[William Clayton Journal] At 5 A.M., at the sound of the bugle I arose, my face still paining me very badly. After eating breakfast I started out on foot before the wagons started with my rifle on my shoulder. At 7 1/4 the wagons began to move and at 7 1/2 were all formed in double file and proceeded on. After traveling about 8 miles we arrived at a number of small lakes, where were many ducks. A number of brethren shot at them and killed several. At 1 1/4 we arrived at a bend in the river where a small stream runs around an island.
We stayed here to feed awhile, having traveled about 15 miles mostly a western course with the wind South. The roads very good and the country very level on these flat Bottoms of the Platte river which bottoms appear to be from ten to fifteen miles wide. Soon after the camp was formed O. P. Rockwell, Jackson Redding, and J[esse] C. Little came in from winter quarters. They arrived at 10 minutes after 2. They have found Dr. Richards mare which was lost east of the Elk Horn and brought her to camp. They brought me a line from Diantha and one from Ruth and Margaret. In the last was a very gentle piece of information which has caused me to reflect much, and proves to me that Ruth and Margaret's virtue and integrity have for the last year been far superior to mine. In my letter to them I requested them to attend to family prayer in my absence, a thing which I have neglected since leaving Nauvoo. They informed me that they had done that when I was at home but unknown to me, and they had then, and still continue to bear me up before their heavenly father. O what integrity, what faithfulness. I feel unworthy to possess two such treasures, but still feel to try to reward them for it, and may my Father in heaven bless them, and all my family and let his angels guard them, and me during my absence that we may all be permitted to meet again and enjoy each other's Society in this world for many years to come, and eternally in the world to come. O Lord, grant this prayer of thy unworthy Servant, and fill my family with peace and union, and open a way that they may have the necessaries and comforts of life, and thy Spirit to brood over them, and Thy name shall have the praise, even so Amen...I walked some this afternoon with Orson Pratt and suggested to him the idea of fixing a set of wooden cog wheels to the hub of a wagon wheel, in such order as to tell the exact number of miles we travel each day. He seemed to agree with me that it could be easily done at a trifling expense . . .
[source: George D. Smith, An Intimate Chronicle; The Journals of William Clayton, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1995, http://amzn.to/william-clayton]
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