AGNES
CALDWELL
Born: February 22,
1847 in Glasgow, Scotland
Age: 9
Willie Handcart
Company
I came with my mother, Margaret Ann (40), and
siblings, Robert (17), Thomas (14) and Elizabeth (12) and Christina McNeil (24)
who had worked for our faimly in Scotland.
My oldest sister, Mary, had died when she was only one year old. My oldest brother, William (Jr.) did not
emigrate with the family because he had enlisted in the Scottish army, and
though he and my mother both tried, he could not get out of it. It was a very sorrowful and grief filled day
when we left my brother behind.
"I have no memory of my father, as
before my birth he set sail for the Candadian borders. He had visited with his parents [in Canada]
and was on his way to the United States to investigate the feasibility of
bringing his family to America or Canada.
His parents notified mother about the news that he was lost at sea. His name was neither on the list of those
saved or those lost." My parents
had joined the church just before father left.
My mother continued with her plans to save and join the saints who were
at that time fleeing Nauvoo. "You
can well imagine it was no easy thing for mother to make a living for a family
of five, three boys and two girls.
Necessarily, I was brought up in the strictest economy." Mother scrimped and saved for almost nine
years before we finally boarded the ship "Thornton" in May of 1856
"for the promised land. We joined
the Willie Handcart company and began the noted tramp across the desert
waste. Many times on the trek I would
become so tired and, childlike, would hang on the cart, only to be gently
pushed away. Then I would throw myself
by the side of the road and cry. Then
realizing they were all passing me by, I would jump to my feet and make an
extra run to catch up."
My mother was very wise and helped us to
avoid feeling overly hungry. In Iowa
City she sold a bedspread for twenty-four cents to save for buying food. She also traded trinkets with Indians for
dried meat.
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Even though it is
Ocober now, we do not suffer as much as others from hunger--mother planned
well. Nearly day-by-day I could relate
the sad story of our frozen handcart company.
I remember well the day the rescue wagons arrived. All of us cried, even the grown men. One day, the other children and I
"decided to see how long we could keep up with the wagons, in hopes of
being asked to ride... One by one they all fell out until I was the last one
remaining. After what seemed the longest
run I ever made... the driver, who was [Brother] Kimball, called to me, 'Say
sissy, would you like a ride?' I
answered in my very best manner, 'Yes, sir.'
At this he reached over, taking my hand, cluckinig to his horses to make
me run, with legs that seemed to me could run no farther. On we went, to what to me seemed miles. What went through my head at that time was
that he was the meanest man that ever lived or that I had ever heard of, and
other things that would not be a credit nor would it look well coming from one
so young. Just at what seemed the
breaking point, he stopped. Taking a
blanket, he wrapped me up and lay me in the bottom of the wagon, warm and
comfortable. Here I had time to change
my mind, as I surely did, knowing full well by doing this he saved me from
freezing when taken into the wagon."
My family and I arrived in the Valley on
November 30, 1856! My sister Elizabeth
needed only two toes amputated. We
settled togther in Brigham City where I met and married Chester
Southworth. I weighed only 96 pounds
when I was married at age 18 and I could easily stand under my husbands
outreached arm. My children would come
to say that whenever I had lectured or reprimanded them they had received my
'Scotish Blessing.'
Chester and I had 13 children. We lived in Brigham City Utah, Idaho, Canada
and California, always accepting the call to go and colonize other places. My Chester died in California in 1910. After this I returned to my home of Brigham
City. "At a Relief Society
Conference in the Tabernacle I was called the the stand. Here in my meekness and humility, I bore my
testimony as to the truthfulness of God's great work." I leave my testimony with you now. "We can go to our Heavenly Father in all
confidence knowing that he answers prayers.
When we go to Him humbly and sincerely, believing that we will get that
which we desire, if it is for our good, then is the time we will get that which
we ask for. We can be cheerful and
thankful if we keep his spirit with us at all times. Did you ever know how many of us complain
unthinkingly? We complain about the
weather. We complain about the seasons. It is either too hot or too cold. Did it ever occur to you that our Father in
Heaven rules over all and does all things well?
I always [try] to be more conscious of the Lord's blessings by trying to
be more grateful, cheerful and uncomplaining.
May the Lord bless you as you do this in your own life."
Aaron Harrison
Born: 3 June 1837,
Manchester, Lancashire, England
Age: 18
Martin Handcart Company
My father and
mother, William Harrison and Hannah Louise were born in England and married in
1836. They had nine children before we
began our journey to gather with the saints, three of the children died as
infants and are buried there, in England.
Our family secured passage aboard the ship 'Horizon'. Father, Mother, myself, George (14), Mary Ann
(13), Alice (10), Joseph (6), Hannah 'Caddie' (almost 2) and Sarah Ellen (5
months). We boarded the ship in the
Liverpool harbor late in May of 1856.
After about five weeks at sea, we landed in Boston.
After all the things were ready, we
started on our journey by rail. The seats of the train were two-inch plank with
no back. Many of the younger boys in the
company would often jump off the train to grab handfuls of fruit from the
orchards that lined the track and then quickly overtake the train again and hop
back on. We soon grew very tired of that
way of traveling. We went from Boston to Chicago, then to Rock Island across
the river on a steamboat, because the railroad bridge was burned down. After we
all got over we took the train for Iowa City. When we got there and our baggage
was unloaded, it was getting late in the day. Our camping ground was 3 miles
from the city, as there was no place at the depot to accommodate so many
people. My brother, George, and I stayed at the depot to help and so were
separated from our family. Some of the
people started for the camp on foot just about dark, and George and I were
among them. We had not gone very far when it began to rain and it was so dark
we could not see anything. We made out the road by the help of lightening. For
Iowa can beat the world for lightening and thunder, but I never was afraid of
lightening. After ascending a steep hill I could see a fire at the camp. They
were keeping a big fire burning to let the people know where the camp was for
there was a great many people waiting there to get their teams and wagons ready
to start across the plains. When we saw the fire George and I started in a
straight line for it and not knowing anything about the country we thought it
would be the best way. The rain had quit after it had wet us through and after
going through numerous pools of water from ankle deep to knee deep, and
wallowing through grass as high as our heads, we managed to reach camp.
On
Iowa Hill we began to outfit for the journey, building handcarts and sewing
tents and making what preparations we could.
Once all were ready, we departed Iowa Hill on 28 July 1856. There were
576 people, with 146 handcarts, 7 wagons, 30 oxen, and 50 cows and beef cattle
in our company.
Aaron Harrison
Born: 3 June 1837,
Manchester, Lancashire, England
Age: 18
Martin Handcart Company
At first we traveled fifteen miles a day,
although delays were caused by the breaking of wheels and axles, the heat and
dryness making many of them rickety and unable to sustain their loads without
frequent repairs. We had ox teams, which hauled the tents and what provisions
we had. The company was in good spirits,
and each night would join in meetings, singing hymns and dancing. Once we reached Florence, Nebraska our
captains were concerned about the late date and the change of seasons. Some thought it might be best to winter
there. A vote was called in the company
and by a mostly unanimous count, we voted to continue on.
It became
necessary to reduce our rations, and the re-supply stations we had hoped for
lacked sufficient stores to supply us.
Mother was still nursing, and so starved that she could provide no milk
for baby Sarah. George also became very
ill - he contracted Malaria. Burning
with fever and starved for want of nourishment, George spied an Indian camp off
the trail and turned aside to beg food from them. None of us had noticed when
he left our company, but we had passed an Indian village, which, when father
noticed George was gone, he searched back along the trail, and then inquired in
the Indian camp. An old squaw had taken
George into her care and fed him some stew she was boiling, father
related. The old squaw begged father to
let him stay with them, for she was sure he would die if forced to continue the
journey at that time. Father felt that
it was the right thing to do, though we all mourned and prayed and hoped that
somehow, someday, we would see George alive and well again.
