Reading 1 - Franklin D. Richards, president of the European
Mission, wrote to Brigham Young in the fall of 1855: "We cannot afford to
purchase wagons and teams as in times past, I am consequently thrown back upon
my old plan ― to make hand-carts, and let the emigration foot it, and draw upon
them the necessary supplies, having a cow or two for every ten. They can come
just as quick, if not quicker, and much cheaper ― can start earlier and escape
the prevailing sickness which annually lays so many of our brethren in the
dust" ("Foreign Correspondence," Millennial Star, 22 Dec. 1855,
813; cited in Church History in the Fulness of Times, 358)
Reading 2 - The chief opponent to continuing the journey in
1856 was Levi Savage, who had been a member of the Mormon Battalion and was
returning from a mission in Burma and India. He argued that the handcart
pioneers could not cross the mountains so late in the season without much
suffering, sickness, and death. After the vote was taken to continue Brother
Savage said: "What I have said I
know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you; will
help you, all I can; will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with
you, and if necessary, will die with you. May God in mercy bless and preserve
us" (CHC, 4:89-91).
Reading 3 - Elizabeth Sermon, Martin Company - November
1856: "My husband's health began to
fail and his heart almost broken to see me falling in shafts. Myself and
children hungry, almost naked, footsore and himself nearly done for. Many
trials came after this. My oldest boy had the mountain fever, we had to haul
him in the cart, there was not room in the wagon. One day we started him out
before the carts in the morning to walk with the aged and sick, but we had not
gone far on our journey before we found him lying by the roadside, unable to go
any farther. I picked him up and put him on my back and drew my cart as well,
but could not manage far, so put him in the cart, which made three children and
my luggage. My husband failing more each day, the Captain put a young man to
help me for a short time. My other son Henry walked at 7 years old, 1300 miles
with the exception of a few miles.....
"My husband's sufferings have always
pained me and I can never forget them. Poor Rob's (age 5) feet began to freeze.
I cannot remember the place's; it was after wading a very deep river (Platte?)
the freezing commenced. We had no wood but sagebrush. I went out and cut the
sage to keep the fire all night. Covered them up with their feet to the fire
and cut some more and kept the fire as well as I could. My clothes froze stiff.
Well, we got through that night. Your father would not walk now. He would get
into wagon after wagon, only to be turned out. The cattle were giving out and
everyone had their friends, but the friend death, would soon end his
sufferings. John (age 9) and Rob had to ride, Henry (age 7) walked, your father
would take my arm and walk a little distance, fall on his knees with weakness.
We moved from Devil's Gate. I believe it was brother David Kimball who carried
us over a river (Sweetwater) and a great many more besides us. My poor husband
blessed him for so doing." (Faith In Every Footstep)
Reading 4 - Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford in the
Martin Company recorded the following on October 19, 1856: "Some of the men carried some of the
women on their back or in their arms, but others of the women tied up their
skirts and waded through, like the heroines that they were, and as they had
gone through many other rivers and creeks. My husband (Aaron Jackson) attempted
to ford the stream. He had only gone a short distance when he reached a sandbar
in the river, on which he sank down through weakness and exhaustion. My sister,
Mary Horrocks Leavitt, waded through the water to his assistance. She raised
him up to his feet. Shortly afterward, a man came along on horseback and
conveyed him to the other side. My sister then helped me to pull my cart with
my three children and other matters on it. We had scarcely crossed the river
when we were visited with a tremendous storm of snow, hail, sand, and fierce
winds. . . .
"About nine o'clock I retired.
Bedding had become very scarce so I did not disrobe. I slept until, as it
appeared to me, about midnight. I was extremely cold. The weather was bitter. I
listened to hear if my husband breathed, he lay so still. I could not hear him.
I became alarmed. I put my hand on his body, when to my horror I discovered
that my worst fears were confirmed. My husband was dead. I called for help to
the other inmates of the tent. They could render me no aid; and there was no
alternative but to remain alone by the side of the corpse till morning. Oh, how
the dreary hours drew their tedious length along. When daylight came, some of
the male part of the company prepared the body for burial. And oh, such a
burial and funeral service. They did not remove his clothing—he had but little.
They wrapped him in a blanket and placed him in a pile with thirteen others who
had died, and then covered him up with snow. The ground was frozen so hard that
they could not dig a grave. He was left there to sleep in peace until the trump
of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall awake and come forth in the
morning of the first resurrection. We shall then again unite our hearts and
lives, and eternity will furnish us with life forever more.
"I will not attempt to
describe my feelings at finding myself thus left a widow with three children,
under such excruciating circumstances. I cannot do it. But I believe the
Recording Angel has inscribed in the archives above, and that my suffering for
the Gospel's sake will be sanctified unto me for my good." (Elizabeth
Jackson, as quoted in LeRoy and Ann Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, 110-13.)
Reading 5 – President Young said, “ ‘I will now give this
people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak. … It is this. …
Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, and probably
many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought
here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, “to get them here.” …
“ ‘That is my religion; that is the
dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people. …
“ ‘I shall call upon the Bishops
this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until the next day, for 60 good
mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send oxen. I want good horses
and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them. Also 12 tons of
flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. …
“ ‘I will tell you all that your
faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in
the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as
I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains’ (in
LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120–21). (Quoted by President Gordon B. Hinckley,
Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 117–18; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 85–86).
