The Mormon Trail:

Martin and Willie

Handcart Companies

Religious FreedomTo join with other

people who shared their same faith

To come to Zion: a place where God’s people gather together

Faith in their God, their new religion

For a better life

Why did they come West?

Handcart Pioneers (Zion Ho) by Minerva Teichert

“I was 11 years old when we left Denmark. It was my birthday, May 2nd, when we sailed the Thornton

from England. [In Iowa]…we discarded many of our finest things. We traded…finest china for a little

milk; shared our hand-woven linens with those in need. Father was a

cripple. My three teenage brothers had assumed the task of getting us to

Zion…The last of Mother’s hand-loomed linen sheets covered bodies of people who had frozen to death. I

have always censured myself for taking from the pocket of one of the dead women a crust that I know she was saving. May the Lord forgive a

child so desperate for food.” --Mette Mortensen, 11, Willie

Handcart Company

Sacrifice

Sailing to Zion, The Thornton

The Road to ZionFive handcart companies were organized in 1856 to make the

thirteen hundred mile trip  from the end of the railroad at Iowa City, Iowa, to Salt Lake City. The first three Handcart Companies made the

thirteen hundred mile journey faster and with less problems than had been experienced with wagon trains. The last two companies, the Willie Company and Martin Company were an entirely different story.

---Mormon Handcart Trail---Oregon-Mormon Trail

Why

Handcarts?

•Less expensive

•Quicker, easier to

maneuver on trails

•Lighter Loads

•Pushed by man

power, not animal

power.

•End of the train lineThe Hour is Not Yet by David Koch

Five people were assigned to each cart. A family with small children used a covered handcart. The wooden handcarts were six- to seven-feet long, and wide enough to span a narrow wagon track. The small box on the cart was  four-foot long and eight-inches high. A handcart loaded with personal belongings and provisions carried four- to five-hundred pounds. An adult was allowed seventeen pounds of personal belongings and a child ten pounds...personal belongs included bedding, family keepsakes, clothes, cooking utensils, etc. a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen was provided for a "company" of one hundred persons. The wagons carried extra provisions, primarily flour, and five tents. Twenty people were assigned to each tent.

Off to a Bad Start:•Leaving too late in the season- July 1856•Wood for hand carts not properly seasoned•Lack of clothing and provisions

Some Must Push and Some Must Pullby Michael Bedard

“We left Florence, Nebraska…as happy a lot of people as ever crossed the plains. Little did we realize…the hardships through which we were destined to pass or the suffering, sickness, and death awaiting us. It never occurred to my young mind, being but sixteen years of age, that we should experience anything but joy and happiness on our pilgrimage to that promised land. I shall never forget the time we crossed the Platte River. I was the only female that drew a handcart through the icy waters of the river at the last crossing…We reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake on the 30th day of November 1856, after two months of the most indescribable suffering and hardships, the worst, we thought, any company of men, women, and children was ever called upon to endure.” (Her father died the next day) --Margaret Ann Griffiths, age 16, Martin Handcart Company

Handcart Companies:•1165 Mormon Pioneers and 266 handcarts in the Martin and Willie companies.•Of the 500 members of the Willie handcart company, at least 84 were children between the ages of 3 and 12.•Before they could reach the Salt Lake Valley, the early snowstorms of 1856 contributed to the deaths of more than 200 Pioneer Saints in the Willie and Martin Handcart companies.

Independence Rock

• 130 feet tall• Why was it named Independence Rock?

Today In 1870

Leaving Their Mark On The Rock:

Trials on the Trail:

•Early Snow Storms•Lack Warm Clothes/Blankets•Lack of Food/Provisions•Exhaustion and Fatigue•Wolves•Sickness•Frostbite/Amputations•Death•Mothers and children must carry on

“In the painting I did, I have pictured my relatives who were in the Martin Company. The woman holding the infant in my great great grandmother, Elizabeth Steele, from Scotland. The baby is James E. Steele, about one

year old at that time. Her husband being buried is James Steele. They were converts and had just lately arrived in America in great expectation of a grand future in Zion. James had literally starved to death giving all his

food to his children and wife.”