Mid-October
the cold and snowstorms became our lot.
On October 19th, our company crossed the N. Platte River for the last
time... the water was very cold and there were great chunks of ice floating in
it. Only twelve miles beyond this last crossing
the deep snow stopped us. Fifty-six of
our members died in those few days since we crossed the river that last time.
We knew that
our food supplies were limited; only three days worth left. But the storms and wind continued to pound,
and we could make no further journey. At
this time, we prepared our minds and hearts.
It was at this place that Joseph A. Young arrived as the leader of the
express relief party sent from the valleys by President Brigham Young - he rode
a white mule down a snow covered hill.
Women and men surrounded him, weeping and crying aloud; on their knees,
holding to the skirts of his coat, as though afraid he would escape from their
grasp and flyaway. Joseph stood in their
midst drawn up to his full height and gazed upon their upturned faces, his eyes
full of tears. His coming gave us a
pound of flour that night instead of the four ounces we’d had issued to us for
several days past. The next morning we left this camp where we had been about
four days and had buried about 14 of our number.
We traveled on
to meet with the wagons of the relief party and many sick and ill left behind
their carts and continued in the wagons.
We took very few carts with us, and as more wagons reached us all carts
were abandoned and we were conveyed into the Salt Lake Valley November 30,
1856.
Fourteen
months later, George found our family in Springville, Utah; he had joined with
Johnston's Army Group to travel on to Utah.
George told us the Indians had named him 'White Skeleton' and nursed him
back to health kindly. All of my family
made the journey to Utah alive.
Aaron married
Ursula Carson and was living in California at the time of the 1880 census.
Albert
Jones (16) of the Martin Company:
I well remember waking up very early
one morning, after I had been on guard in the fore part of the night, with my
feet nearly touching the corpse of a brother Jackson - they told
me he was dead -
and
I laid back for another sleep, so little terror had I for death in his frequent
visits to our camp.
So apparent was the sentence of
death written on the lantern-jawed expression of some of the half starved men
and boys who died, that I could tell how long they would stand the ordeal. One
boy about my own age was walking up and down by a large grave I was helping to
dig. I read in his face that he would be interred there unless we moved on
before two days had passed - we stayed there four - he was
buried in that grave.
It was at this place that Joseph A.
Young arrived as the leader of the [express] relief party sent from the valleys
by President Brigham Young - he rode a white mule down a snow
covered, hill or dug way. The white mule was lost sight of on the white
background of snow, and Joseph A. with his big blue soldier's overcoat, its
large cape and capacious skirts rising and falling with the motion of the mule,
gave the appearance of a big blue winged angel flying to our rescue.
The scene that presented itself on
his arrival I shall never forget; women and men surrounded him, weeping and
crying aloud; on their knees, holding to the skirts of his coat, as though
afraid he would escape from their grasp and flyaway. Joseph stood in their
midst drawn up to his full height and gazed upon their upturned faces, his eyes
full of tears. I, boy as I was, prayed "God bless him."
His coming gave us a pound of flour
that night instead of the four ounces we’d had issued to us for several days
past. The next morning we left this camp where we had been about four days and
had buried about 14 of our number.
I have heard that a lady well known among the saints
once said, "While the surest way of getting to . Heaven was
under discussion, when I approach the Golden Gate, Peter will at once grant me
admission when I cry, 'Hand Carts!'''
You
have probably heard their story many times, but to really understand them,
you
must know the 15 whom they left buried there in the snow at Rock Creek Hollow.
Their
untiring faith and their ultimate sacrifices, represent all of those who
walked
this way so long ago.
They
were:
1.
Nils Anderson - age 41, from Copenhagen, Denmark. He was a farmer
traveling
with his wife, Metta and their children, Anna & Anders. The family had
been
baptized in Denmark and, leaving behind their home and family, they
traveled
to be with the body of the Saints. He often carried his weakened
14-year-old
daughter, Anna, in his handcart.
2.
John Bailey & his wife, Elizabeth Bailey ages 51 & 52, from
Worcestershire,
England. They were traveling with their two children. Elizabeth died here
at
Rock Creek and her husband died a few days later. Their two children
continued
on, entering the Salt Lake Valley to fulfill their parents' dying wishes
that
they fulfill their dream of coming to Zion.
3.
Samuel Gadd, age 10, from Cambridgeshire, England. His father & mother
left
England with 8 children, including newborn twins. The father, Samuel, died
Oct
9, and one of the twins, Daniel, age 1 year, died Oct 4. His mother,
Eliza,
was left a widow with 6 children. In spite of her weakened health, she
continued
on and she and the remaining children arrived in the Valley.
4.
James Gibb ,age 67, a sailor from Scotland. His wife, Mary, was one of
the
first converts to the Church from that country. They left their children
in
Scotland and went ahead to prepare a place for them in the Valley. James
was
buried at Rock Creek on his wife's 53rd birthday.
5.
Chesterton Gillman, age 64, from England. He was a coal miner and a
sailor,
and the father of eleven children. His wife died in 1854 and, against the
wishes
of all his children, he made the decision to come to the Salt Lake
Valley.
His greatest desire was to join with the body of the Saints and attend
to
the Temple work for his beloved wife.
6.
William James, age 46, from Worcestershire, England. He was a farm
laborer.
His death at Rock Creek left his wife, Jane, and seven young children
without
a husband and father. The youngest was only 3 years old. Their baby,
Jane,
age 6 months, had died during the ocean crossing on the ship Thornton and
was
buried at sea. Jane and the children walked the remainder of the way from
Rock
Creek Hollow to the Valley.
7.
James Kirkwood , age 11, from Glasgow, Scotland. He traveled with his
widowed
mother, Margaret, age 47, and three brothers; Robert age 21, Thomas age 19 and
handicapped, and Joseph age 4. James' primary responsibility was to
care
for his little four-year-old brother, Joseph, while his mother and oldest
brother,
Robert, pulled the cart over the ridge. When little Joseph became too
weary
to walk, James picked him up and carried him up and over the mountain.
Moving
slowly through the snowstorm, they were left behind the main group. When the
two finally arrived at the campfire, James placed his little brother down beside
the campfire and collapsed and died from exposure and exhaustion.
8.
Ole Madsen, age 41, from Denmark. His death left his wife, Anna, to care
for
their four children; Hannah, Kirstine, Anna & Anders, and his aged father,
Ole
Sr., who were all sick. Anna's prayers and her singing of the hymns of
the
restoration, helped encourage them on.
9.
Bodil Mortensen, age 10, from Denmark. She was traveling to be with her
sister
Margaret in the Salt Lake Valley. She had been assigned to care for
younger
children during the ascent and had then been sent to collect anything
she
could find for firewood. She was found frozen to death leaning against the
wheel
of their handcart, clutching sagebrush. Bodil's parents came to the
Valley
a year later and did not learn of her death until their arrival in the
Valley.
10.
Ella Nielson, age 22, from Denmark. She was traveling with the Wickland
family.
Exhausted one day, she was wrapped in a buffalo robe to rest on the
trail.
Brother Wickland carried her to Rock Creek and he and his daughter
Christina
held her through the night to keep her warm, but to no avail. After
she
died, her hair had to be clipped from the ice beneath her frozen body.
11.
Niels Nielsen died at Rock Creek just five days short of his 6th
birthday.
