The
weather was clear and warm. The wind
kicked up later in the day. During the
morning, Wilford Woodruff sat and had a portrait taken which was to be put into
a book with other portraits of the Twelve.
Hosea Stout went digging for “Hartachokes.”1
In the
afternoon, the Twelve met with Joseph A. Stratton, who had recently arrived
from St. Louis, where more than two thousand Saints were spending the
winter. The minutes of the St. Louis
Conference were read. Brother Stratton
read all the names of the St. Louis Branch.
Brigham
Young officially turned the Winter Quarters flouring mill over to John Neff,
who had recently purchased it for $2,600.
In the
evening, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards read newspapers
and met with brethren who came to visit.
They were particularly interested in newspaper articles about the war
with Mexico. A special council meeting
was held at the home of city marshal, Horace S. Eldredge. Rodney Badger confessed that he had stolen a
horse from a Missourian. The council
decided that he should take two men with him, return the horse, and pay all the
expenses and damage.2
A letter
of recommendation was composed to the Nauvoo Trustees for W.W. Phelps. Brother Phelps was about to travel to the
east to procure a printing press for Winter Quarters. Included in the letter from the Twelve was recent news.
The
Council, with as many as can fit themselves out, will start as pioneers in a
few days, to find a location west of the mountains, leaving their families here
till they have prepared a place, then come and take them forward. Brethren who have small families, and means
to take with them from 300 to 500 lbs., of bread stuff per soul, will follow
our trail, when grass will warrant; others will tarry here, raise grain, and
prepare for another spring’s march; and no doubt many will gather in this place
this season and be preparing for their departure for the wilderness. . . . Any
company of seventy‑five men, with or without families, can leave this
place for the west as late as the first of July, if they have good teams and
eighteen month’s provisions.
A
daughter, Julia Pratt, was born to Parley P. and Sarah Huston Pratt. Patty Sessions helped with the
delivery. Joseph E. Walker, age two
months, died of cold. He was the son of
John and Elizabeth Walker.
During the
morning, John D. Lee laid the foundation for two houses. Afterwards, he started heading back to
Winter Quarters (about thirteen miles to the south.) He arrived at 4 p.m. Brother Lee gave Charles Shumway a span of
mules, a wagon, and grain to help them prepare for the pioneer journey.
Mary
Richards continued her journey to return to Winter Quarters with the Duel
family. They arrived at a large
settlement of Saints about four miles east of Keg Creek and camped with Brother
Allen. Mary Richards wrote in her
journal, “After supper I took a short walk from the waggon, and kneeled down
under a tree and offered up a prayer.”
The
battalion drilled as usual. News
arrived from San Luis Rey Mission that Private David Smith died there on March
23, 1847. He was part of the small
detachment of sick and others left behind to guard the mission. The men blamed the death on medicine
administered by Doctor Sanderson before he left the mission. Private Smith’s illness had become
worse. Two days before his death he was
speechless. Daniel Tyler commented, “He
died as he had lived, true to his God, his country and his religion.”
It rained
and was quite cool. This was refreshing
to the men and the first rain seen for many weeks. Azariah Smith wrote, “I feel very lonesum and want to see home
but comfort myself thinking that it is only a little more than three months
more till our discharge.” A “Young
Men’s Club” was organized for lecturing, debating, and reciting poetry. An express came in from Monterey, covering
1,000 miles in just ten days. The
express delivered government papers.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 544; Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:145; Kelly, ed., Journals of John D. Lee, 140‑41; Brooks, ed., On
the Mormon Frontier, 1:245; Ward, ed., Winter Quarters, 115; Nibley,
Exodus to Greatness, 349‑50; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The
March of the Mormon Battalion, 216; “Private Journal of Thomas Dunn,”
typescript, 23; Bigler, The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith, 82;
Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion, 135; Tyler, A Concise History of the
Mormon Battalion, 274; “The Journal of Robert S. Bliss,” Utah Historical
Quarterly, 4:90; Smart, ed., Mormon Midwife, 77
Signs of
spring continued to be seen at Winter Quarters. The Missouri river had risen two feet from continued thawing
upriver. The cottonwood trees were
budding and grass was starting to spring from the ground. The men in the city were busy moving houses
into a stockade line.
