Allen Joseph Stout-Article from Deseret News-Pioneer Moments

Life along the Mormon Trail was not easy for many travelers to the Great Salt Lake Valley. In June 1851, John D.T. McAllister, clerk of Captain Alfred Cordon's company of Fifty in Orson Pratt's Emigrating Company, left Council Bluffs, Iowa.
In Brother McAllister's trail journal he mentions how it was necessary to stop progress one afternoon in order to let the cattle rest because "it was said by some that they never experienced a hotter day in August." The group found a camp with plenty of water but no wood, which was the case many times. Several of the group needed a fire because they had no bread baked. The children needed food more quickly than bread could be baked, so the ladies boiled a pot of mush for them with :greens." That meant weeds-boiled weeds, baked weeds or weeds "put under the pot."
Youth grew up before their time as they traveled from places like Chimney Rock to Scott's Bluffs and Devil's Gate along the North Platte River-many times accomplishing jobs that were usually assigned to adults.
On Aug. 7, 1851, after capturing and dressing a buffalo before leaving camp, a fire was discovered in two wagons where wood was stored. Several of the brethren ran to the wagons and extinguished the flames. Many burned their hands. Allen Stout was one of the brethren. His eldest son was called to drive the wagon for the family while his father's hands healed. Along the trail, the boy did not see a bad place in the road in time enough to avoid it, so the wagon pitched into the hole and the young man was thrown out. He fell under the wagon and "the fore wheel passed over his head and the hind wheel over his arm and side." He was very bruised. Captain Cordon rode up immediately, the boy was bathed and the brethren joined in administering to him. The journal continues, "His pain was removed so much that he went to sleep and in three hours was eating."
The company continued for 22 miles that day along the trail.
Youth grew in stature and strength along the trail despite many physical hardships. The pioneers continued undaunted along the journey and reached the Salt Lake Valley on Oct. 1, 1851. John D. McAllister has immortalized the pioneer treks in a favorite melody, "The Handcart Song."