Difficulties by the way.
John Hammond overtook us in the morning on horseback, his wagon had broken again, the third time, so it could not be easily mended. The Council advised him to go back and get the brethren residing near New Portage to assist him in exchanging it for another, or let him have one to go up to Zion with, and have it returned to them, as he had now fallen so far behind that we could not well assist him without hindering many others.
Nathan B. Baldwin broke one of his wagon tires, and Henry Harriman one of his axle-trees, and stopped near Chippeway creek to have them mended. Brother Baldwin came up in the evening and Henry Harriman the next morning.
It rained a little in the course of the day, the air was cool and the horses and oxen performed the journey with greater ease than any other day since the camp started. Traveled in the course of the day about seventeen miles.
Descriptions of Country.
Friday, July 13.—The fourth division left the encampment about eight o'clock, the third and second followed, and the first left at nine. Passed through Wooster, the county seat of Wayne county, a large and beautiful village surrounded by a fertile country and is a place of considerable business. There are eight or ten public houses and several synagogues for worship, and many other commodious and elegant buildings in the village which is in Wayne township.
At Wooster we took the road to Mansfield, west from Wooster thirty-three miles. Passed through the village of Jefferson, a small place in the township of Plain, thence to Reedsborough in Mohican township, and encamped a little after five p. m. on the farm of William Crothers, in Mohican, thirteen miles from Wooster, making this day sixteen miles.
Sorrow for the "Deluded" Saints.
The country west of Wooster is rather hilly, some beautiful flats on the creeks, though not in so good a state of cultivation as in many other places. Crossed Apple creek east of Wooster, and Killbuck west of the town, a branch of the White Woman and Mohican creek, which fall into the same stream in Coshocton county. The roads were somewhat better than between New Portage and Wooster, though more hilly. On the flats of Mohican the road was bad, being muddy and stony. The country west of Wooster is not so productive as it is north of that place through which we passed on the twelfth inst., yet some beautiful fields of grain were seen. Two wagons failed this day, Joseph C. Clark's and Edwin P. Merriam's. The first was mended at Wooster, the other broke down just at the entrance of the field in which we pitched our tents. Bought four barrels of flour, the first provisions we purchased after the camp started. The people between Kirtland and Wooster were generally apprised of our coming before we arrived, and were not so much surprised to see us as they were west of that place. After we left the main road to Columbus, as we followed along, they seemed astonished and filled with wonder and amazement at seeing so large a body moving together, and some did not fail to express their feelings with warmth to the brethren as they passed along, declaring against the "fallacy", as they called it, of "Jo Smith's" prophecies, and expressing their pity for the deluded believers in modern revelation. We saw this day the first harvesting of grain of any kind, though many of the farmers in Wayne county had done most of their haying.
Preparations for the Sabbath.