A meeting
was held at the Winter Quarters stand to divide the city into lots for
planting. Bids were accepted to fence
in these lots.
Brigham
Young met with the Twelve, Bishop Newel K. Whitney, and Bishop George
Miller. Bishop Miller expressed his
views that the Saints should emigrate to Texas instead of the Great Basin. He wanted to head south to make a treaty
with Mexico and to obtain land for the Church.
President Young wrote: “I
informed Bishop Miller that his views were wild and visionary, that when we
moved hence it would be to the Great Basin, where the Saints would soon form a
nucleus of strength and power sufficient to cope with mobs.” Hosea Stout recorded: “A very few words from different ones on the
subject caused him [Miller] to confess the impractibility of his plans.”
John D.
Lee spent the day working to have wheat and corn ground at the mill for the
pioneer company. Brother McGee Harris
generously donated eighteen pounds of bacon and ten bushels of corn for the
pioneer company.
The Sessions
family also donated provisions for the pioneers. They gave them twenty-four pounds of pork and two bushels of
corn. They sold seventy-five pounds of
beef to Jesse C. Little.
Mary
Richard continued her journey with the Duel family. They crossed Keg Creek where they found quite a few Saints
settled and then continued on for sixteen miles. They spent the night camped by a “Widow Smith’s” house, where there
was a large settlement of the Saints.
Mary Richards wrote: “I went and
kneeled down under [a tree] poured out my soul in prayer to Heavenly Father
that he would protect and preserve me and my dear Samuel [away on a mission to
England] from every danger and permit us to live long upon the earth and do
much good in our day and generation, and be blessed with all things that our
hearts should desire in righteousness.”
The
battalion drilled again. Henry Standage
took time to wash his clothes. An
Indian was sent to San Luis Rey Mission to instruct the men of the battalion
stationed there to go to Los Angeles.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 544; Kelly, ed., Journals of John D. Lee,
140‑41; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier, 1:245; Ward, ed., Winter
Quarters, 115; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of the
Mormon Battalion, 216; Bigler, Chronicles of the West, 52; “The
Journal of Nathaniel V. Jones,” Utah Historical Quarterly, 4:14; Smart,
ed., Mormon Midwife, 77
Wilford
Woodruff recorded in his journal:
It was a
busy day with me preparing to start on the journey. We are now about to start on the pioneer journey to go to the
mountains of Israel to find a location as a resting place for the Saints. . . .
I have never felt more weight upon my mind at this time while leaving my family
to go on a mission than now. My prayer
to God is that He will sustain myself & family to meet again on earth as he
hath done in the many mansions I have taken on the earth in the vineyard of the
Lord.
Horace K.
Whitney recorded: “It is the intention
to start most of the teams on Monday, who are to go up to the Elk Horn River
and then wait till all shall come up.”
A conference was planned in Winter Quarters for April 6th. Levi Jackman, one of the pioneers, left this
day with his team, heading for the Elk Horn River.
John D.
Lee distributed flour to pioneers and to wives of battalion members. He then took one of his teams to travel back
to Summer Quarters. Rodney Swasey went
along with him to bring the team back.
After they had passed the fort ruins at Old Council Bluff, they met
Isaac Morley and Edwin D. Woolley. They
traveled together but experienced an accident when they crossed over the bridge
on Mudd Creek. His wagon broke through
part of the bridge, injuring one of his mules.
It took them three hours to free the wagon. By that time, Brother Pace had come up from Winter Quarters on
the way to the farm with his family.
They all decided to camp for the night by Mudd Creek.
About this
time, Brigham Young’s brother Lorenzo came to a decision that he could not
leave his sick wife Harriet behind, while he went ahead with the pioneers. Lorenzo asked permission to bring her
along. President Young strongly
objected, but Lorenzo finally decided that he would not go without
Harriet. President Young needed his
brother to be part of the pioneer company and he eventually gave his
permission. Harriet could not be the
only sister in the company and after consultation, Brigham Young and Heber C.
