Diary of William Polke
Monday, 24 Sept. 1838
“At 9 this morning we left Pyatt’s Point, Ill. (the encampment of yesterday) and proceeded down the Sangamon River fifteen miles, to the place of our present Encampment, Sangamon Crossing. “
“Physician reports “there have been two deaths since my last, and the situation of several of the sick is much worse. I would recommend that twenty-nine be left until tomorrow.”
“At the suggestion of Dr. Jerolaman twenty-nine persons were accordingly left behind with efficient nurses. They will join us tomorrow. We find a good deal of difficulty in procuring wagons for transportation—so many of the emigrants are ill that the teams now employed are constantly complaining of the great burthens imposed upon them in the transportation of so many sick.”
“Subsistence and forage the same as yesterday. A child died during the evening.”
