would start out in the morning, he would start to “boo” like a bull, and when they came to a creek he would wade all around in the water with them. They had a tent and everything they wanted, and all done up in that cart. One day we had a stampede, and this little fellow ran right after them, going “Boo-oo, boo-oo;” he did not get scared, just followed them around over the sod, and that old couple couldn’t do a thing with him. He was dark red color. We had cattle, and all of them ran in every direction, and one little girl was killed. This old couple kept saying, “keep still; old Bullie,” but they could not hold him. . . .  When we would come to a creek, that little bull would wade around until he got cool, and when he got cool, he would come out. I never saw anything so good to mis-behave sometimes, as “Bullie.”