RETURN TO NAUVOO--SENT TO JEFFERSON COUNTY ON A TITHING MISSION--RETURN
WITH A THOUSAND DOLLARS--REMOVE WEST WITH THE CHURCH--STAY AT WINTER
QUARTERS--ORDAINED BISHOP--SCURVY IN CAMP--HIRE OUT IN MISSOURI--ARRIVE
IN SALT LAKE VALLEY--ELDER KIMBALL'S PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILLMENT.
The work in New Brunswick rolled on prosperously, but the time came
when we had calculated to be at home. We had heard, too, that our
beloved Prophet had been murdered in Carthage jail, and we naturally
felt anxious to know how things were with our families and friends at
Nauvoo.
Our parting with the Saints in New Brunswick was not very pleasant, as
may be supposed. As we were leaving the place, while stopping by some
water, waiting to cross by means of the ferry, we were overtaken by two
persons, who requested us to baptize them. This we did, and confirmed
them on the spot--such was the spirit of the work in that region.
We returned by way of Boston, where I left Brother Crosby.
I arrived at Nauvoo safely, but I had scarcely been there three weeks
before I was again sent to Jefferson Co., this time on a tithing
mission.
I got back in about four months, carrying with me about a thousand
dollars which the Saints had donated towards building the temple of the
Lord.
While I was on my mission to New Brunswick, the Church promised the
mob to leave Nauvoo by the next grass time--spring, so that when I
returned the second time the city was all excitement. All that could
were selling out, some were disposing of their things by auction, for
whatever could be got, while others would take cart-loads of furniture
out into the country, and "swap" it for money or cattle; for, ready or
not ready, the mob meant to have the Saints out by the time stated.
My property was rather more pleasantly situated than many others', and
I succeeded in getting the munificent sum of $250 for my house and
orchard, the nursery to which contained six thousand young grafted
fruit trees, and was worth $3,000 at least.
Many of the Saints would have been glad to have got off with no greater
sacrifice than myself, but as the time drew near, the prices offered
for our property fell in proportion. Some of the Saints did not get
half as much as I did, for property equally valuable. Others got
nothing at all, but had to leave their houses just as they were, and
those living in the outskirts of the city were saved the sacrifice of
_selling_ their houses for less than their worth, for the mob burned
about three hundred of them down, and destroyed the property of the
owners.
The Saints were hard at work all the winter making wagons. The people
that came into the city were astonished to see the hundreds and
thousands of wagons that were turned out in a few months.
In February, 1846, the authorities took the lead, crossed the river
Mississippi with a large camp, and stopped some seven or eight miles
from the water on the other side, waiting for the snow to go off, which
just then had fallen heavily. In consequence of this they had no food
for their cattle, and being at the end of regular settlements, had
great difficulty in procuring any food, but as soon as possible they
were on the move.
When the general emigration of the main body of the Church came on, it
was pretty much all at once. On the Nauvoo side of the river two or
three hundred wagons were waiting at one time for the ferry. In these
wagons the Saints had to sleep, cooking their food on the beach.
Although all the boats and ferries that could be had were employed,
this state of things continued for upwards of a month.
All the opposite shore was covered with wagons in which the Saints were
living, but multitudes were without any protection from the weather,
except tents made with blankets, under one of which a whole family had
to live.
A scene of human suffering and endurance for the gospel's sake, on so
large a scale, has seldom if ever before been seen on the earth. The
sufferings of the Saints during their expulsion from Missouri, and
their entrance to Nauvoo, were perhaps more intense, but not so many
Saints endured them.
Picture, dear reader, to yourself, the case of thousands--they had
been mobbed and plundered in Missouri, had escaped only as fugitives,
and had arrived at a new location, Nauvoo, only to see their families
die off around them by the fever and ague of that place.
After surviving these troubles, cheering up, beginning life afresh,
and seeing this abode of death converted, by incessant toil, into a
garden of health and prosperity, fancy to yourself the feelings of
the Saints when called upon to resign these blessings, made doubly
valuable by being so dearly paid for, and to exchange them for a barren
wilderness, a prospect of a thousand miles' journey across untracked
plains and mountains, and the probability of death on the journey, or
of starvation afterwards.
Will the annals of history present a similar case? The exodus of Moses
and his bands was not equal to it, for he had a goodly land to promise
his hosts--a land flowing with milk and honey, to cheer their spirits
up. They only had to enter upon the already cultivated land of their
enemies. But here were twenty thousand people starting to locate a
thousand miles beyond the borders of civilized life, over what had
always been considered impassable mountains.
Reports had arrived of Colonel Fremont's exploration, and the hardships
he had suffered, but here were not only men, but thousands of women and
children, starting on the same hazardous journey, not only temporarily
to endure these difficulties, but proposing to make a settled home in
those dreary wilds, and live where they were told not a spear of wheat
could be raised.
Notwithstanding all these things, the recollection of past hardships,
and the prospect of those in the future, the Saints were not
dispirited, but from their abodes ascended the sound of joy and of
rejoicing, to think that they had at last a prospect of getting beyond
the power of their enemies.
Shortly the first camp moved on, and the rest of the Saints came up to
it in succession, but not until the first camp had crossed the Missouri
river.
Here the command was, "Stop and raise grain to go on with next year,"
for we had a thousand miles' journey ahead, and not a settlement on
the road; besides, unless we wished to starve, we must have grain to
sow our lands when we got there. So, at the word, a spot was selected
and, before many weeks had passed, lands in all directions were fenced
in, and a city composed of roughly-built houses and wagons, and called
Winter Quarters, sprang into existence.
