(The return of History Friday at Chicagoboyz – a break from current events!)
Last week my daughter picked up a lavishly-illustrated book at a thrift store that she thought I might be interested in, and it turned out that I was, since the next book (a YA adventure, and sequel to West Towards the Sunset) will touch on interesting doings in the far West – in California, the Nevada Territory and the Mormon colonies in the Utah Territory. We had lived in Utah for three years when I was assigned to Hill AFB. Utah is rather like Texas in that both states have a rather distinct culture and off-beat origin story, at least in comparison to most other western states. The epic journey of the pioneer handcart companies from the jumping-off places in the Mid-West to Salt Lake City is one of the cultural underpinnings to the LDS Iliad, the foundation-cornerstone of Deseret, and an epic of faith, and self-organizing heroism not very well-known outside the LDS church. And thereby hangs the tale related in this volume.
The epic of the handcart companies followed on the initial founding of Salt Lake City, and the various other settlements in Utah Territory – a stretch of wilderness between the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains, first encountered in 1846 by early travelers to California following a new route established by would-be explorer Lansford Hastings.
Brigham Young may not have been the dazzlingly charismatic, mesmerizing visionary that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon or LDS church (Latter Day Saints) had been – but his talent for organization and giving scope to the talents of other people with the same set of skills and vision approached the supernatural. There were many off-beat religious movements, sects and idealistic communes in existence in the US in the first half of the 19th Century – Millerites, Owenites, Shakers, the Oneida and Amana Colonies, various Fourier societies – but the LDS which Brigham Young led was the most successful and longest-lasting of them all; it is still vigorous and growing, unlike most of the other 19th Century idealist communities.
During the 1840s and 1850s, wagon train pioneers heading west to California and Oregon usually transported family, goods and required supplies in wagons most often pulled by two or three pairs of draft animals. That was also the means most often utilized in the first decade of emigration by LDS converts and believers to Utah. However, by the mid-1850s straitened circumstances and shortages of funds hampered efforts to bring LDS emigrants to Utah, while at the same time an enormous backlog of converts built up in the British Isles and on the Continent. Hundreds had come by ship to the East Coast, and then by train as far as the Mid-West – but then, how would they make the last 1,300 miles? Brigham Young conceived the notion of light two-wheeled carts, pulled by the converts themselves on the last leg between the railhead at Iowa City and Salt Lake City. Each cart company would be accompanied by a few regular wagons, carrying supplies, bedding and tents. And most wagon-train emigrants in earlier years had walked much of the trail anyway … so there was a cheaper solution for LDS believers, eager to get to their Zion.
So potent was the desire to bring these converts to Utah, matched by the organizing skills of the leadership, that it was accomplished. Not without some hardship and the usual setbacks, but three companies, for a total of 800 souls, departed on their long journey in the summer of 1856. They were all shepherded by experienced teamsters, or returning LDS missionaries, all on foot and pulling their few possessions in carts (four or five persons to a cart was the estimation). Unfortunately, two more handcart parties, the Willie and Martin companies (so called for their leaders, James Willie and Edward Martin) departed in mid- or late August … against advice, and too late in the year to make it to Salt Lake City before winter set in. There were about a thousand men, women and children in the two groups, most being recent immigrants, unaccustomed to the frontier, and scantily equipped for bad weather.
A cascade of miscalculations by the various authorities at either end of the trail, bad decisions by leaders in the companies, and misfortune along the trail resulted in nine hundred men, women, children and babies becoming stranded by winter near present-day Caspar, Wyoming. One company lost the draft animals to pull their supply wagons to a stampede of buffalo. They had to lighten their carts – of heavy clothing and bedding that might have provided more shelter against winter … when winter then closed down on them. They were cold, starving, sickened and worn down by exposure to the elements and the hardships of walking and pulling the carts. A survivor later wrote that fathers pulled the carts with their small children on them, right up until the day before they died.