Kimball decided to each take a wife on the journey. Clarissa Decker Young3
and Ellen Sanders Kimball4
would also make the trek. Lorenzo Young5 would also take his son
Lorenzo S. Young6 and his
stepson, Perry Decker7
(Harriet’s son).
A son,
Garret W. Mikesell, was born to Garret W. and Ruth Cunningham Mikesell. A son, John Smith, was born to George A. and
Bathsheba Wilson Smith.
Mary
Richards and her group passed by an Indian burial ground. Mary stopped to take a look. “One grave was covered with logs laid in the
form of a small crib. The bones was
laid on the out side of the ground.
While passing one of the wigwaams an Indian peaked out & called to
me and said ‘say Squaw come in.’” Mary
continued on her journey toward Winter Quarters. They met Reuben W. Allred going to Keg Creek in a carriage,
expecting to return to Winter Quarters the next day. Mary agreed to travel with Brother Allred to visit the Bird
family and then to return with him to Winter Quarters. She bid good‑bye to the Duel family
who had been so kind to her, and then went and spent a very pleasant night at
the Birds’ home.
A son,
Samuel David Carson, was born to William H. and Corilla Egbert Carson.
Robert
Bliss, while thinking about his family whom he had left at the Missouri River,
wrote: “As our time passes away I think
of home the More & wish for the time to come when I can once more live with
my Family & friends far away.”
After
spending one week in Louisville collecting donations for Garden Grove, Luman
Shurtliff made arrangement to leave for Cincinatti, Ohio. He first obtained letters of introduction
from editors of the Louisville newspapers and then boarded a boat in the
evening. He was quite sick and could
not eat.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 544; Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,
3:145; “Excerpts from the hitherto unpublished Journal of Horace K. Whitney,” Improvement
Era, 50:202; Kelly, ed., Journals of John D. Lee, 142‑43;
“Levi Jackman Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 26; Ward, ed., Winter
Quarters, 11; “The Journal of Robert S. Bliss,” Utah Historical
Quarterly, 4:90; “Luman Shurtliff Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 73
The first
two pioneers to leave Winter Quarters, Tarlton Lewis and Stephen H. Goddard,
arrived on the east bank of the Elkhorn River.
They began to build a raft that would be used to ferry the pioneer
wagons across.
Hosea
Stout wrote that the day was “Dark, Damp, Warm, Pleasant.” In the morning, Orson Pratt and Ezra T.
Benson preached at a Sabbath Service.
Wilford Woodruff did not attend the meeting because he was busy with a
baptismal service down by the river. He
baptized three members of Brother Dewey’s family and also confirmed them.
John Y.
Greene arrived with mail from Nauvoo, Mount Pisgah, and other places in
between. Thomas Bullock made a copy of
John C. Fremont’s topographical map of the road to Oregon which would be
valuable to the pioneer company. Lyman
Stoddard was given a letter of recommendation and certificate of authority to
enable him to preach on Pottawatomie Indian lands. The bishops were asked to work with the presidencies of the
emigration companies to help supervise the stockading of the city. Brigham Young proposed that eight to ten men
go and raise a crop for the Omahas to keep them away from the Winter Quarter’s
crops in the fall.
Mary
Richards returned to Winter Quarters after a six-week visit with families in
Iowa. She found her mother‑in‑law,
Wealthy Richards, quite sick and feeble.
