On September 29, 2016, our preparation day, we drove up to Iowa City.
We had never been to the Mormon Handcart Park.
It was a beautiful autumn day and such a beautiful place.
In the summer of 1856, this location was the staging area
for one of the most remarkable treks
in the history of the American West. Some 1900 British and Scandinavian converts
to
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wished to emigrate to Utah, but
they were
too poor to buy animals and wagons for the journey. Brigham Young, the Mormon leader,
proposed
that they cross the plains on foot with their few belongings in handcarts. The Church Presidency wrote: “Let them come
on foot, with handcarts or wheelbarrows; let them gird up their loins and walk
through.”
They were an unlikely group of pioneers. Few of them had ever pitched a tent or built a
campfire. Three of the companies arrived in the Salt Lake Valley without misfortune
despite their inexperience and hardships on the trail.
However the last two companies were caught in an early winter storm before arriving in Utah.
While walking around here you can feel the spirit of those pioneers.
You can feel that it is holy ground.
It is humbling to think about what these Saints endured as they traveled to Zion.
They were willing to endure it.
Willing to give up their homes and belongings to follow what they knew to be true.
We are strengthen to know of their conviction.
At least six immigrants died and are buried near this spot.
The journey west took a greater toll.
About 200 from the Willie and Martin handcart companies died during their journey west.
Part of this plaque reads:
Some 2,500 Latter-day Saint emigrants paused here in
1856-57. Their story is best told
through their individual experiences:
Job and Frances Welling joined The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in Portsmouth, England.
Early in 1856 they heeded the call to emigrate to “Zion” in Utah. With their infant son, and 704 other Mormons,
they sailed from Liverpool to Boston on the sailing ship Samuel Curling. They
traveled the 1,200 miles to Iowa City by train.
The camp here already bustled with 500 passengers from the ship Enoch Train.
Archer Walters, an English carpenter, had sailed on the Enoch Train with his wife, Harriet, and
five children. Here are some excerpts
from his dairy from 1856:
10 May: Arrived Iowa
at 3 o’clock. Dragged our luggage about
2 miles to camp ground. Fixed some tents
that was made aboard ship. Rained and
was cold.
14 May: A fine
day. Helped splice some tent poles. Slept in tent with Bro Lee. His children down with fever.
20 May: Went to work
to make handcarts, was not very well.
Worked 10 hours. Harriet very
poorly.
22 May: Sarah went to
Linley’s farm to work and sent poor Harriet some milk and crust of bread.
26 May: Went to
work. Harriet still very bad. Lightened very bad. Never saw it so in my life and it rained hard
and our beds began to swim.
30 May: A child born
in our tent 1/2 past one A.M.
1 June: Meeting at
1/2 past 10. Sarah still at the farm.
Henry went on to watch the cattle.
The band played several times.
4 June: Martha
poorly. Made a coffin for a child dead
in camp.
12 June: Journeyed 12
miles. Went very fast with our
handcarts.
15 June: Got up about
4 o’clock to make a coffin for Brother John Lee’s son, aged 12 year. Meetings as usual and at the same time had to
make another coffin for Sister Prator’s child.
Was tired with repairing handcarts the last week.
16 June: Harriet very
ill. Traveled 19 miles and after
pitching tent mended carts.
17 June: Traveling
about 17 miles pitched tent. Made a little
coffin for Bro Job Welling’s son and mended a handcart wheel.
The Wellings raised a large family in Utah. Harriet Walters and her children survived the
journey, but Archer, exhausted, died a few days after their arrival.
Although you can't see him. This picture is of Elder Thompson climbing the tower up to
the foot of Moroni 9/26/16. Elder Fellows a temple engineer took a group up.
Last year one of the clocks stopped working. And Elder Fellows became the clock repairman.
The clock company wanted $8000 just to send a technician here. In addition, they expected the temple to provide a lift which would have meant a large, intrusive piece of machinery that would not have worked very well considering the shape of the building and tower. Also, it would have damaged the lawn. For the cost of equipment to rappel, $200, and the cost of having the motor repaired at a local machine shop, $385, and a consecrated missionary engineer, $0, the clock was repaired.
This is Durell Nelson. He is the 1st counselor in the temple presidency.
He designed this garden in 1978.
This is what it looked like back then.
It is absolutely beautiful now. Every season the plantings of flowers change.
It is a favorite place in Nauvoo.
There is a very unique view of the temple from the garden.