There was one fortunate aspect to this purgatory of cold and misery – rescue was on the way. A fast-moving small party of LDS missionaries returning to Salt Lake City had overtaken the two lagging parties. They arrived in Salt Lake City early in October, and informed LDS leaders that there were two more large parties still on the trail. Brigham Young and his leadership council were sensible men – and were horrified to receive this intelligence. They could look at the calendar and read a map. Volunteers for a rescue party were called for at once, and dispatched east along the trail. The Willie company was found first, camped on the Sweetwater River near South Pass. Half the rescue party stayed with them, while the other half pushed on to find the Martin company, a hundred miles farther east. The surviving members of that company had eaten nearly the last of their meagre rations, were exhausted, sick and starving, many of them crippled by frostbite. It was a tale of suffering with a toll of casualties only second to the Donner-Reed party, but without the gruesome element of cannibalism. At least 200 of the Willie and Martin companies died and were buried in mass graves along the way. Only an equally heroic rescue effort kept the toll from being even higher. It seems that most survivors rose above their suffering, viewing it later as a test of their faith and dedication. While only about 3,000 LDS converts journeyed to Salt Lake City in handcart companies before the arrival of the railway made that means of travel redundant, the experience of the handcart companies remains, as I mentioned earlier, a kind of LDS Iliad.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
John Newton – Amazing Grace
Another piece of history that causes one to consider how sturdy folks of that age were. Thanks Mom.
Death6
What a great story, thanks for sharing it. The story of the LDS migration is one of the hidden parts of American history. Thanks for filling alot of it in.
The oldest American settlements in Arizona are in eastern AZ and by Mormon pioneers, 1870s, that were sent forth by the Church. There are some LDS missionary teams who are in my area and I lecture them on this subject and how their church was instrumental in settling the Mountain West.
One of many times removed grand mothers was with those companies and he journal were an inspiration to me when I first read them from the Mormon records of the period. I keep finding ways to put the pushcart sage (and their songs as they labored to move across the land into my writing. And her descriptions of the hardships they had to endure after they arrived are nearly as impressive,
Excellent historical note. The LDS has a mission and memorial at the site of the Willie party camp on the Sweetwater. Hauling horses out west, we stopped there to give the horses a break [with really great, sweet water!] and I heard the story from the elder. As I recall, the LDS memorializes the handcart journey with teenagers [in modern sneakers but period garb] pulling handcarts along part of the route. Inspiring …..
Name of the picture book?
About a dozen years ago I got so tired of the Washington commute that I pulled up stakes and moved to Idaho, where I went to work for Idaho National Laboratory located just outside of Idaho Falls. The city itself is certainly more Mormon than present day Salt Lake City, and the local culture reflected the fact. My realtor showed me a property on the Snake River about 10 miles north of town, and I snapped it up immediately. It turned out that the subdivision I had chosen, with two or three exceptions, was entirely Mormon. The house next door was occupied by the children of an older couple who were off on mission to Zimbabwe. They became very good friends when they returned, and saw to it that I wasn’t ignored by the community.
I was invited to all major church parties and celebrations, and was the lone non-Mormon member attending our family home evening, or FHE, a traditional biweekly gathering in the home of one of the members. These included religious themed games such as charades based on incidents in the Bible, lectures, including a very interesting one by a local beekeeper, etc. Bees have special significance for Mormons. This was followed by excellent refreshments, including such delicacies as home-brewed root beer and creme brule. Diane, my next door neighbor, saw to it that I was always invited to Thanksgiving dinner at her place if I couldn’t make it home to Maryland. When I arrived she usually put me right to work, mashing potatoes, etc.
Through all this, I was never subjected to any heavy-handed proselytizing. No one ever came to my door except a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Of course, I’m sure they all hoped from my conversion, but they relied on the “let your light so shine” approach.