He was from Denmark. His father Jens's feet were frozen so badly that he had to
be pulled by Sister Nielsen in their handcart. The children in this
family
struggled in snow that was sometimes knee-deep, suffering greatly from
exhaustion
and exposure.
12.
Anne Olsen, age 46, from Denmark, a widow, traveling with her 12-yr old
son,
Lorenzo. She was from the same branch of the Church in Denmark as Nils
Anderson
who also died at Rock Creek. Her son was taken in by others and
arrived
safely in the Valley.
13.
Lars Wandelin, age 60, from Sweden. He was a watchmaker who joined the
Church
in Denmark. He did not want to be buried with his treasured silver
watch,
but wanted it was turned over to the Perpetual Emigration Fund to be used to
assist others in coming to the Valley. (Here the brother representing Lars
Wandelin
handed a watch over to the speaker as he walked off the stand.)
The
two who dug the graves for the above 13 and who died the afternoon after
the
burial were:
14.
Thomas Girdlestone, age 62, from Norfolk, England. He was the overseer
of
a large farm and the father of eleven children. His wife, Mary, died five
days
later, leaving his twenty-one-year-old daughter, Emma, alone in the
company.
One of their descendants will give the closing prayer this evening.
15.
William Groves, age 22, a laborer from England, traveling by himself.
His
parents did not have enough money to travel to Zion together, so his family
sent
him ahead to find them a place in Zion and await their arrival the
following
year. It would take months for the news of William's death to reach his
family
in England.
Alfred
Gadd
Born: 1827
England
Age: 19
Willie
Handcart Company
Alfred’s
mother, Eliza Chapman was born March 13, 1815, at Croydon, Cambridgeshire,
England, the daughter of William Chapman and Mary Pentlon. On April 13, 1836
she married Samuel Gadd who was born in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England.
Between the years of 1836 and 1854 they became the parents of nine children,
the last being twins. Her husband joined the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints October 14, 1841, and on May 1, 1856 the family started for
Utah to join the Saints in the valley of the mountains. They left behind their
fairly prosperous living and the branches of the church where Samuel Sr. had
been the presiding Elder during the 15 years since his baptism.
Eliza and
Samuel came with their chidren, Alfred (18), Jane (16), Willaim Champan (12),
Samuel (11), Mary Ann (7), Sarah (5), and Isaac and Daniel (one year old
twins).
On
Sunday, 4 May, 600 British emigrants sailed from Liverpool per ship Thornton
together with about 163 Scandinavian Saints. The whole company was placed
in charge of James G. Willie with Millen G. Atwood, Johan A. Ahmanson, and
Moses Cluff as his assistants. During the voyage Captain Collins showed himself
a considerable and pleasant gentleman, as he allowed the emigrants all the
liberty and privileges, which could be expected, and praised them for their
cleanliness and good order, and also for their willingness to conform to all
his requests. He also gave the elders unlimited liberty to preach and hold
meetings on board, and, together with the ship's doctor and other officers, he
listened repeatedly to the preaching by the elders and occasionally joined them
in singing the songs of Zion.
One
of Samuel’s responsibilities was to help care for his younger siblings. This
must have been quite an adventure for Samuel, Mary Ann, and Sarah. As recorded
by Peter Madsen during the month of May, they passed huge icebergs and a
damaged ship "not worth retrieving." That was a day selected for
worship, prayer, and fasting. Many talks were given and Elder Ahmanson told his
Danish flock that they "were highly favored of the Lord." That
night" . . . a fire broke out and burned between the decks, but the Lord
preserved us so that the fire did not over power us. An English boy who had
stowed away on the ship was discovered. He had accompanied us without
permission and ticket. For this action he would have been punished and caused
to bear a wooden jacket or barrel; but since he was a member of the Church he
was forgiven." Surely, Alfred and Samuel were saddened as a young boy fell
down from the top to the bottom deck and died four days later. He was buried in
the same manner as the others who had died previously. This included being
wrapped in canvas and the American flag, and being then deposited in the ocean.
Samuel and the other young people had happy
experiences, as well as the tragic. Imagine their delight as they watched
"many seahorses" [dolphins] appear on the water during the month of
June. After arriving in America, they traveled by train to Iowa City, where
they built their handcarts and sewed their tents and prepared for their trek to
their promised Valley.
When
they arrived at Iowa City they joined the belated handcart company of Captain
James G. Willie. Eliza Chapman Gadd was not a member of the Church before she
left England. She came with her husband as a dutiful wife should when her
husband decides to move on.
Heber McBride who was a little younger than Alfred
and traveling in the Martin Company, wrote of his time in Iowa City. Alfred was
in the same place and was sure to have similar experiences:
“This was
my first night in a tent. When I awakened in the morning the sun was shining
and I could hardly realize where I was, but it did not take me long to dress
and get out. I saw a beautiful country of grass and farms as far as the eye
could see on one side, and on the other side of the camp was a strip of timber,
not very wide but I couldn't say how long, with a stream of water running
through it.
I
soon got acquainted with the country and swimming was the order of the day with
all the boys in the camp. We had to stay 6 weeks before all the things were
ready to start across the plains and it was a great sight to see about 600 to
800 people starting for Utah with handcarts.”
Alfred
was most likely put to work on manly duties such as building carts and guard
duty. But it seems like he would have appreciated the water and the beauty of
the area.
AARON
JACKSON
Born: in
England
Age: 31
Martin
Handcart Company
Aaron’s wife, Elizabeth, left a good
journal of their experiences. She said “I have a desire to leave records of
scenes and events through which I have passed that my posterity may read what their
ancestors were willing to suffer for the Gospel’s sake and that what I now word
is the history of hundreds of others who passed through and suffered as we did
for the Kingdom of God’s sake.
In 1841, when I was fifteen years
old, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by
James Gallay. I do not remember who
confirmed me. On May 28, 1848, I was
married to Elder Aaron Jackson. My
husband was born at Eyme, Derbyshire, England, Sept. 30, 1823. We were blessed with three children,
namely: Martha Ann, born at
Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, 6th Feb. 1849; Mary Elizabeth, born
22nd July 1851; Aaron, born 18th Jan. 1854, all at the
same place.
On the 22nd of May, 1856,
we started on our oceanic and overland voyage for Utah, which was an eventful
and ever memorable journey. We sailed
from Liverpool, on board the sailing ship Horizon. My sister, Mary Horrocks, was with us.
There were about seven hundred
passengers on board. We had a pretty
good passage over the sea. Only one
incident occurred to alarm the company.
When hoisting sail in a storm, once, the word was given “hoist
higher.” One of the passengers mistook
the word for “fire.” Happily the error
was discovered in time to prevent a panic on board. We landed at Boston, Mass., June 30th,
in good health. After a short stay in
Boston, we proceeded to Iowa City, which place we reached on July 8th. At this place we commenced to make
preparations for our terrible overland journey across the vast plains to
Utah. The mechanics were very busy
manufacturing hand carts on which to haul our provisions, small children,
etc. The hand carts or many of them,
were built on wooden axles instead of iron; and with leather boxes. We expected to find these vehicles already at
hand on our arrival at Iowa City. Thus
work consumed between two and three weeks of time, in which we should have been
wending our way to Salt Lake City. There
were two companies which contained about five hundred and fifty six
persons. There were one hundred and
forty six hand carts, seven wagons and six mules and horses, fifty milch cows
and beef animals. There was one wagon
loaded with goods for the Church. To
each of these two companies were apportioned a mule team, and two wagons hauled
by oxen. These were to carry the
commissary stores, tents, etc. On July
15th, the company left Iowa City under the captaincy of Elder James
G. Willie, for Florence, a distance of 277 miles. At Florence, the two hand-cart companies were
consolidated. Edward Martin was appointed
Captain and Daniel Tyler was his assistant.
