[The Martin Company] learned that
two LDS Church wagon trains, the Hunt and Hodgetts companies, would leave
Florence after all the handcarters departed. John Jacques wrote that the PEF
instructed the ninety ox-driven wagons to stay close to the last handcart party
during the overland expedition (John Jaques, “Some Reminiscences”). This wise
decision, which ultimately saved many lives, was a rare demonstration of PEF
concern for the safety of the inexperienced handcart emigrants.
The same precaution was not
applied to the critical issue of a late departure. Historian Howard Christy
wrote that Church leaders warned for years that a May departure from the
Missouri River was needed to ensure arrival in Utah before winter storms
(Howard A. Christy “Weather Disaster and Responsibility: An Essay on the Wille
and Martin Handcart Story,” BYU Studies 37, no. 1, 11-13). Questions
about the lateness of the season continued to circulate among the Saints.
Franklin Richards called a meeting for the evening of August 24 (Rogerson, “Martin’s
Handcart Company, 1856 [No. 3]”). Four hundred emigrants who made up the Hunt and
Hodgetts wagon train joined more than six hundred members of the enlarged
Martin company for the event. Apostle Richards was one of the Church’s
highest-ranking officials and an enthusiastic architect of the handcart
experiment. He had the authority to postpone the reckless departure until
spring, but he chose differently. According to Hodgetts company member John
Bond, Richards acknowledged that some Saints were fearful of snowstorms in the
Rocky Mountains. He then prophesied, in the name of Israel’s God, that the
handcart company would be protected form all storms, that God would keep the
way open, and that they would arrive in Zion safely. However, Christy
observed that everyone in charge of managing the handcart emigration seemed to
accept the comforting idea that “God would ‘overrule’ the elements sufficiently
to assure success irrespective of the degree of risk” (Christy, Weather,
Disaster, Responsibility,” 73).
In fact, John Bond recalled two
exceptions to the leadership’s wishful thinking. John A. Young, Brigham’s
eldest son, warned that the Martin company would not be able to cross the Rocky
Mountains safely because of the freezing weather, higher altitudes and the
shortness of food. He continued, “Such would cause untold agonies, sickness and
much loss of life . . . my father’s agents have lost too much time in starting
the Saints to arrive in the valley safely” (Bond, “handcarts West in ‘56”).
Chauncy Webb, who oversaw construction of the handcarts at Iowa City, also
urged the Saints to winter along the Missouri (Margaret A. Clegg, “Margaret A.
Clegg’s Statement,” in Edward Martin Company, Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel
database). (Myron Harrison, Rescuing Beefsteak: The Story of a Pragmatic
Pioneer Idealist [Jackson, Wyo.: Myron Crandall Harrison, 2018], 22-23)
Here is Bond’s reminiscences:
A
MEETING AT FLORENCE
At Florence, we found Franklin D.
Richards, George D. Grant, William H. Kimball, and others. As the last two
wagon trains and hand carts arrived, a council was called, urging the Saints
not to fear the lateness of the time. The hand cart Saints were afraid the
season was too late to make any more travel that year on account of the snow
and cold weather which would have to be endured in crossing the Rocky Mountains
before they reached Salt Lake City. Franklin D. Richards spoke with great
passion and feeling. he told the Saints that they had come this far on their
faith and had arrived safely. He said, "You have heard the testimony of
the former brethren as to your traveling westward." He told them he
believed they would arrive at the valley in safety. Many of the Saints had been
fervently praying that God would guide the Apostle and that they would start in
the right path to his camp. Richards told them that as they had the faith to
travel this far, they had better journey on to the end and he prophesied in the
name of Israel's God that the Saints would arrive safely in the valley in spite
of the inclement weather and storms from all directions. That God would keep
them safe.
(John Bond, Handcarts
West in '56 [1945], 12)