Joseph Stratton met Mary and mentioned that he had brought her some
letters from St. Louis. One was a letter
that her husband, Samuel W. Richards, had written to her parents in St. Louis,
which had been forwarded to her. Mary
wrote: “I was glad to have one line
more from my dear Absent Husband for near six months had past since I had a
line from him.”8
The Twelve
wrote a long letter to Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of the Prophet. It began, “Beloved mother in Israel, Our
thoughts, our feelings, our desires and our prayers to our Heavenly Father, in
the name of Jesus, are often drawn out in your behalf, and we can truly say,
unceasingly; for we can never forget our beloved brother Joseph.” They were not sure where Mother Smith was,
but they wanted to be sure to tell her about the pioneer plans:
We are
speedily to depart from this place, with other pioneers, and go westward over
the mountains, as we shall be led by the spirit of the lord, to find a location
for a stake of Zion, we felt that we could not take our leave without
addressing a line to mother Smith, to let her know that her children in the
Gospel have not forgotten her. . . . If our dear Mother Smith should at any
time wish to come where the Saints are located, and she will make it manifest
to us, there is no sacrifice we will count too great to bring her forward, and
we ever have been, now are and shall continue to be, ready to divide with her
the last loaf.
Eliza Jane
Sanders, age three, died. She was the
daughter of Moses M. and Amanda Sanders.
John Smith, born the day before, died.
He was the son of George A. and Bathsheba Wilson Smith.
John D.
Lee escorted Isaac Morley and Edwin Woolley to examine the location chosen for
the Brigham Young family farm. “Father”
Morley approved of the location chosen and spoke to the family members
assembled there. He appointed John D.
Lee to preside over the farm in his absence and asked that they settle together
in a block and fortify it against possible Indian aggression. He mentioned that Brigham Young would likely
visit the site before he left with the pioneers. John D. Lee was authorized to survey the location and to divide and
assign lots to the brethren. John D.
Lee, Alfred D. Young and Miles Anderson measured the land consisting of 140
acres. During the night a heavy rain
storm blew in, dumping rain on the campers all night.
In the
afternoon, Captain Jefferson Hunt led a dress parade of the battalion
companies. About twenty ladies from Los
Angeles were present. These ladies
later visited with Susan Davis and Phebe Brown. Henry Standage observed that these Los Angeles ladies were the
most richly dressed of any women he had yet seen.
Robert
Bliss, while thinking about his family whom he had left at the Missouri River,
wrote: “I think my Family with the
first Camp is on their way by this time for California. I pray the Eternal Father to Bless them
& give them a safe & pleasant Journey.” Thomas Dunn had similar feelings: “The hours seem to pass slowly the nearer the time of our
discharge appears. My mind is almost constantly
reflecting on my wife and little one who are anxiously looking for my return to
their embrace.”
A meeting
was held at which Sergeant William Hyde preached to the men from the
scriptures. Many of the non‑Mormon
citizens, officers, and sailors of the ships attended.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 545‑46; Nibley, Exodus to Greatness,
350‑52; James R. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, 1:319‑21;
Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:145; Kelly, ed., Journals
of John D. Lee, 142‑43; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier,
1:246; “The Journal of Robert S. Bliss,” Utah Historical Quarterly,
4:90; “Journal Extracts of Henry W. Bigler,” Utah Historical Quarterly,
5:59; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion,
216; “Private Journal of Thomas Dunn,” typescript, 23; Ward, ed., Winter
Quarters, 115‑16
The
weather was cloudy, with occasional thunder showers on this historic day. Heber C. Kimball officially started the
pioneer journey. He left Winter
Quarters with six teams, traveled four miles to the west and made an encampment
for the night near the hay stacks.9 Elder Kimball wrote about this historic
day: “On the 5th day of April, 1847, I
started with six of my teams and went out about four miles, where I formed an
encampment with several others of my division.
The same day I returned home.”
Wilford
Woodruff intended to start the journey but delayed his start because of heavy
rain during the morning. Horace K.
Whitney loaded his wagon during the afternoon after the skies cleared.
A letter
was received from Almon W. Babbitt, one of the Nauvoo Trustees. He stated that he had visited many cities in
the east and that $100,000 was the largest offer that he had received for the
temple and Church property. In
addition, forty law suits had been issued against the Church for debts claimed
during the Kirtland period.
In the
evening, Mary Richards went to visit her uncle Willard Richards’ family. In the office she was read the letter
written to Lucy Mack Smith. Elder
Richards asked Mary about her visit with the Burtons on the Nishnabotna River. He then spoke of the Richards family and
told Mary, “You have been a good girl.
