Road Show SCRIPT

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ROADSHOW SCRIPT – Narrators:Dusty & Carrie Reese

 

In 1844, mobs killed the Prophet Joseph hoping that the religion would collapse without him.  Not so.  Brigham Young stepped forward to lead the work of the kingdom of God on the earth.  The Prophet Joseph Smith had prophesied two years before this death that the Saints would be driven to the Rocky Mountains and become and mighty people.

 

BRIGHAM YOUNG  (Fall of 1855) –  President Griffin

I have been thinking how we should operate another year. We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past, I am consequently thrown back upon my old plan-to make handcarts and let the emigrants foot it with the necessary supplies.   They can come just as quick, if not quicker…

 

The carts can be made without a particle of iron, with wheels hooped, made strong and light…

 

Let all the Saints who can, gather up to Zion, and come while the way is open before them; let the poor also come, whether they receive aid or not from the Perpetual Emigrating Fund; let them come on foot, let them gird up their loins and walk through and nothing shall hinder or stay them.   

 

Millennial Star

In 1856 the Saints in England read in the Millennial Star that the Church was providing money for emigrationthat year only if they were willing to walk and draw their carts across the plains.

 

This the Saints did, in large numbers, showing their faith in this untried means of reaching Zion.    

 

W.H. KIMBALL – Missionary in England – Dan Dygert

The fire of emigration blazes to such as extent that the folks are willing to …tottle off with a few things in a pocket-handchief. 

 

THOMAS TENNANT – English gentleman

Thomas Tennant 46, and his wife Jane 26, owned a large estate in the Midlands of England. Answering the call of the prophet to gather to Zion, the Tennant’s sold their property for 27,000 pounds (millions by today’s measure). The Tennant’s divided their means to help those that had none by contributing to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund.  Although they could afford to trek across the plains in a wagon train, they enrolled themselves as pullers of carts. 

 

Elder Franklin D. Richard who was an apostle and the Liverpool Emigrating Agent, was anxious for President Young to meet this distinguished British Gentleman.

 

However, it was not to be.  It was reported to President Young by way of a dispatch from Devil’s Gate that Brother Tennant was buried there, I month before he would of  reached the Valley.

 

LIVERPOOL – Thornton & Horizon

The Thornton vessel set sail from Liverpool May 4, 1856.  Of 764 passengers, 500 trekked across the plains and 67 of them didn’t survive. The Priesthood Leader on board was returning missionary Elder James G Willie.  They sailed the ocean for 6 weeks before arriving at New York on June 14th. 

 

The Horizon set sail on May 25. Of their 856 passengers, 576 trekked across the plains and about 145 didn’t survive.  The surviving emigrates would arrive in Salt Lake City on the 11th of December, 7 months after leaving their homeland.  Their Priesthood Leader was returning missionary Edward Martin.  They landed in Boston, Mass on July 1, 1856.

 

NEWYORK & BOSTON – Ferries & Rail

From those cities they had continued their journey by ferry and then rail to Iowa City.

For the next 10 days, they were shuffled into dirty cattle cars and dusty freight cars, sitting on wooden slab seats or their luggage with barely room to breathe.

 

IOWA CITY

Iowa City, a town in eastern Iowa, also known as the Mormon Camp was were the Chicago/Rock Island Railroad terminated at that time. There each trainload of emigrants encamped for several weeks getting properly outfitted for their walking journey.

 

Out of heavy cotton cloth called drill, women made round tents large enough to sleep twenty people (feet to the center).

 

The men had to build their own handcarts from unseasoned wood.  All the dried lumber had been purchased and utilized by the preceding handcart companies.  The Willey and Martin companies were unexpected by church agents stationed at Iowa City.

 

The stay in Iowa City was their first experience living outdoors, cooking over open fires, washing in streams, and sleeping on the ground with only a tent for protection or privacy.

 

Each person was allowed seventeen pounds of luggage, carried on the carts along with bedding, utensils, and some food.

 

Only when their energies were totally spent did they fail to sing the familiar hymn of the handcarts:

When pioneers moved to the West / With courage strong they met the test. / They pushed their handcarts all day long, / And as they pushed they sang this song: / For some must push and some must pull, / As we go marching up the hill, / As merrily on the way we go, / Until we reach the Valley, oh!

 

Sarah James, 18 – Sandra Ricks

(Traveling with their parents, William and Jane James, and their younger brothers and sisters)

 

We were called together in a meeting one evening and there was quite a bit of guessing as to the reason for it.

 

The meeting was called to order, we were told that it was 300 miles to [Florence] which was the actual place for starting the trek.

 

But the season was late and bad weather could prove dangerous to us if we were in the mountains.

 

There had been much talk of these dangers by experienced men in the camp, but I think that the thing which I will remember for the rest of my life … was said by a Brother Savage. With tears streaming down his cheeks he pleaded with the people.

 

I can remember that when he finished there was a long time of silence.

