Monday, February 28, 2022

John Bond’s Reminiscence of a Prophecy of Franklin D. Richards

  

[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)