Martin Handcart BurialBy Clark Kelley Price

Devil’s Gate

Snow storms stranded both wagon trains and the Martin Handcart Company at Seminoe Post near Devil's Gate.

Brigham Young was informed on the evening of October 4th, the Martin and Willie handcart companies were still on the trail.

Astonished by the news Brigham Young organized a rescue party of twenty-seven men who left the Salt Lake Valley on October 7th, with the first sixteen of what ultimately amounted to two hundred and fifty wagons full of food, clothing, shoes, and blankets by the end of October. They reached the Willie Company October 21st where they were snow-bound at the Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater River.

To the Rescue!

“I spied something in the distance that looked like a black streak in the snow…This was the long looked for handcart company…The sight that met my gaze as I entered their camp can never be erased from my memory. The starved forms and haggard countenances of the poor sufferers., as they moved about slowly, shivering with cold, to prepare their scanty evening meal was enough to touch the stoutest heart. --Ephraim Hanks, age 29, Rescue Party

Martin’s Cove In order to reach the cove, the handcarts crossed the Sweetwater River. At this point the river was only knee deep, but chunks of ice were floating on the river. Many of the gaunt-faced handcart men and women sat on the bank and pulled tattered blankets around themselves; a few started to sob. After the North Platte crossing, the handcart people could not face wading another river. All of the rescue party helped, but four young men were singled out in one journal for carrying people across on their backs. The tireless young men waded back and forth in the icy water until all of the converts were on the other side of the Sweetwater River.

A Place of Rest•Peter Howard McBride, then but a boy of six years, was a member of the Martin Company. His father, after helping push handcarts through the icy river, died in the snow and freezing cold that night. Peter’s mother was sick; his older sister Jenetta watched out for the younger children. Her shoes had worn out, and her feet left bloody tracks in the snow. On the banks of the Sweetwater River the wind blew their tent down during the night. Everyone scampered out as the snow covered the tent—everyone except little Peter. According to his account: “In the morning I heard someone say, ‘How many are dead in this tent?’ My sister said, ‘Well, my little brother must be frozen to death in that tent.’ So they jerked the tent loose, sent it scurrying over the snow. My hair was frozen to the tent. I picked myself up and came out quite alive, to their surprise” (Peter Howard McBride, quoted in Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion, 41, 43, 45–46).

Many members of the Martin Company died in the 5 days they were held up this

Cove

Rocky Ridge-The hardest 5 miles of the journey

To reach the rescue camp, the bewildered Pioneers of the Willie Company had to climb over Rocky Ridge in a howling snow storm with eighteen- to twenty-four inches of snow on the ground. The total distance between campsites was approximately twelve miles and took some emigrants over twenty hours. Some arriving at 5

am the next morning.

Rock Creek HollowThe morning after the exertion of Rocky Ridge, thirteen bodies

were buried in a shallow circular grave in Rock Creek Hollow. Two of the men helping dig the grave in the morning died during the night and were buried in the common grave

the next morning.

On to Zion, Wagons Ho!

Faith in Every Footstep

• They reached the Salt Lake Valley November 30, 1856•Over 200 Pioneers in the Martin and Willie Handcart Company died, many had amputations and injuries that affected them for the rest of their lives. •Did they regret the heavy price they paid for their journey West?

A man who crossed the plains in the Martin handcart company lived in Utah for many years. One day he was in a group of people who began sharply criticizing the Church leaders for ever allowing the Saints to cross the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart company provided. The old man listened until he could stand no more; then he arose and said with great emotion:“I was in that company and my wife was in it. … We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? …“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. … I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. “Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.” 

“Was I Sorry That I Chose to Come by Handcart?”