Freegift." Leadership moved around to fill the gap to
be created by his leaving, so Freegift moved out of ministry
quarters to the NE chamber of the Office until the weather would
allow him to start on his journey to Union Village. On April 9
his clothes were packed and on April 12th he left. Polly says
"this was a sorrowful day; it was hard to part with our good
Elder Freegift. "
Again he kept a journal of his travels to his new assignment, /
This time he was accompanied by^athew Houston from
all the way, and as far as^Philadelphia by Frederick Wicker and
David Austen Buckingham^ They started by steamboat from Albany
at 5:10 pm, took on another 100 passengers at Hudson and about
the same number at Catskill. He and his companions managed to
get berths to sleep but they were across a narrow hall from the
engine room so, he says, "the noise was nearly equal to that of a
sawmill." They were delayed by a heavy snowfall which, when they
reached the Big Bay, made it perilous since they could not see
land or the dangerous shoals. Finally docked about 2 pm, not
having had any food on board because of the large number of pass-
engers (nearly 700). But at their hotel, he relates, "our
supper, as might be expected, was composed of oysters but the
number I shall not pretend to state but will just say, for the
satisfaction of some who have previously manifested considerable
excitement on such occasions, that I had a good night's rest."
From this, we rfea^ that he was a considerable trencherman when it
came to seafood of any kind, amazing people by the amount he
could consume without gastric distress.
Now they took a steamboat to South Ainboy and then were to proceed
by railroad. The amazing thing is that, even in those days, they
were doing container packaging, for Freegift tells us that their
baggage was packed into a large car, "nearly as big as a small
load of hay," and this car was swung onto the railroad wheels by
an enormous crane. When they reached South Amboy , their baggage
in its car was again taken by a large crane from the railroad
wheels and swung on board the next steamboat which was to take
them to Philadelphia. The baggage operation was done very expe-
ditiously and they were underway in 15 minutes.
At Philadelphia they had a choice of two lines to Pittsburgh and
they picked the slightly cheaper one which would cost $10 each
including 50 Ibs. of bagggage . On Friday they started on their
journey, leaving Phildelphia via an inclined plane, then by rail-
road to Lancaster and down another inclined plane to the canal .
Th^^was an overnight stay where he enjoyed plenty of fresh shad
for both supper and breakfast. They were now enroute for the
next 10 days, mostly on various canals, except when they had to
switch to inclined planes up and down over various heights, and
in one case, travel a 900 foot tunnel, drawn by horses through
almost total darkness.
He again comments on the country they are traveling, its
fertility and woodlands, noting near Harrisburg the absence of