I realize that many people consider Mormon beliefs “out there,” but many people think that about the miracles in the Bible as well. In general, the Mormons I new were hard working, generally successful in their jobs, and a credit to the communities they lived in. My neighbor two doors down held a high level job at a local agriculture company, and was our “Stake” president. A Stake is a mid-level unit composed of several churches. My boss was a Mormon, and was otherwise as competent and level-headed as you could wish.
I heard some interesting stories at the FHE meetings. For example, one of my older neighbors, probably in her mid-80’s, told me that, in the old days, the “revenooers” in Idaho weren’t looking for illegal stills, but for polygamous marriages. One fellow had several wives, and two of them had babies within a few months of each other. One of them died, and apparently the revenooers knew about it. A bit later they raided the house looking for evidence of just such multiple births. When they asked the wife who was home where her husband was, she replied, “He’s up in the cemetery with the baby.” Abashed, they retreated to their vehicle and drove off. Of course, the dead baby was in the cemetery, but the husband had the live one with him as well!
The church services reminded me of what mainstream church services were like back in the 50s and 60’s. There were lots of kids, big choirs, well-attended Sunday schools, groups for young people, etc. That’s how typical churches were when I was growing up, but the Woke rot had already started to set in, and today we see the final result. Many of the “legacy” shadows are only pathetic and dying shadows of their former selves.
It’s interesting that, of the hundreds of True Churches that our country has produced, many were founded in a period of around 40 years in the early to mid-1800’s. A majority of them first saw the light of day within a radius of around 150 miles from a point somewhere in the middle Massachusetts. It must be something in the water. The LDS is the only one of them all that is still healthy and thriving today. There may still be a few decrepit Shakers hidden somewhere in the New England countryside, and the Adventists and Christian Scientists are still around, but that’s about it. I won’t venture a theory on the secret of their success, but merely state it as a fact.
If you’re looking for some idea of what Mormons are really like, I suggest you watch the film, “Once I was a beehive.” It portrays Mormons as they actually are – normal people who happen to be Mormons.
Legacy “churches”. Sorry for the typo.
Ripsnorter, the illustrated book is in the link in the second line.
Helian, I found pretty much the same thing when I lived in Utah. I had heard mixed things about living there; apparently earlier in the decades, if you weren’t LDS, you were pretty much frozen out, socially isolated, and it was especially hard on kids and teenagers. Not the case by the time we lived there; my next door neighbors were the youth leaders in the local stake, and my daughter went to the meetings with her school friends. She even played on the stake girls softball team, and went on field trips with them to downtown Salt Lake City to see the Christmas decorations at Temple Square. Never a word about joining the LDS church, from anyone, although it did take two weeks for the missionary kids to find us.
It would have been awkward for her later on, when she came up to dating age, though.
Follow up on what Doug said.
The history of a large part of the Mountain West – Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Nevada – is really intertwined with that of the LDS church. Many of the towns of eastern Arizona south of the Navajo Nation can trace their founding to Mormon pioneers from the 1870s and 1880s who were sent forth from Salt Lake to settle the wilderness.
A few years ago on the East Coast a local Safeway during Christmas was playing an ad jingle mentioning various towns with Christmas-winter themes, one of which was Snowflake, AZ. Well in my younger days (in front of that town’s chamber of commerce no less) of thinking the town was named because of wintry weather, when in reality it was because of its founders the Mormon pioneers Snow and Flake.
However Pie Town, NM is really named after pie and not Mr. Pie
Being from the east valley of Maricopa County I had quite a few neighbors who were from the Church. Exactly as Doug says; good people, welcoming, a credit to any community, and would give the shirt of their back to anyone – member or not – who needed it.
Since my time in grad school, it has infuriated me that the same people who would lecture me on tolerance and fighting hate would in a moment show their hypocrisy by saying the most vile things and slander about Mormons.
Why did the Church survive while the other from back in the early 19th Century did not? One good reason was the organizing genius of Brigham Young. The bigger part of it are its missionaries. You ever want to break the ice with an LDS member ask them where they did their mission, it is one of the great rites of passage. They send teams all through out the world, spreading the word, and gaining new adherents. The mainline Protestant denominations that are dying might want to learn a lesson from them. In fact we all can learn a lesson from them whether as Christians, conservatives, pro-life, whatever. These guys are inspirations for all of us.