On Aug. 25th, the camp broke, traveled about two miles and then camped.
On the 27th of Aug. we
made a final start from Cutlers’ Fork, on our long tedious journey across the
vast plains of a thousand miles to our future home. We continued our toil day after day, pulling
our hand-carts with our provisions or rations, our little children, etc.,
through deep sands, rocky roads, or fording streams. It was a dreary journey. Many miles each day were traveled ere, with
tired limbs we reached camp, cooked supper, ate and retired for the night to
rest, to pursue our monotonous course the following day.
Elizabeth Jackson describes the
journey across the plains as a long and tedious one.
We continued our toil day after day, she
writes, pulling our handcarts with our provisions and rations, our little
children, etc., through deep sand, rocky roads, or fording streams. It was a
dreary journey. Many miles each day were traveled, ere with tired limbs we
reached camp, ate and retired for the night to rest, to pursue our monotonous
course the following day. After toilsome and fatiguing travel, we reached
Laramie on the 8th of October. . . .
Shortly after leaving Ft. Laramie it became
necessary to shorten our rations that they might hold out, and that the company
be not reduced to starvation. The reduction was repeated several times. First,
the pound of flour was reduced to three-fourths of a pound, then to half a
pound, and afterwards to still less per day. However, we pushed ahead. The trip
was full of adventures, hair breadth escapes, and exposure to attacks from
Indians, wolves, and other wild beasts. When we reached the Black Hills, we had
a rough experience. The roads were rocky, broken, and difficult to travel. Frequently
carts were broken down and much delay caused by the needed repairs.
James
and Amy Loader came to
America
first in 1855. James had worked in
England as foreman and head
gardener for a wealthy gentleman by the name of Sir Henry Lambert. James and
Amy's four sons and nine daughters were all born on this estate where James had
worked for 35 years. Somewhere around 1850, the Loaders joined The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and James was fired from his job as a
consequence. In November 1855, they left for
America on the "John J.
Boyd" with at least six of their unmarried children. Their oldest
daughter, Ann (Dalling), had already emigrated with her husband and was
awaiting their arrival in
Utah.
The Loader family first went to Williamsburg, New
York, where they worked for a time. Even their
daughter, Sarah, who was not yet twelve; worked as a nursemaid in the home of a
wealthy family by the name of Sawyer. They left in June of 1856 and traveled to
Iowa where
they joined with their daughter, Zilpah, her husband, John Jacques, and their
one-year-old daughter, Flora. Zilpah was expecting another baby, which was born
on the plains in August. Amy's granddaughter, Flora, did not survive the trek.
She died about a week before reaching the Valley .One family record indicates
two sons coming to America,
but only 10-year-old Robert is listed with the Company.
James Loader died, fairly early in
the trek, (Sept. 27 of diarhea), leaving his wife and children to finish the
trek alone. The rest of them survived the trek, experiencing many miracles amid
their tribulation. James had been faithful and courageous in defending his new
faith. One of his greatest wishes was to see his daughter, Ann, in Zion. Surely the Lord
granted James this blessing of witnessing his entire family in Zion.
Amy was a very strong woman who
protected, sustained and cheered her children, as well as others, without
complaining. She always manifested great faith in God. She put on all the extra
clothing she could carry under her own, so when the children needed dry
clothing, she always had it, including dry stockings for them after fording
streams. As the weather became colder and provisions shorter, they were given 4
ounces of flour a day for each person. Instead of the usual gruel, Mother
Loader made hers into little biscuits and would have them through the day, thus
having a bite tlr two for the children when they were tired and faint.
One day, a man lying by the
roadside, when asked to get up, said he could not, but if he had a mouth full
of bread he could, so Amy gave him some food and he got up and went on. In Salt Lake
some time later, this man stopped Amy and thanked her for saving his life.
After one exceptionally cold night,
Amy (whose health was also very fragile), could not get her daughters to arise.
She finally said, "Come girls, this will not do. I believe I will have to
dance to you and try to make you feel better." Amy struggled to her feet,
hair falling about her face as she filled the air with song. Louder and louder
she sang, her wasted frame swaying as finally she danced, waving her skirts back
and forth. The girls laughed, momentarily forgot their frozen toes and snow-
covered blankets, as their mother danced and sang and twirled until she stepped
on an icy patch and fell in a heap to the ground. Then " ...in a moment we
was all up to help our dear Mother up for we was afraid she was hurt. She
laughed and said, 'I thought I could soon make you all jump up if I danced to
you. ' Then we found that she fell down purposely for she knew we would all get
up to see if she was hurt. She said that she was afraid her girls was going to
give out and get discouraged and she said that would never do to give up."
Amy's daughter, Tamar, was very much grieved when she left England because she had been unable
to convert her sweetheart and he remained. One night, while on the plains,
after much grieving, she had a dream. The next morning she told her mother that
she had dreamed that her sweetheart came and stood beside her and he seemed so
real. But he was not alone. Another man was with him. ..In the dream the sweetheart
finally faded away but the other man remained. When Tamar first saw Thomas E.
Ricks in the rescue party, she took her mother by the arm and said,
"Mother, that's the man." She did marry Thomas Ricks (after whom Ricks College
is named).
Amy's daughter, Patience, relates
that one day as she was pulling the handcart through the deep snow a strange
man appeared to her: "He came and looked in my face. He said, , Are you
Patience?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'I thought it was you. Travel on, there is
help for you. You will come to a good place. There is plenty. 'With this he was
gone. He disappeared. I looked but never saw where he went. This seemed very
strange to me. I took this as someone sent to encourage us and give us
strength." (The Loader family was met by rescuers at camp that night.)
After arriving in the Valley, Amy went to Pleasant Grove to
the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Amy and John Dalling. She remained
there until her death in 1885 at the age of 83. Her descendants have written of
her, " Amy Britnell Loader protected, sustained and cheered her children
and others without complaining and manifested great faith in God." Her
son-in-law, John Jacques, wrote: "His [James Loader's] chief solicitude
was for his wife, who, he feared, would not be able to endure the journey. But
she did endure it. She endured it bravely, although it made her a sorrowing
widow. She has lived a life of usefulness to the present time, yet still a
widow, for she could never believe there was a man left in the world equal to
her husband."
|
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Daughter, Tamar
Loader (Ricks)
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Albert Jones
Born:
28 August 1839, Brentford, Isleworth Parish, Middlesex, England
Age:
16
Martin Handcart Company
I
came to Zion with my mother, Sarah Ann Bradshaw Till Jones (55), my brother, SS
(Samuel Stephen) Jones and his fiancé, Lydia Elizabeth Hooker (20), my mother,
Sarah Ann Bradshaw Till Jones (55) and Phoebe Jones. My mother’s first husband was William Till
and together they ran the 'Angel Inn.'
It was a good business and a well-run hostel, which included a dinning
room, large yards and a stable, which could accommodate large numbers of horses
and coaches. Mother had good business
sense and was always saving money. When
William died, she married my father, Samuel Jones.
Mother
learned first of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we joined
the church together. Father was not as
excited, but eventually he did join as well.
Mother decided she wanted to follow the Lord's directive through his
servants and emigrate to be with the Saints in the Great Salt Lake Valley. Father did not approve or desire to leave our
circumstances in England. I never saw my
father again, once we left England. Father
died in England in 1861.