"The response was impressive. Sixteen wagonloads of
food and supplies were quickly assembled; and on the morning of 7 October,
sixteen good four-mule teams and twenty-seven hardy young men (known as Brigham
Young's 'Minute Men') headed eastward with the first provisions. More help was
solicited and obtained from all parts of the territory. By the end of October,
two hundred and fifty teams were on the road to give relief" (details from
Hafen and Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, 124-25; quoted from Church History in the
Fulness of Times, 360).
Reading 6 - Elder Henry B. Eyring said: There are few comforts so sweet as to know
that we have been an instrument in the hands of God in leading someone else to
safety. That blessing generally requires the faith to follow counsel when it is
hard to do. An example from Church history is that of Reddick Newton Allred. He
was one of the rescue party sent out by Brigham Young to bring in the Willie
and Martin Handcart Companies. When a terrible storm hit, Captain Grant,
captain of the rescue party, decided to leave some of the wagons by the
Sweetwater River as he pressed ahead to find the handcart companies. With the
blizzards howling and the weather becoming life threatening, two of the men
left behind at the Sweetwater decided that it was foolish to stay. They thought
that either the handcart companies had wintered over somewhere or had perished.
They decided to return to the Salt Lake Valley and tried to persuade everyone
else to do the same.
Reddick
Allred refused to budge. Brigham had sent them out and his priesthood leader
had told him to wait there. The others took several wagons, all filled with
needed supplies, and started back. Even more tragic, each wagon they met coming
out from Salt Lake they turned back as well. They turned back 77 wagons, returning
all the way to Little Mountain, where President Young learned what was
happening and turned them around again. When the Willie Company was finally
found, and had made that heartrending pull up and over Rocky Ridge, it was
Reddick Allred and his wagons that waited for them. (See Rebecca Bartholomew
and Leonard J. Arrington, Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies [1992], 29,
33-34.)
Reading 7 - President Young was leading services in the old
Tabernacle when he learned of the arrival of the Martin Company. He said to the congregation, "The
afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to go home and
prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat, and
to wash them, and nurse them up.... Prayer is good, but when (as on this
occasion) baked potatoes, and pudding, and milk are needed, prayer will not
supply their place. Give every duty its proper time and place.... I want you to
understand that I desire this people to nurse them up; we want you to receive
them as your own children, and to have the same feelings for them.... Now that
the most of them are here, we will continue our labors of love until they are
able to take care of themselves, and we will receive the blessing. You need not
be distrustful about that, for the Lord will bless this people." (CHC,
4:100-101)
Reading 8 - Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard Arrington
recorded: "A lesser-known aspect of the handcart immigration, however,
provides one of the most satisfying episodes in Mormon history. The rescue
effort mounted by Brigham Young before anyone in Utah suspected the critical
situation of the companies, the munificent response of the communities
throughout the territory, and the courage and endurance of the rescue parties
make a heartening story. In many immigrant journals, memory of the rescue and
the welcome in Salt Lake City dominates other experience; the drama and the
timelines of the deliverance is dwelt on far more often than grief and
disillusionment over the predicament. Those embittered were in the minority;
and even these, decades later, wrote emotionally, gratefully, of the heroic men
who saved them from starvation and death" (Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard
Arrington, Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies, 3).
The famous author, Wallace Stegner, not a member of the
Church, who was known for both his non-fiction and fiction writing about the
American West, wrote: "Perhaps their suffering seems less dramatic because
the handcart pioneers bore it meekly, praising God, instead of fighting for life
with the ferocity of animals and eating their dead to keep their own life
beating, as both the Fremont and Donner parties did. But if courage and
endurance make a story, if human kindness and helpfulness and brotherly love in
the midst of raw horror are worth recording, this half-forgotten episode of the
Mormon migration is one of the great tales of the West and of America."
(Faith In Every Footstep)
Reading 9 - President
Gordon B. Hinckley said : "It is
because of the sacrificial redemption wrought by the Savior of the world that
the great plan of the eternal gospel is made available to us, under which those
who die in the Lord shall not taste of death but shall have the opportunity of
going on to a celestial and eternal glory.
"In our own helplessness, He becomes our
rescuer, saving us from damnation and bringing us to eternal life.
"In times of
despair, in seasons of loneliness and fear, He is there on the horizon to bring
succor and comfort and assurance and faith. He is our King, our Savior, our Deliverer,
our Lord and our God." (Ensign, Nov 1991, p54).
Reading 10 – Alma 7:11-13
Reading 11 – Mosiah 4:16-21
Mosiah 27:28-29
2 Nephi 25:23
President Gordon B. Hinckley, speaking about the pioneers,
said: "I will never get over being thankful to them; I hope you never get
over being thankful to them. I hope that we will always remember them. … Let us
read again and again, and read to our children or our children’s children, the
accounts of those who suffered so much." (Church News, 31 July 1999, p5)
President Hinckley further stated: "Stories of the beleaguered Saints and
of their suffering and death will be repeated again and again. … Stories of
their rescue need to be repeated again and again. They speak of the very
essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ." (Ensign, Nov. 1996, p86)
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