Dickson traveled from Nauvoo to Pleasant, Porter County, Indiana. Billa and Mary Ann returned to Nauvoo in 1843. A terrible storm happened on Tuesday, April 25, with rain falling in such torrents and the wind so strong from the northwest that several barns were blown down and the creeks rose very high. The land was covered with water. The Nauvoo Expositor was destroyed. After many legal proceedings, Joseph Smith sent word to Governor Ford that he would submit to arrest. At this time when Joseph and Hyrum rode out of Nauvoo on their horses for Carthage, John and Mary Ann held their four year old son, Albert Douglas, up and told him to look at the Prophet's face and never forget it. Albert never did and told people to his dying day he remembered the Prophet. Then on June 27, 1844, the Prophet was murdered in Carthage Jail and soon mobbings began as anti-Mormons took drastic actions and attacked the outlying settlements, burning homes, including Billa and Mary Ann's log home. She was expecting her fourth child. The Dickson family made their way across Iowa and in later years Albert Douglas Dickson recalled his experiences in his own words: "Brigham Young told the persecuted Saints to scatter and find work so they could earn means to journey to the west. Upon President Young's admonition, our family went with several other families to the lead mines in New Diggings, Wisconsin Territory, not telling that they were Mormons for fear of further persecution. It was located just over the Illinois border. The family remained here for two years. My father came from New Diggings, Wisconsin, to Iowa near Eddieville (Eddyville, Monroe County, Iowa) on the Desmond River (Des Moines). We lived in Monroe County for two years. "In 1851 we moved to Kainsville (Kanesville, later being named Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa) where we bought a farm in the spring. In September of 1851, Ezra T. Benson and Jedediah Morgan Grant were appointed to assist the Saints and remove them to the Salt Lake Valley the following season of 1852. "So my father sold his place and bought two yoke of oxen and two yokes of cows. We then traveled to the Missouri River, where Ezra T. Benson organized the Saints who had gathered there into the Fourteenth Company, which left for the Salt Lake Valley in the spring of 1852.1 had turned twelve years old in January and we were the Twelfth Company and left just before two o'clock on the 5th of June. I remember so well how we crossed the Missouri on a large flatboat. Only two wagons were allowed on the boat at one Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together time. There were three men who were at the oars and one at the rear of the boat who steered. It was interesting that the current would carry the boat down river about a quarter of a mile before it would finally land on the opposite shore. Our company consisted of fifty wagons and five teams. Each set of ten had a captain. Our captain was David M. Conley (Connelly). "Afterward we began our westward trek, we went to the Elkhorn River in Nebraska, where we found an old decayed flatboat of about four to five ton capacity. We supposed it to be the property of some fur traders who had either lost it or had left it behind. Upon leaving our first camp, we arrived at the Platte River in Nebraska where cholera broke out in the camp leaving two dead from the dreaded disease. Before the disease left our company, ten had died from it. "We made our trek to Loup Fork which was just up the river from our first camp. One incident that happened here, when someone ahead of our wagon threw out a buffalo robe, it caused a stampede of a herd of buffalo which came directly toward our wagon train. I was frightened, but they passed just in front of the wagon train and caused huge clouds of dust. This almost caused a stampede among the horses and oxen. Some of the men used their rifles and killed a few buffalo and gave us extra food on the long journey ahead of us. Upon another occasion, nearly a dozen Indians came on their horses and approached; they thought this was the first contingent of Indians that lurked in the ravines near the trail. But our daily prayers were answered and we were assured that a Heavenly Father was mindful of the needs and protection of the Saints. The Indians spread their blankets by the side of the trail and each wagon was required to give its toll of food to the Indians as it passed. "From this point, we traveled along the river and finally reached Grand Island. After traveling along the river for two more days, we saw the first buffalo en route; there were six or eight of them and my father, Billa Dickson, and some of the rest of the men tried to shoot one through the back. Because gunpowder was so scarce, instead of shooting it again, it got away and our dog, Rover, chased the injured bull and melted (overheated himself and died). All of us children then mourned the loss of our noble dog, especially me, because I depended on this faithful dog to help me drive my little band of sheep. "After traveling on for two more days, however, William Lindsay, in our company, was successful in killing the first buffalo along our journey. Afterwards, it was immediately distributed among our company.