We
sailed on the ship 'Horizon,' departing May 25, 1856 with hundreds of English
Saints under the direction of Edward Martin.
We were about five weeks at sea. Mother was called "Sister Unity" by
the Saints because she often made peace and talked of the principles of unity,
as was becoming of Saints. Once we
arrived in New York City we traveled on by way of train to Iowa City. The seats of the train were two inch plank
with no back.
We
arrived at camp on "Iowa Hill" July 6th, and "we stayed here at
this Camp-Ground making tents and Hand-Carts Sixteen or twenty days... The sturdy men and women of English pluck and
courage, left the Iowa camp ground (July 28th) in good spirits. Their handcarts
were a light burden, nerved as they were with the "spirit of the
gathering."
Albert Jones
Born:
28 August 1839, Brentford, Isleworth Parish, Middlesex, England
Age:
16
Martin Handcart Company
"...My
Brother S.S. and myself led out at the head of the column of Hand Carts from
Iowa Camp Ground, and it was with a certain amount of pride that I rejoiced in
my youthful strength—as I grasped the handle bar of the cart—and bore it forth
so easy with the keep of my brother. I
was short in stature then for my age, and broadly built—was strong—not sick one
day through the long journey—no frost or frost bite on my young body in spite
of the bitter cold weather endured by our company."
"We crost
the state of Iowa 300 miles with our Hand-carts, then on August 25th, 1856, we
started out for Utah across the Great Plains One thousand miles of a journey.
Our company was under the care of Edward Martin and Daniel Tyler, provisioned
for sixty days; Five Hundred Seventy Six men, women and children; One Hundred
Forty Six Hand-carts and seven Wagons to carry tents and flour. One Hundred
pounds of flour on each Hand-cart."
"But with
the first snow storm came a contraction of the muscles of the face, which gave
an expression to the features of the men denoting that they were now about to
enter a struggle with snow and frost which would take all their energy to
conquer. I well remember waking up very early one morning, after I had been on
guard in the fore part of the night, with my feet nearly touching the corpse of
a brother Jackson—they told me he was dead—and I laid back for another sleep,
so little terror had I for death in his frequent visits to our camp. So apparent was the sentence of death written
on the lantern-jawed expression of some of the half starved men and boys who
died, that I could tell how long they would stand the ordeal. The women of the company bore the strain
well; free from night guard and other cares, which were on the men, they
endured the privations of the journey with less loss to their ranks. "
"The
journey was a terrible one owing to the early closing in of winter! One third
of the party died on the Road!" We
reached Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the 8th of October. "I sold an extra over-coat at Laramie to
one of the cooks for some dried Peaches, apples and a little bacon and some
flour, which made me feel, if not the richest man in camp. I helped dig the
grave in which fourteen of our people wer[e] buried. One boy a little older
than myself came walking by the grave and I knew by his appearance, if we
stayed there four days he would go into it. We stayed; and his dust lies out on
the plains near Red Ballieat [Butte] the point where Joseph A. Young with his
companions from the Valley, the first of the Rescue party to reach us. We were
reduced to a quarter pound of flour per day and if the rescue party had not
come out to help us, we should all have perished a miserable death by
starvation and cold.
On our last
crossing of the Sweetwater, Brother Kimball carried me across while it was
freezing terribly hard; and my brother S.S. and William Binder (rescuer) pulled
our Cart through the cold stream - SS fell under but got up again - when our
handcart broke down (the axle), upon it coming out of the water on the other
bank—and my brother went on to camp in his wet clothes, while I stayed behind
(trying to fix the handcart), and after a long time succeeded in bringing our
bedding & other things into camp on another handcart. Ephraim Hanks, another rescuer, found our
party with two buffalo that he had killed, and he nursed SS back to health, or
he surely would have died from the exposure.
"As we
neared the vallies—younger men—boys in their red shirts, their trousers thrust
well down into their boot tops made their appearence felling the dry timber for
our fires—& even trying to make merriment to cheer up our gloomy &
sorely tried people. I think it must
have been Coopers tale "The Prairie" which I read in London, that
gave me so great an admiration for the "American axe," and these red
shirted young giants received from me the greatest admiration for their skill
in cutting down the trees, with their quick & rapid blows—& I thought
my fortune would be made if I could only swing the axe so gracefully & effectually
as these youths from the vallies."
"I
followed them from fire to fire & if allowed to cut a stick into two with
their axe I was in my glory—although they laughed at my first attempts to
acquire its use—one night I well remember after I had sung sever[a]l songs to the boys around their
jolly big campfire—I moved to the other side of the fire—from where they were
sitting—& in my admiration of these active young fellows, I made a vow—That
should I and my people reach the vallies in safety—and a call should come to go
out to rescue belated Saints in their incoming through the mountains, I would
go out to help them—in six years the call came: Bishop Duke of Provo in the year 1862 called me to take my own dear
self—my one yoke of Oxen—and my own wagon and go 1000 miles to Florence to
bring in a wagonload of such emigrants. I went under the late Cap. Homer Duncan
making the round trip in the
shortest time of any of the ox trains dispatched from the Vallies in that
business—fulfilled the vow I had made—& this effort is among the most
pleasant of my life."
...And so
Brigham Young had ordered all the available and necessary number of men and
teams to come out to our help, and after much suffering and privation we passed
over the little mountain divide thru eight feet of snow, arriving in Salt Lake
City at noon Sunday the 30th of November, 1856. I stood the journey without
frost bite or blemish; mother [Sarah Ann Bradshaw Jones] stood it well, but my
brother S[amuel]. S[tephen]. Jones would no doubt hav[e] perished had not
Ephraim Hanks one of the Rescuers nursed him along.
"May Gods blessings be upon you... & may your children
ever be true to the cause for which you have spent your lives."
Albert Jones
kept a journal of the trek and gave speeches and recorded memories still
available online, the latest of which is an address given at the assembly hall
on temple square, October 4, 1906. He
married Sarah Ann Halladay on the 7 April, 1874 and they had seven children. One daughter died within a few days of birth,
and two daughters died of illness within three weeks of each other late summer
of 1880.
Benjamin Platt
Born: 12 Apr 1833
England
Age: 23
Martin Handcart Company
Benjamin Platt traveled to Utah with his wife, Mary-19. Ann Wrigley-60 also traveled with them. In 1899, Benjamin recorded his own narrative,
portions of which are included here:
“My parents
were very poor and were common laborers.
My father worked on railroads and other such work. He was a good butcher and a good shoemaker
and sometimes he went pealing bark for tanning and in his latter days he rented
a small farm. My mother in her young
days was a handloom weaver. She was the
mother of 13 children, 8 sons and 5 daughters.
We did not have the benefit of a common education. We had to go to work when we were very young
ad it required great economy to provide for us food and raiment. I don’t remember going to school more than
about six weeks except to Sabbath school, but when about 14 years of age I
commenced going to a night school where a few young boys clubbed together and
taught each other.
“At about
the age of fifteen and a half years, the Latter-day Saints came in the
neighborhood where I lived…One John Yates and Isaac Duffin came and preached
the doctrine of the church and on the 7th of October I was baptized…
About two years after this I was ordained a Deacon. In this office I labored for about 3 years
and was then ordained a Priest and went out preaching in the highways and
public places around in the neighborhood.”
In late
1855 or early 1856, Benjamin began to make plans to immigrate to Utah by
handcart. He was married on the 13th
of April 1856 at the Oldham church in Lancashire to Mary Graves. Together, they set sail on the “Horizon” May
25, 1856, from Liverpool “…and arrived in Boston Harbor on the 28th
of June.”
