I said before that the covered wagon women were made of stern stuff. Mrs. Sessions, a midwife and all around extraordinary human being, not only did the cooking and washing for her family, but she delivered babies along the route and drove her own team of oxen. She had good cause to be proud of herself. And then she delivered the first baby in the new Mormon settlement at what was to become Salt Lake City.
Saturday 25 [1847]
P G went back to help up the rear of his camp they have all got here safe some broken waggons but no broken bones I have drove my waggon all the way but part of the two last mts P G drove a litle I broke nothing nor turned over had good luck I have cleaned my waggon and my self and visited some old friends
Sunday [Sept.] 26 [1847]
go to meeting hear the epistle read from the twelve then went put Lorenzo Youngs wife Harriet to bed with a son the first male born in this valley it was said to me more than 5 months ago that my hands should be the first to handle the first born son in the place of rest for the saints even in the city of our God I have come more than one thousand miles to do it since it was spoken
Sessions, Patty Bartlett, 1795-1892, Diary of Patty Bartlett Sessions, September, 1847, in Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails, vol. 1: 1840-1849. Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. & comp. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 272.
red paper boat 