You have not come a whining around because your husband is gone but you
have endured his absence patiently and you shall be blessed for it. I know your desires are to do right, and to
do whatsoever is right in the sight of God.”
Elder Richards said that he was going to talk to Brigham Young about
sending her husband, Samuel W. Richards, home from his mission in England. Mary made it clear that she wanted him to
come home when his mission was through, not because she missed him so
much. “I want to see him so bad I
scarcely know how to wait til the time comes, but I trust the Lord will give me
strength and patience to endure all things through which I may be called to
pass.” Later in the evening, after
talking with President Young, Willard Richards told Mary that Samuel would be
given permission to return home in the fall.
John H.
Williams, age six, died. He was the son
of Peter and Elizabeth Williams.
John D.
Lee and others cut down trees for their cattle to browse on. They also built a bridge over a small stream
to help them haul timber back to the farm site.
Colonel
Mason arrived at the mouth of the San Pedro river in a ship and a letter was
brought to Captain Jefferson Hunt from Monterey. This letter probably spoke of two cannons that would soon be arriving. They had been taken from Fremont’s
rebellious volunteers.
Henry W.
Bigler wrote: “Spent the day mending my
ragged clothes, made a pair of trousers out of old sail duck or sail cloth.”
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 546; Kelly, ed., Journals of John D. Lee,
144; Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:145; “Excerpts from the
hitherto unpublished Journal of Horace K. Whitney,” Improvement Era,
50:203; Kimball, Historic Sites and Markers Along the Mormon and Other Great
Western Trails, 54; Jenson, Day By Day With the Utah Pioneers, 1;
Ward, ed., Winter Quarters, 117; Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C.
Kimball, 363; “Journal Extracts of Henry W. Bigler,” Utah Historical
Quarterly, 5:59; Journal of Henry Standage in Golder, The March of the
Mormon Battalion, 216; Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion, 147
Levi
Jackman arrived at the Elkhorn River where he found four other pioneer teams
who had left Winter Quarters ahead of him.
He crossed the river on a raft and set up camp to wait for the remainder
of the pioneers to arrive from Winter Quarters.
A short
General Conference of the Church was held at 10 a.m. Wilford Woodruff wrote:
“The sun shone bright, the Heavens smiles upon us. Our hearts were made glad. President Young spoke to the people good
doctrine.” Brigham Young spoke of those
who persecuted the Church. He said that
if the mob gave back one hundredth part of what they had stolen, it would be enough
to “carry us over the mountains.” He
prayed that their enemies’ hearts would be softened. He warned the people to avoid the evils of dancing because such
evils would be a snare, and instead they should sing hymns.
William W.
Phelps presented the leaders of the Church for a sustaining vote. Brigham Young was sustained as President of
the Church and of the Twelve Apostles.
The other members of the Twelve were also sustained: Heber C. Kimball,
Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, John Taylor,
Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, Amasa Lyman and Ezra T. Benson. Lyman Wight was not received unanimously,
but his case was held over to another time.
Elder Wight had been away for months in Texas. Heber C. Kimball said that he had seen Elder Wight in a
dream. He had become stuck in the mud
up to his knees and was pulled out with the help of the brethren.10
Other
positions sustained: Willard Richards as Church Historian and John Smith as
Patriarch in the Church. As members of
the High Council: Alpheus Cutler, President, George W. Harris, Isaac Morley,
Reynolds Cahoon, David Russell, Alanson Eldredge, Thomas Grover, Henry G.
Sherwood, Cornelius P. Lott, Winslow Farr, Ezra Chase, and Phinehas
Richards. As Presidents of the
Seventies: Joseph Young, Benjamin L. Clapp and Jedediah M. Grant. As Presiding Bishop, Newel K. Whitney. Bishop George Miller’s name was not
presented for vote.
Mary
Richards attended this conference and wrote:
“Bro B[righam] & Kimball gave us much good instruction in regard to
the future proceeding of the Camp in this place etc. after which we were
dismissed with the Blessings of the Lord.”