“On the 2nd
of July we met Orson Pratt and Ezra T. Benson going to England. We took train to Iowa City and waited three
weeks for our Handcarts to be built. Our
time was spent in herding cattle that were to haul our wagons and other stock
that was being brought through. We
traveled by handcart through Iowa three hundred miles to the Missouri River and
crossed into Nebraska to old Winter Quarters called Florence on a high hill
west of the river.”
Benjamin Platt
Born: 12 Apr 1833
England
Age: 23
Martin Handcart Company
The group
arrived in Florence, Nebraska. Benjamin wrote: “We here stopped three weeks
waiting for Edward Martin’s handcart company and repaired our handcarts, they
having worn their axles through and we had to cut them shorter and shoulder
them up or put the wheels on further and when we started from here for Salt
Lake we had to put on each cart 100lbs of flour and all our luggage and our
tents and the carts being without skins on the axels it was too much work for
them and they commenced to break down and that hindered us and caused great
delay.
“We here
joined the two companies together on account of hostile Indians of the plains
which retarded our progress and caused us to be late in the season. I think we started from Florence on the 27th
of August for a trip of 1,000 miles and had it not been that we were delayed by
our carts breaking down we might have been in Salt Lake city in October where
as it was the last day o November.
Apostle Franklin D. Richards called a meeting and advised us to stop at
Florence until the next season but there were some apostates there of
Josephites and we did not want to stay and we declared we would go through or
die trying and we prevailed and he seeing we were determined, he
consented. But he said he did not want
anyone to try that could not walk every foot of the way. But we started, men, women, and children, and
the result was great suffering. He told
us that President Young had promised to send out teams to meet us and that we
might have weeks of Indian Summer and we might get within reach of the teams
before the cold weather set in.
“By October
we had reached the last crossing of the Platte River and the snowstorms started
and cold weather set in and our rations being limited, starvation and cold
began to tell on us and many began to die and I have helped to bury as many as
nine in a morning. At the last crossing
of the Platte I took off my shoes and stocking and carried my wife over on my
back and then went back for my handcart and that night we had a snowstorm cut
we had plenty of wood and we stayed here for several days, and it was here that
Joseph A. Young and another man met us, having been sent out to meet us. At this time we had 4 pounds of flour to each
individual in camp and 400 miles from Salt Lake.
“…On the
trail I met two brethren from Oldham that I was well acquainted with and they
were going back to the states and they tried to persuade me to go back with
them, but the Spirit told me not to go back.
At parting with them, Thomas Eccles said, ‘Ben, if you are going back,
let us have your handcart.’ And I said to them, ‘Goodbye, I guess I will go
on,’ and we parted-them to damnation and me to Salvation, I hope.
“After the
two brethren spoken of above that came out to meet us, we traveled one day and
found eleven wagons loaded with flour and clothing and I fitted me out with a
large pair of shoes lined with stocking leg that came up above my knees and thy
kept my feet from freezing and we kept meeting teams every day after this. When we got to Devil’s Gate or Sweetwater River,
we left our handcart and went in wagons and then the feet of the people began
to freeze on account of inaction or want of exercise. Our captains were hard on us and we had to
herd at nights and pull handcarts all days and many time I have been kept up
until midnight and then stood guard until morning and then started again and it
was this everlasting guarding that killed the people.
“…We
arrived in Salt Lake City on the last day of November 1856 on Sunday as the
people were coming out of the meeting.
We were on the streets awaiting friends to take care of us and were
taken down to John Olgers that is me and my wife and Thomas Eccles and family
and an old lady that came with us named Ann Wrigley. The nest day, me and my wife were taken down
to Zera Pulcifers…next night we camped in the tithing yard and next morning the
watchman told us that Jedediah Grant died in the night…in the morning we
started for Iron County and arrived at Fort Harmony about 1 week before
Christmas, and Bishop W.R. Davis sent us to stay with Hennery Barney with
intent to stay until Spring, but in about a week we were sent to stay at John
D. Lee’s and in the Spring I hired out for the year for $15.00 per month.”
Benjamin
moved his family to the Southern Utah town of Grafton in 1860.
Charlotte Moulton Carroll
Born: June 7, 1851
Age: 5 years
Willie Handcart
Company
Charlotte
was born into the family of Thomas and Sarah Moulton who were from Irchester,
Northampton, England. Charlotte was one
of ten children born to her parents.
When Charlotte was 5 years old she left England with her family. Before they set sail, her mother received a
blessing in which it promised her that she would make the journey safely
without the loss of one member of her family. They sailed from Liverpool on the
ship “Thornton,” May 3, 1856 with 755 other persons of Danish, Swedish and
English origin.
While on board the ship, her mother Sarah gave
birth to a son, Charles Alma. He was so
small and frail that he was carried on a pillow until after they got to
Utah. During the six week trip to
America their ship suffered a fire and had a few run-ins with icebergs. In
fact, after the first three weeks of sailing, the ship was nearer to Liverpool
than it had been at the end of the first week.
Much of the time the ship lay down on its side, because of the efforts
of the captain to keep it zigzagging against the wind.
The family arrived in the New York
harbor on the 14th of June 1856.
There they boarded the train for Iowa City, the starting point for the
handcart companies, arriving there June 26th. Here they found there
were no covered wagons to be had, so they had to use handcarts. After three weeks of preparation, they
finally started their 1300-mile journey to Salt Lake City on July 15th.
The Moulton family was assigned to
the James G. Willie Handcart Company.
This company was composed of 500 saints, with more than the usual number
of aged. The family had one covered and
one open handcart. Charlotte’s parents
pulled one cart with the baby and her younger sister Lizzie. Lottie (as Charlotte was called) was only
allowed to ride in the cart if they were going down hill. Heber, her eight year old brother, walked
beside the handcart pulled by his parents with a rope around his waist to keep
him from straying away. The two girls,
Sarah and Mary Ann and the two boys, William and Joseph, pulled the other cart.
They suffered much from hunger and
exposure from the cold weather, but none of Lottie's family died. They finally reached the Valley with help
from the rescuers on the 9th of November 1856. They were greeted by many of the Salt Lake
citizens who were anxiously awaiting their return. They stayed in Salt Lake for three weeks
before being placed in Provo to live for a while.
Lottie grew into a splendid young
woman who enjoyed and was very skilled in the art of weaving and spinning. The family later moved to Heber City where
she met her husband Willard Carroll.
Beth
Robinson
Born: May 17, 1836, England
Age: 20
Martin Handcart Company
Elizabeth
Robinson , A Handcart Pioneer of 1856 who traveled to Utah with the Martin
handcart Company when she was twenty years old, was born May 17th., 1836, in
the little Manor town of Beauvale, Nottinghamshire, England. She was the
daughter of Samuel and Mary Price Robinson.
Beth, as she was
known to the family and friends of her youth, was the ninth child in a family
of ten children, three girls and seven boys.
The Robinson
family was in moderate circumstances. They owned their own home, a good two
story brick house which was built and well furnished by Beth's father who had a
life lease on the land. Lord Plumptree (or Plumbtree) was the lord of the manor
town of Beauvale, and the one to whom the Robinson's paid the tax on their
home.
Beth's mother was
a mid-wife, and her father was miner by trade. Being an honest, industrious
worker, he always had a job in the mines, and worked on the same shift, getting
off at three o'clock every afternoon. He spent the remainder of the day in his
garden. He raised flowers and a good vegetable garden, and provided well for
his family. Beth’s brother, Solomon, was a surveyor by trade.
