The Chronicles of the Last American Hero

Connor wrote to us a rather funny version of his trip from the MTC to Michigan.

Dear Mother and Father,

It's been a long time since I've been free to write you, but a lot has happened over the last six days. I left the MTC by stagecoach bus at 4:00 a.m. The ride was rocky and thankfully I was able to nap a little during the one hour ride to the Salt Lake City train station. While I was there, I sent a telegraph to Dad. I am thankful the lines were still standing. Father and I had a good chat and I miss you both.

There were six of us traveling, Elders Seely, Clawson, Bryd, myself and two sisters, Rawson and Davies. I was the transport leaders.

The train left the station at 7ish, and we got to Atlanta, GA about 11ish. The trip was fine and I practiced shooting with my Henry Rifle that mom bought me while we were in Provo. There was an open car and around 9:30, a herd of buffalo went by and I shot two of them in the eye.

At Atlanta, I gave everyone permission to contact home using telegraph. Sister Rawson used that new telephone device and contacted her parents. It's very interesting technology.

While we were all contacting our love ones, I failed in my duty to keep an eye on our train. Well, it left without us. ha, ha, ha. But, thankfully, Eleder Seely and I kept cool heads and I gave instructions to Sister Davies to use the telephone to contact the mission office and Elder Seely to check with the ticket counter to see if there were any more trains leaving for Lansing.

Fortunately, there was a 5:28 train leaving for Lansing. We were so blessed! Sister Davies made contact with Mission President Jones and I informed him of the situation. He took it calmly and was thankful we used our heads.

We arrived at Lansing at 7:25 p.m. Thankfully, the Mission president and his wife were there, along with the two assiistants to the president, an Elder Barney and Clownery. They brought two stagecoaches. All the Elders rode in the one that was in obvious need of repair, while the sisters left with President Jones and his wife.

We arrived safely at his house and we had Italian food called pizza. We woke up the next day and well,

to be continued....