Camp on Sugar Creek.--Brigham's Charge to the Exiles.--Death of a Noble
Woman.--Garden Grove.--Free from Mobs.
God pity the exiles, when storms come down--
When snow-laden clouds hang low on the ground,
When the chill blast of winter, with frost on its breath
Sweeps through the tents, like the angel of death!
When the sharp cry of child-birth is heard on the air,
And the voice of the father breaks down in his prayer,
As he pleads with Jehovah, his loved ones to spare!
My father was among the first of the Saints who left Nauvoo and the
State of Illinois to avoid the storm of persecution that religious
prejudice had created against us. A general gathering place had been
chosen nine miles from the river, on Sugar Creek. Here an advance
company of brethren had prepared for our coming by shoveling away the
snow, so that we had dry spots on which to pitch our tents. Nor did we
pitch camp a day too soon; for a heavy storm swept over that part of
the country, leaving the snow fourteen inches deep, and being followed
by a cold so intense that the Mississippi froze over, and many later
teams crossed on the ice.
On the fifteenth day of February Presidents Brigham Young and Heber C.
Kimball joined us; and for the next two weeks a continuous stream of
wagons poured into the encampment so that by the first of March over
five thousand exiles were shivering behind the meager shelter of wagon
covers and tents, and the winter-stripped groves that lined the Creek.
Their sufferings have never been adequately told; and to realize how
cruel and ill-timed was this forced exodus one has only to be reminded
that in one night nine children were born under these distressing
conditions.
When it is remembered that only seven years had elapsed since twelve
thousand of our people had fled "naked and peeled" from the state of
Missouri, and that now the entire community of twenty thousand souls
were again leaving their homes unsold, it can be easily understood that
they were ill prepared to endure the hardships they were thus forced to
meet.
By ascending a nearby hill we could look back upon the beautiful city
and see the splendid temple we had reared in our poverty at a cost of
one and a half million dollars; moreover, on a clear, calm morning we
could hear:
The silvery notes of the temple bell
That we loved so deep and well;
And a pang of grief would swell the heart,
And the scalding tears in anguish start
As we silently gazed on our dear old homes.
To remove this ever present invitation to grief and sorrow, our leaders
wisely resolved to make a forward move. It was believed the frost would
hold up our wagons. If not, short drives could at any rate be made.
Activity would relieve our severely tried hearts. I remember hearing
the ringing voice of President Young as standing early in the morning
in the front end of his wagon, he said:
"Attention, the camps of Israel. I propose to move forward on our
journey. Let all who wish follow me; but I want none to come unless
they will obey the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Cease
therefore your contentions and back-biting, nor must there be swearing
or profanity in our camps. Whoever finds anything must seek diligently
to return it to the owner. The Sabbath day must be hallowed. In all our
camp, prayers should be offered up both morning and evening. If you do
these things, faith will abide in your hearts; and the angels of God
will go with you, even as they went with the children of Israel when
Moses led them from the land of Egypt."
This brief epitome of the rules and regulations that were to guide
us, will give the thoughtful reader a key to the wonderful influence
of President Young and the Twelve Apostles. The Saints were intensely
religious and their peculiar faith in prophets and present and
continuous revelation had stirred up the anger and prejudice of their
Christian neighbors until it culminated in the martyrdom of Joseph and
Hyrum Smith and the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo. Americans,
and in many instances the near and direct descendants of Revolution
sires, cast out from American civilization because they believed in the
visitation of angels and persisted in worshiping God according to the
dictates of their own conscience.
It was on the first of March, 1846, only two weeks after leaving
Nauvoo, that the Saints broke camp and moved forward in two general
divisions, under the leadership respectively of Brigham Young and
Heber C. Kimball. Their course was westward over the rolling prairies
of Iowa. Only too soon did they find every hollow to be a mud hole,
in which the wagons would sink to the axle. But having started, they
could do no better than "double teams" and go slow. Often they would
not make over three miles a day, and what added to their discomfort was
the continuous rain which wet those who were walking to the skin, and
even beat through the wagon covers, wetting and chilling the sick and
feeble. These conditions gave rise to acts of heroism as noble as were
ever recorded.
I remember one notable instance:
Orson Spencer was a graduate from an eastern college, who having
studied for the ministry, became a popular preacher in the Baptist
Church. Meeting with a "Mormon" elder, he became acquainted with the
teachings of Joseph Smith and accepted them. Before doing so, however,
he and his highly educated young wife counted the cost, laid their
hearts on the altar and made the sacrifice! How few realize what it
involved to become a "Mormon" in those early days! Home, friends,
occupation, popularity, all that makes life pleasant, were gone. Almost
over night they were strangers to their own kindred.
After leaving Nauvoo, his wife, ever delicate and frail, sank rapidly
under the ever accumulating hardships. The sorrowing husband wrote
imploringly to the wife's parents, asking them to receive her into
their home until the Saints should find an abiding place. The answer
came, "Let her renounce her degrading faith and she can come back, but
never until she does."
When the letter was read to her, she asked her husband to get his Bible
and to turn to the Book of Ruth and read the first chapter, sixteenth
and seventeenth verses: "Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from
following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou
lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God."
Not a murmur escaped her lips. The storm was severe and the wagon
covers leaked. Friends held milk pans over her bed to keep her dry. In
those conditions, in peace and without apparent suffering, the spirit
took its flight and her body was consigned to a grave by the wayside.
A thousand times thereafter the Saints had occasion to sing:
"How many on the trackless plains
Have found an unknown grave,
Pure,faithful Saints, too good to live
In such a wicked place.
But are they left in sorrow,
Or doubt to pine away?
Oh, no, in peace they're resting
Till the Resurrection Day."
From the first of March until the 19th of April not a day passed
without rain, making the roads almost impassable, and entailing a vast
amount of labor with but little advancement. At this date our camps had
reached Grand river. President Young called a halt and set all hands
at work fencing a field and planting crops for the benefit of the poor
who would follow. First an ample guard was selected to look after the
stock. That left three hundred fifty-nine laboring men; of these, one
hundred were selected to make rails under the direction of C. C. Rich;
ten under James Allred to put up fence; forty-nine under Father John
Smith, uncle of the Prophet Joseph, to build houses; twelve under Jacob
Peart to dig wells; ten under A. P. Rockwood to build the bridges, and
one hundred eighty under Daniel Spencer to clear land, plow, and plant.
All were thus employed, and the camp became presently like a hive of
bees. There being no room for idlers, all seemed happy. This place
was named Garden Grove; and Samuel Bent, Aaron Johnson, and David
Fullmer were chosen to preside over those that should remain. They were
instructed to divide the lands among the poor without charge; but to
give to no man more than he could thoroughly cultivate. There must be
no waste and no speculation. Moreover, the settlement was not regarded
as more than temporary; for as soon as our leaders should find the
"place," all energies were to be centered in gathering to that place.
As yet, however, no one, not even Brigham Young, knew where the "place"
would be; but it was talked at the camp fires that President Young had
seen, in vision, a wonderful valley, so large that all our people could
be gathered into it, and yet so far from civilization, that mobs could
not come at night to burn and whip and kidnap. Strange as it may seem,
this vision formed the most entrancing theme of our conversations, and
the national song of Switzerland became our favorite hymn:
"For the strength of the hills we thank Thee,
Our God, our father's God."