Beth was educated
in the city of Eastwood, a distance of ten miles from her home in Beauvale,
where she walked to school every day. This was a private school, sponsored and
taught by several philanthropic ladies of the gentry.... Later Beth, taught the
"Infants School" in the parlor of their home. She also did the fancy
stitching on the backs of black gloves for a firm in Nottingham city, doing the
work at home.
The Robinson's
kept open house for the Latter-day Saint missionaries, and Beth was a valiant
defender of Mormonism from her earliest childhood, although she was then a
member of the Church of England. She was a student of the Bible, and was
outstanding in her knowledge of the Scriptures. She was always successful in
her, defense of the principles of the LDS Church, not only against the attacks
of some of the other Bible students but even the teachers of the school and
their minister, who was called to the school by the teachers to prove to the
other students by the scriptures that Beth was in the wrong and to convince her
that she should not join that maligned Church or have anything more to do with
the "Mormons".
Due to her
knowledge of the Scriptures and her understanding of the principles of the LDS
Church she was convinced of the truthfulness of the gospel. Beth joined the
Latter-day Saint Church during her 18th year. Beth and Solomon were both
baptized on April 14, 1854, by Elder John Cook, the President of the Eastwood
Branch of the LDS Church in England.
Two years later
she and her brother Solomon began their long journey to Utah, leaving all their
family and friends to come to a foreign land and settle with the people of
their faith. They left their home In Beauvale on the 20th of May 1856 for
Liverpool, where they joined other Saints and set sail on Sunday May 25th. on
the ship "Horizon" for Boston, Massachusetts, where they landed on
July 3rd. after a voyage of forty days on the ocean.
During the voyage
the returning Latter-day Saint missionaries held meetings on board which were
attended by the Saints and some of the officers and sailors of the ship.
Apostle Franklin D. Richards, the retiring President of the European Mission,
promised the emigrants, during one of their meetings that they should have no
storms during the voyage, and not spar should be broken. One sailor who heard
his sermon, said: "I know that is a lie for I have crossed the ocean
thirteen times, and never yet without plenty of storms and some part of the
ship broken." But the prophecy proved true nevertheless.
Captain Reece
enjoyed the singing of the Saints, and he used to ask Beth and some of the
other Latter-day Saint girls to sing for him during the voyage. Among the songs
they sang for him was one entitled, "I'll Marry None but Mormons."
The Captain answered by saying: "Now I Shall Carry None but Mormons."
As he had never before had such a safe and pleasant voyage, nor such happy
congenial passengers.
From Boston the
emigrants went by rail to Chicago where they spent the night in an old barn.
Continuing their journey on the following day to Iowa City, which was the
western terminus of the Rock Island Railroad, and the outfitting point for the
handcart companies, where they arrived about the 8th of July. The final stop
was at the Iowa Camp ground on Iowa Hill three and one-half miles north of the
city, where they remained for three weeks waiting for their handcarts to be
made for them, as the carts for the Willie's Company, which preceded them were
not yet finished.
Beth
Robinson
Born: May 17, 1836, England
Age: 20
Martin Handcart Company
On the 28th of
July, the Martin's Handcart Company began their journey westward from Iowa City
to the Salt Lake Valley. They traveled across Iowa, walking 400 miles to Omaha,
Nebraska on the Missouri River. And started from Omaha in September to walk
1,031 miles to Salt Lake City over the trackless stretch of prairie, high
mountains and desert now known as the Old Mormon Trail.
This was the
biggest company, with the fewest wagons, the most infirm and the least
provisions of any company crossing the plains, and also the most women and
children.
This added to the
late start and the severe winter weather was responsible for the unprecedented
hardships endured by this company which was described by historians as one of
the saddest in the history of the West. They were cheerful, however, this
courageous, heroic band of emigrants, and true to the spirit of all our noble
Pioneers.
They sang as they
marched along the rough dreary trail and in the evening around the camp fires.
Among the most popular songs, was the famous Mormon Hymn,
"Come, come
ye Saints, no toll
nor labor fear,
But with joy wend your way;"
.....
"And if we die before our journeys'
through,
Happy Day! All is well."
Another favorite
was their notable "Handcart Song", the chorus of which goes as
follows:
"Some must
push and some must pull
As we go marching up the hill,
As merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley, O!"
During this
tragic journey the winter storms came over a month earlier than usual, and were
more severe, and to add to the misery of cold and hunger they had to wade all
the streams and rivers. At the last crossing of the Platte River on October
19th. it was snowing and bitter cold. The river was full of blocks of ice and
the water was deep. It came up under Beth's arms as she waded across. Many were
dying from hunger and cold. At this crossing eleven were buried in one grave.
Their clothes were frozen on them every night.
Beth was forced
to leave most of her clothing and personal belongings at the outfitting point,
as they were allowed to bring only fourteen pounds each, including clothes,
bedding and provisions, etc. On the plains, as they grew weaker, they were
forced to discard even a part of that, so in the coldest weather they were
nearly naked, and the provisions gave out so that they were reduced from one
pound of flour per day to just two spoonsful, one in the morning and another in
the evening which they made into gruel, as they had no other food. No salt nor
pepper, no meat or vegetables or anything else to eat. They got only one
buffalo on the plains, and didn't even see a rabbit.
The suffering of
this company was beyond words to express, and those who didn't die were so weak
and ill that they were near death.
One incident that
shows their weakened condition on that ill-fated trek was told of two men, Luke
Carter and William Edwards, who pulled a handcart together to the crossing of
the North Platte. They shared the same tent and bunk but finally quarreled. Mr.
Edwards was not a strong man and one day he complained of fatigue, and begged
his companion to let him drop down by the side of the road and die. Mr. Carter,
thinking a rest would revive him, complied with the request. Mr. Edwards walked
from under the shafts of the cart to the side of the road, laid down on the
prairie and in ten minutes he passed away. Another day after winter set in, as
the company was traveling along the miserable trail, an old lady fell full
length into the snow, her arms extending over her head. There she remained, too
weary and ill to make any effort to regain her feet. Completely exhausted but praying
aloud to the Lord, asking Him to permit her to live to reach the Valley. Thus
she laid until some member of the company helped her up. At the camp that night
she passed away.
Another member of
this courageous company, known as Father Stone, who traveled with a little
grandchild about two years of age, lagged behind the company one day and was
taken up by the Hunt Wagon Company, traveling in the rear. He was invited to
stay with them over night but being anxious to regain his own company, he and
his little granddaughter continued on into the night and on the morrow their
mangled remains were discovered on the plains surrounded by packs of wolves.
As winter
advanced and President Young learned of the suffering of the Handcart
Companies, he sent relief trains to meet them. Sixteen wagons with provisions
were sent out from Salt Lake City. They met the Willie's Handcart Company on
October 20th and seventeen men and nine teams pushed on to meet the Martin
Handcart Company, and Hunt Wagon Companies.
Joseph A Young
and two others, Dan Jones and Abe Garr, were sent on ahead to announce their
approach to the emigrants. They found the Martin's Company near the Sweet Water
on October 29th, in a most deplorable condition. They had lost fifty-six by
death since leaving the Platte River nine days before. Most of their bedding
had been abandoned on the road as they were too weak to haul it. The Company
was strung out three or four miles along the trail. There were old men pulling
and tugging at their carts, many of which were loaded with sick wives and
children. There were also little children from six to eight years of age who
were struggling through the snow and the mud.
Two days later,
on the first of November, the emigrants with the assistance of the relief
party, reached Devil's Gate in the Sweet Water Valley. Here they were forced to
leave many of their belonging under the care of Dan Jones of the relief party
and fifteen others. Several days later they made the last crossing of the Sweet
Water. The crossing of this river was a terrible ordeal to the weary travelers.