There are several missionary teams in my area and I always take the opportunity to introduce myself, ask if they need anything, and thank them for what they are doing telling them they are an inspiration. I live in a very blue area, that type of place I mentioned above that likes to pride itself on “ending hate” but has no problem in spewing its anti-Mormon bile given half a chance. It takes a lot of faith for these young men and women to do what they do
I don’t agree with tenets of the theology and so I tell the missionaries the same as told my old neighbors, its better to have a sympathetic gentile than a bad Mormon.
The story of Mormons and the Church of the LDS is an indelible and great part of American history and society. I don’t care much for Mitt Romney but his candidacy in 2012 was fantastic in helping bring that message of the Church’s place in America to the forefront
A great story. I love this kind of history. I’ve driven across that territory enough to know that pulling a handcart across it must have been a formidable task. Americans owe an incredible debt to those how were willing to risk everything to expand our frontiers.
One quibble: While the fort in what would become Wyoming was called “Caspar,” (in honor of the late son of the garrison’s commander, slain by Indians) the city that grew from it is named “Casper.” Caspar Collins’ father was Colonel William O. Collins, for whom the city of Fort Collins, Colorado is named.
I worked for ADP Dealer Services when it was very Mormon. It had been founded in Salt Lake. The inspiring leadership of Hyrum Smith was notable. He later went on to be a founder of Franklin- Covey. It was his work process that lead to the famous Franklin planner. As a Catholic from NY the LDS church doctrine is indeed peculiar, but their emphasis on family and work does produce stable and productive communities. They are good patriotic Americans, and as stated above, excellent neighbors. But, never take just one Mormon fishing. He’ll drink all your beer ;)
If this story interests you, you might one to watch the documentary, “Trail of Hope.” I believe the documentary covers more than just the Willie and Martin Handcart companies, but the many years of western migration until the train came to Utah in 1869.
The movie, “17 Miracles” was made specifically about the experiences of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. They experienced amazing blessings and their intense suffering.
A quote from Church President Gordon B. Hinckley about one of the survivors from this experience.
“Years later, a group in Cedar City were talking about her and others who were in those ill-fated companies. Members of the group spoke critically of the Church and its leaders because the company of converts had been permitted to start so late in the season. I now quote from a manuscript which I have: ‘One old man in the corner sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it. Then he arose and said things that no person who heard will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity. “He said in substance, ‘I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. A mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized or left the Church because every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.’”(Manuscript in my possession.) “That speaker was Francis Webster, who was twenty-six years of age when with his wife and infant child he went through that experience.”
A bit later than the handcart migrations, but there’s a small item in the history of my regiment, the 6th Infantry, that has a link to the early days of the Mormons. The bit in the regimental history reads:
“In January 1858, the Regiment made a grand march across the continent from Fort Leavenworth to the Pacific Ocean. Upon arrival in California, the Sixth was kept busy for the next several years scouting, marching, and operating by companies and detachments against the Indians in California and Arizona.”
That march from Fort Leavenworth began as a move to reinforce the expedition led by Col. Albert Sydney Johnston (the same who would fall at Shiloh), which had spent the winter stuck near the site of the former Fort Bridger, in what is now Wyoming. Johnston’s troops had originally been sent out to Utah because of a dispute between Brigham Young and the Mormons and the federal government. The dispute was resolved by the time the reinforcements arrived in 1858, and the 6th continued on to California.
The march from Fort Leavenworth, KS to Benicia, CA remains, to the best of my knowledge, the longest foot march in the US Army’s history.
(A further note: while in California, one of the things the regiment did was establish a garrison on the coast at Noyo Bay. The post was named after Captain Braxton Bragg, and the town retains the name Fort Bragg to this day.)