Erastus Snow added his impressions of the conference: “Spent a few hours in the exchange of
feeling and in exhortation, and in transacting some important business, and
adjourned by advice of President Brigham Young, as the most part of the pioneer
company were about ready and anxious to be on their journey westward.”
William C.
A. Smoot, one of the pioneers, left Winter Quarters to head for the Elkhorn
River to stand guard.
Amy Sumner
Porter, age thirty-two, died of scurvy.
She was the wife of Chauncy W. Porter.
Summer
Quarters was measured off and divided into city plots. John D. Lee called the family together and
they discussed whether the land should be pooled together as a family or
divided up privately. Those who wanted
the land pooled together were: Alfred D. Young, David Young, James Woolley,
Henry Woolley, George Laub, Allen Weeks, William Allen, T. Allen, Levi North,
George W. Hickerson and some others. T.
Johnson, William Pace, and Miles Anderson wanted private ownership. There were some sharp words spoken during
the discussion and John D. Lee had to reprove some of the men. Brothers Harris, Simeon Dunn and James Busby
soon arrived at the camp.
Luman
Shurtliff continued to labor in collecting donations for the destitute Saints
at Garden Grove, Iowa. He wrote:
I called on
one wholesale merchant who refused me money, finally hunted up some men’s hats
that were out of style and gave me two dozen.
These hats sold in upper Missouri for three dollars each. Sometimes I would get a box of soap,
sometimes a pair of boots or a coat or pants or dishes or a looking glass. At one place I got a gross of spoons, a
gross of knives and forks. I made many
trips a day to my room which was four pair of stairs up. On an average my travel was about two miles
each load. I was walking and talking
all day and this affected my lungs and I was failing fast.
A wagon
was sent to the coast, to load provisions from a ship. Colonel Cooke issued an official order to
discontinue the post at San Luis Rey Mission.
“1st Lieutenant, Oman, Mormon Battalion, will march his detachment,
composing its garrison, to this city without delay. He will drive here all the public mules and bring with him other
public property in his charge.”
Elder
Addison Pratt, on the first leg of his voyage to home from his long mission,
noted in his journal that this was his daughter Lois’ tenth birthday. He wrote:
Again is my
dear family brought fresh to my mind by this anniversary. And to reflect that I am now on my way to
them is a pleasant thought. But the
next thought that arises is, Where are they?11
Or where am I to find them? It is true I have started for California, in hopes
to find them there. But as I have not
heard a word from them since August, 1844, who can tell me that I am to find
them there?
Orson Hyde
arrived in New York from Liverpool.
Watson, ed., Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 546‑47; Kelly, ed., Journals of John D.
Lee, 144; Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:146; “Luman
Shurtliff Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 73; Ward, ed., Winter Quarters,
117; Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier, 1:246; “Levi Jackman
Autobiography,” typescript, BYU, 26; Erastus Snow Journal Excerpts, Improvement
Era 14:633; Knight and Kimball, 111 Days to Zion, 5; Beecher, The
Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow, 164; Journal of Henry Standage in
Golder, The March of the Mormon Battalion, 217 Tyler, A Concise
History of the Mormon Battalion, 275; Ellsworth, ed., The Journals of
Addison Pratt, 325; Norton Jacob Journal, typescript, 44; Wight, The
Wild Ram of the Mountain: Lyman Wight, 266-82
At about noon, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and others started their historic pioneer journey for the Rocky Mountains. Norton Jacob recorded: “I left my family and started on the great expedition with the pioneers to the West.” Wilford Woodruff left with his company of eight wagons. He wrote: “When we were on the top of the ridge west of the city, I took a view of the Place & looked at my wife & children through my glass. I then led the company to the old camp ground12 from thence on the Ponkan road about 7 miles & camped for the night 10 miles from Winter Quarters.” Soon, Orson Pratt arrived with his company, followed by Brigham Young and his company. They all camped together with about twenty‑five wagons near a west branch of Little Papillion Creek. Heber C. Kimball was still camping about four miles to the