It was intensely cold. The river was wide and the ice was three or four inches
thick, and the stream full of sharp cakes of ice which bruised them severely as
they struggled through the water. The river was deep and about forty yards
across and many were unable to wade.
Three men of the
rescue party, David P. Kimball, George W. Grant and C. Allen Huntington waded
back and forth for hours helping the handcarts through and carrying the women
and children. One of the men offered to carry Beth across, but she said she
would wade the river if he would carry her brother Solomon, as he was so ill
that she knew he would die in the water. She started to wade across the river
but another man came and insisted on carrying her over, which was very
fortunate as she was not strong enough for such an ordeal.
Soon after this
crossing, probably during that night her brother Solomon died. His death
occurred on November 5th in Martin’s Cove while the company was
seeking shelter there. After Solomon's death, Beth allowed one of the young
women to take the boots off his feet and wear them as her shoes were in holes.
Beth was also wearing a pair of her brothers boots as her feet were so badly
swollen that she couldn't wear her shoes. And after his death, she also wore
his coat, and one of his handkerchiefs tied on her head as the wind had blown
her hat away.
As they grew
weaker and were forced to throw away apart of their load, Beth discarded
clothes, bedding and provisions, but kept their books. Among these were her
Church works, a Barclay's dictionary and the books belonging to her brother who
was a surveyor.
While traveling
along the Sweet Water and after the emigrants reached the mountains they were
met by other relief trains from Utah. But they still didn't have teams enough
to allow all the weary travelers to ride, so tried to give them all a turn, but
Beth walked over a thousand miles without riding a single step. She was
suffering so much fatigue that she felt like it was impossible to go any
farther and it was only the thought of her parents in faraway England, and
their grief when they received the message that she as well as her brother had
died of hunger and cold on the plains that made it possible for her to continue
on. Otherwise she would have laid down in the snow and died.
Finally, with her
feet frozen so badly that she could no longer keep up with the company in her
exhausted condition, she started out one morning far in advance of the others
to avoid being left behind. But they soon caught up with her and continued to
pass her. She was too proud, as well as too shy to ask for a ride. Although she
had never a turn she plodded resolutely on while the entire company passed her,
one by one all the relief wagons, except one driver had gone on ahead. Beth was
steadily loosing ground and the wolves were grimly drawing closer, so she knew
that she would meet the same fate as the little girl and her grandfather,
unless she received help... It was only the fear of the wolves, even then, that
made it possible for her to ask for aid... In desperation, as she neared the
foot of the hill and watched the last relief wagon pass by, she got the courage
to call to the driver, Anson Call of the relief party, and asked him to give
her a ride. He said his team was too weary to take her up the hill but she
could ride when he reached the summit. He was very much surprised that she
hadn't been given a ride sooner. She managed only by a supreme effort to reach
the top of the hill. Then Mr. Call had to carry her and put her in the wagon,
and that night she had to be carried to the camp fire and have her boots cut
from her frozen feet.
During that
afternoon while Beth was riding along the trail with Mr. Call she spent the
time mending his coat which was badly tattered. Welcoming the opportunity of
repaying him for the ride he was giving her. When they reached the camp that
night it was impossible for Beth to get out of the wagon, or to take a step so
she was carried to the campfire where boots were cut off, and her feet wrapped
in gunny sacks. Her feet were so black from the continued freezing that it was
feared they must be amputated to the knees. But she would not consent to this,
as did quite a number of her unfortunate companions, but her recovery was due
only to her great faith and persistent care that she received. Even under those
adverse conditions her feet were carefully bathed in warm water every night and
morning.
It was Jesse
Perkins of South Bountiful, a member of the relief party, who carried Beth back
and forth from the wagon to the camp fire every day for the remainder of the
journey to the Salt Lake Valley, as it was impossible for her to walk any more
until after she reached Utah.
Beth with other
emigrants of the Martin Handcart Company, arrived in Salt Lake City on Sunday
November 30th, 1856, just as the Sabbath meeting was out.
When she saw that
cheerful, happy throng of pioneers, so clean and neatly dressed and compared
them with her own Country people in their pitiful tattered clothing, hungry,
bedraggled and frost bitten, she could no longer restrain her tears, the first
she had shed on that long tragic pilgrimage across the plains, where she had
faced danger and death and every privation. And where she had left her brother
buried in the snow. The only relative she had in this new land and the only
member of that company that she had ever known before leaving her native land.
But one hundred
and fifty of this valiant band of emigrants never lived to reach their
destination, as they died of unprecedented hardships on the plains.
Beth, after her
arrival in the valley, lived at the home of Anson Call in Bountiful, until she
was married the next March. She was married in the Salt Lake Endowment House in
Salt Lake City, Utah on the 13th of March, 1857 to John Telford of Bountiful,
Utah. He was a pioneer of 1851. They resided in Bountiful for many years where
they built a good brick house on their small farm in East Bountiful.
Beth passed
through all the trials and hardships of pioneer life in Utah, living in
Bountiful, Brigham City and Richmond during the early settlement of these
communities, but she never complained although she had made so many sacrifices
to come to this new land of promise.
Beth Robinson
Telford was a woman of fine character, supreme faith and courage. She was
broadminded, scrupulously honest and truthful. She was unselfish and
conscientious to a fault, and had a wonderful sense of justice. She was
educated and refined, proud and sensitive. She was fastidious in dress and in
thought. Quite, modest and unassuming in her manner. She was of a highly
spiritual nature and very reverent. Keen of perception and a good reader of
character. Beth was a lover of nature in all her moods and seasons. She loved
animals, especially fine horses. She loved to read good books and was
interested in all the cultural things of life. Her old fashioned flower garden
was a joy to all who knew her.
She was a good
housekeeper, thrifty and efficient and always neat and clean. She was an
excellent seamstress, doing all her own sewing by hand, the finest of stitching
and tucking. Her husband's white linen shirts were made according to the
fashion of that time with fine tucked fronts. Her tucks were made but two
threads wide and the shirts laundered to perfection. She also knitted for her
family and made the finest of knitted and crocheted laces.
When she was only
a little girl in England, Beth knitted a lace edging for a table cloth for a
surprise present for her mother. She used number 100 thread which she set up on
pins, instead of using her mother's knitting needles. When her mother received
the lace and found out that it was knitted on pins, she asked to see Beth's
hands. When she saw their condition she said: "The poor little pricked
fingers", as she tenderly kissed each finger tip. Although usually
undemonstrative, her mother was quick to show her appreciation and loving
sympathy to the little daughter who had worked so painfully and hard to make
the lovely gift for her mother. It was a sweet memory of her wise and
understanding mother that Beth carried always in her heart.
Beth, true to her
heritage was a most devoted wife and mother. She was kind and thoughtful of
others and respected their rights. She was a good neighbor and a generous and
loyal friend. She despised a liar or a trouble maker, and couldn't tolerate
anything vulgar, mean or petty.
Her children were
well trained in all the basic principles - obedience, self control, honesty and
industry. In sportsmanship, generosity and consideration for others. The best
in fiction, literature, history and religion.
Beth was active
in the Relief Society and sang in the choir for many years. She was the mother
of nine children, two of whom died in infancy, and one boy who died at the age
of eight years.
This noble
pioneer woman, who was admired and respected by all who knew her, died at the
age of 74 years, after an illness of two years. She passed away at her home in
Richmond, Cache County, Utah on February 22nd., 1910 and was interred in the
Richmond City Cemetery.