 

I was frightened. Father looked pale and sick. I turned to mother to see what she was thinking, and all I saw was her old determined look. She was ready to go on tomorrow. There were many others like her.

 

We really didn't have much choice. There was no work here for us to keep ourselves through the winter, and our family had to live.  We must put our trust in the Lord as we have always done, said mother, and that was that.

 

LEVI SAVAGE – Iowa City to Florence – Matt Hansen

Far too many of the hastily built handcarts needed repairs. Some of them had to have new axles, and nearly all of them had to have pieces of iron attached to keep the wheel from wearing away the wood.

 

There were some who feared that the company was starting too late in the season, and at Florence, an urgent meeting was held to discuss the subject. 

 

With tears rolling down is cheeks, Levi Savage predicted,

Some of the strong may get through in case of bad weather, but the bones of the weak and old, will strew the way.

 

 The call to come to Zion was too great to be silenced, and with only one dissenting vote, the leaders of the company decided to go forward.

 

Levi Savage then said,

Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to be true, but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you and if necessary I will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us.

 

FRANKLIN RICHARDS, APOSTLE & EUROPEAN MISSION PRESIDENT 

- Stuart Andrew

In a letter about the Willie and Martin companies, President Richards wrote;

From the beginning, we have done all in our power to hasten matters pertaining to emigration, therefore we confidently look for the blessing of God to crown our humble efforts with success, and for the safe arrival of our brethren the poor Saints in Utah, though they may experience some cold.

 

To the Willie Company in Nebraska Elder Richards said,  Though it might storm on our right hand and on our left, the Lord would keep open the way before us and we should get to Zion in safety.

 

ROBERT & ANN PARKER – The red shawl – Mandy & Miguel Gonzales

My name is Ann Parker.  We were traveling west in a handcart company, when one night a thunderstorm blew in.  After we hastily made camp, my husband Robert and I discovered our six-year-old boy, Arthur, was missing. We spread the alarm to the rest of the camp, and someone remembered seeing the little boy earlier in the day settling down to rest in a wooded area. He was exhausted from the trip.


For two days the men in the camp searched for the missing child, and then, with no alternative, the company moved west. Robert went back alone to continue the search, but as he left, I pinned a red shawl around his shoulders. I asked him if he found the boy dead to use the shawl to bury him, but if he were alive to signal us as he came back to camp.


For three nights my children and I watched the horizon, and finally, just as the sun was setting on the fourth night, we caught a glimpse of the shawl waving in the last rays of day.

 

Robert Parker came into camp with his little boy that had been lost. There was great joy throughout the entire camp. The mother's joy, I cannot describe.

 

A nameless woodsman had found the terrified boy and cared for him until his father came.

 

NEBRASKA – Emma James, 17 – Shelly Egley 

One evening as we prepared to stop for the night, a large herd of buffalo came thundering toward us. It sounded like thunder at first, then the big black animals came straight for our carts.

 

The animals acted as if they were crazy the way they ran.

 

 After they had gone, somebody called out that the cattle had gone with them. This was our only supply of meat, so the men started right out after them.

 

As the sun went down, a terrible storm came up. A strong wind tore the tents out of our hands and sent everything flying in all directions. The thunder and lightening was like nothing we had ever seen before…the rain came down in torrents, and in a matter of minutes we were soaked to the skin. The men came in empty.

 

BUFFALO STAMPEDE

The loss of cattle so early on the trek proved to be disastrous. They were forced to use their milk cows to pull the supply wagons, the handcarters soon found their milk supply diminished as well as their beef.

 

The lack of milk and meat denied them the strength to combat the other difficulties they encountered, especially as the weather changed from fall to winter.

 

Sarah James, 18 – Sandra Ricks

We were cold all the time. Even when you wrapped up in a blanket your teeth chattered. Father told us one night that the flour was gone and that the word was that we might not get help for some time. Father was white and drawn. I knew that mother was worried about him, for he was getting weaker all the time.

 

 We were grateful one morning when we heard that the captain had ordered all the animals in the company killed so that we could have fresh meat. How good the soup tasted made from the bones of those cows. The hides we used to roast after taking all the hair off of them. I even decided to cook the tatters of my shoes and make soup of them.

 

 It snowed day after day, and we managed to get a few miles each day. We were sort of dizzy and sleepy a lot of the time.  Sometimes when we felt that we just had to rest for a time, a captain would come up and help us pull our cart along for a time. I'm sure that we would have laid down and died if it hadn't been for their help and encouragement.

 

I can remember the time when one of the men who was pulling a cart just ahead of us laid down and started to cry. We all wanted to cry with him. One of the captains came up to him and just slapped him in the face. It made the man so mad that he jumped right up and started to run with his cart. I remember that it was a mean way to treat the poor fellow but how that it saved his life.