As the winter was, however, just coming on, of course we could not put
in any grain until the spring. We began, then, more than ever, to feel
the destitution of our position, for want of vegetables had brought on
the scurvy, the provisions of many became exhausted, and our prospects
of a fresh supply seemed rather distant.
The city was laid out in wards, over each of which a Bishop was
appointed. One of these wards was committed to me, and this, of course,
entailed upon me the care of the poor--no trifling matter under such
circumstances.
It would take no small space to describe all the expedients to which I
was often driven in fulfillment of this duty, for the little stock I
had of my own was soon gone, and still the poor had not done eating.
What was to be done? I went to President Young, and very pathetically
told him that all my grain was gone, and I had not the first shilling
in my possession with which to get any more. All the consolation I got
from him was some instruction to "feed them well, and take care they
have enough to eat," and it would not do for a Saint to say he could
not. So I had to scheme. I borrowed ten dollars from a sister who
possessed a small store. I then crossed the Missouri river, and laid
the money out in meal and meat. But when this was gone I had to borrow
of some one else to pay her, and then of some one else to pay him.
I borrowed until I made my debt up to fifty dollars, and no more chance
of payment appeared than at first. Who would not have been a Bishop
then? Fortunately, just at this juncture, the lost cattle of one who
had died in my ward came into my hands, and I sold them for fifty
dollars. I paid my debt, and was ready to commence borrowing again with
a clear conscience.
The Pioneers started for the mountains to seek out a resting place for
the Saints, and the body of those that remained began to raise corn. I
and many others left our families, went down into Missouri, and hired
ourselves out to obtain means to buy teams, clothes, flour, etc., so
that we might follow the Pioneers' camp.
When the time arrived the Saints moved out promiscuously, and, after
crossing the Elk Horn river, they were organized into two large
divisions called Brigham's and Heber's companies. These were subdivided
into smaller companies of hundreds, fifties and tens, and in this way
the Saints proceeded across the plains.
In September, 1847, we found that the Pioneers and others of the Saints
that had gone into the Valley shortly after them, had been hard at work
sowing all the winter, for every wagon had taken about two bushels
of grain, consequently, most of the wheat that the crickets had not
harvested on their own account, the inhabitants had, and they had
raised a considerable quantity of vegetables also. And, as it is well
known, after we had been in the Valley about a fortnight, they prepared
a splendid feast, composed mostly of the fruits of their labor, to
which feast all the Saints and strangers in the valley were invited.
Such numbers, however, had arrived in the Valley, that the vegetables
raised by our brethren went but a little way, and after the feast
at their expense, it was a rarity to get any vegetables until the
following June, fourteen months from the time we left Winter Quarters,
when we partook of vegetables raised by ourselves.
Our bread also became very scarce before the wheat put in by the Saints
generally was ready to harvest. Some persons lived for three months on
their cattle, which they had to kill for food, and on roots which they
dug up. Of course, after a time, our clothes and farming implements
began to wear out, and we had the delightful prospect of wearing sheep
skins, etc.
Our wagons were becoming scarce, many having been broken in the
canyons, and we had no timber suitable for making more, and if there
had been, from where were we to get the iron work necessary for making
them, or for making plows, shovels, etc., for cultivating the ground,
without which, of course, food would cease and starvation ensue? In
fact, naturally speaking, things looked alarming, and just calculated
to dry up our hopes and fill us with fears.
Matters were at this crisis, when one day Elder Heber C. Kimball stood
up in the congregation of the Saints, and prophesied that "in a short
time" we should be able to buy articles of clothing and utensils
cheaper in the Valley than we could purchase them in the States.
I was present on the occasion, and with others there, only hoped the
case might be so, for many of the Saints felt like the man spoken of in
the scriptures, who heard Elisha prophesy at the time of a hard famine
in Samaria, "that before to-morrow, a measure of fine flour should be
sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel." We thought
that "if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be,"
but without an absolute miracle there seemed no human probability of
its fulfillment.
However, Elder Kimball's prophecy was fulfilled in a few months.
Information of the great discovery of gold in California had reached
the States, and large companies were formed for the purpose of
supplying the gold diggers with food and clothing, and implements
of every kind for digging, etc. Numbers of substantial wagons were
prepared, stored with wholesale quantities of clothing of every kind,
spades, picks, shovels, chests of carpenters' tools, tea, coffee,
sugar, flour, fruits, etc.
When these companies arrived within a short distance of Salt Lake City,
news reached them that ships had been dispatched from many parts of the
world, fitted out with goods for California. This threatened to flood
the market. So these companies brought their goods into the Valley,
and disposed of them for just what could be got--provisions, wagons,
clothes, tools, almost for the taking away, at least at half the price
for which the goods could have been purchased in the States.
Many disposed of their wagons because the teams gave out, and could not
get on any farther. Some sold almost all they had to purchase a mule or
a horse to pack through with.
Thus were the Saints amply provided, even to overflowing, with every
one of the necessaries and many of the luxuries of which they had been
so destitute, and thus was the prediction of the servant of the Lord
fulfilled.
This was a miraculous Providence, but not more so than those which it
has been my lot to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
experience ever since my connection with it.
In this short history of some of the testimonies I have witnessed and
received, the reader may see that I have had much to establish me in
the belief of the truths of "Mormonism."
Transcriber's Note:
Various changes were made to resolve apparent printer's errors in
the original book, such as "aftewards" for "afterwards," "Spirt" for
"Spirit," etc.