 

Ann Jewell Rowley - Willie Handcart Company – Glenna Payne
I was left a widow with 7 children  
		under 12 years of age and the step children of William's first marriage. I was very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the  
		comfort it gave me. I knew that our parting was only temporary. I also knew that no matter how fleeting a moment it was, I had to  
		make the best of it. I had a very real job to do. The children had to be fed and clothed, but the big task and the one I must accomplish,  
		is to get us all to Zion. I must be among the people of my faith and I must get the Temple work done for us.
 
There came a time,  
		when there seemed to be no food at all. Some of the men left to hunt buffalo. Night was coming and there was no food for the evening  
		meal. I asked God's help as I always did. I got on my knees, remembering two hard sea biscuits that were still in my trunk. They had  
		been left over from the sea voyage, they were not large, and were so hard, they couldn't be broken. Surely, that was not enough to  
		feed 8 people, but 5 loaves and 2 fishes were not enough to feed 5000 people either, but through a miracle, Jesus had done it. So  
		with God's help, nothing is impossible. I found the biscuits and put them in a Dutch oven and covered them with water and asked for  
		God's blessing, then I put the lid on the pan and set it on the coals. When I took off the lid a little later, I found the pan Filled  
		with food. I kneeled with my family and thanked God for his goodness. That night my family had sufficient. – 

 

 

SUSANNA STONE LLOYD – the Looking glass (26 years old) – Shari Hansen

A member of the Willie company, Susanna Stone Lloyd, at age twenty-six, traveled alone to Utah, the only one of her family to join the Church.

 

In a small display of personal pride, Susanna wanted to make herself presentable before meeting friends whose companies had preceded hers to the Valley. She had sold her looking glass to an Indian for some buffalo meat long before, so seeing herself in a borrowed mirror proved startling. As she feared, some of those friends did not recognize her, despite her efforts, because she was so weatherbeaten and tanned.   

 

My parents, relatives, and friends did all in their power to keep me from coming to America, but I had the spirit of gathering and the Lord opened the way and I came to Utah in 1856 with (the Willie) handcart company.

 

We waded through the cold streams many times but we murmured not for our faith in God and our testimony of His work were supreme. And in the blizzards and falling snow we sat under our hand carts and sang, 'Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way.

 

PLATTE RIVER – John Jaques – Kent Fabricius

The (Platte) river was wide, the current was strong, the water was exceedingly cold and up to the wagon bed in the deepest parts, and the bed of the river was covered with cobble stones.

 

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford - Martin company – Justin & Jana Williams

Some of the men carried some of the women on their backs or in their arms, but others of the women tied up their skirts and waded through, like the heroines that they were. 

 

My husband attempted to ford the stream. He had only gone a short distance when he reached a sand bar in the river on which he sank down through weakness and exhaustion. My sister Mary, waded through the water to his assistance. She raised him up to his feet.

 

We had scarcely crossed the river when we were visited with a tremendous storm of snow, hail, sand and fierce winds. It was a terrible storm from which both the people and teams suffered. After crossing the river, my husband was put on a hand cart and hauled into camp; and indeed after that time he was unable to walk.

 

We were visited with three days more snow.  My husband had for several days previous been much worse. He was still sinking, and his condition now became more serious.  He tried to eat but failed. He had not the strength to swallow. I put him to bed as quickly as I could. I slept until, as it appeared to me, about midnight. I was extremely cold. The weather was bitter.

 

I listened to hear if my husband breathed-he lay so still. I could not hear him. I became alarmed. I put my hand on his body, when to my horror I discovered that my worst fears were confirmed. My husband was dead.  …there was no alternative but to remain alone by the side of the corpse till morning.

 

When daylight came, some of the male part of the company prepared the body for burial. They wrapped him in a blanket and placed him with thirteen others who had died, and then covered him up in the snow.

 

I will not attempt to describe my feelings at finding myself thus left a widow with three children, under such excruciating circumstances.

   

PLATTE RIVER – Mary Goble Pay , 13 – Teresa Falslev

Mary Goble Pay, who as a child of thirteen in the Martin company froze her feet at the last crossing of the Platte, who saw her two little sisters die on the trail and her mother finally expire on the day they arrived:

 

We traveled from fifteen to twenty-five miles a day . . . till we got to the Platte River.  There were great lumps of ice floating down the river. It was bitter cold. The next morning there were fourteen dead. . . . The next morning my little sister was born.  We named her Edith. She lived six weeks and died. . . . She was buried at the last crossing of the Sweetwater.  

When we arrived at Devil's Gate it was bitter cold. We left many of our things there. . . . My brother James . . . was as well as he ever was when we went to bed that night. In the morning he was dead. . . .        

 

My feet were frozen; also my brother's and my sister's.  We did not know what would become of us. . . .        

My mother never got well. . . . She was forty-three years of age. . . . We arrived in Salt Lake City nine o'clock at night the eleventh of December, 1856.

 

Three out of four (of my family) that were living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. Bishop Hardy had us taken to a home in his ward and the brethren and the sisters brought us plenty of food.

 

Early next morning Bro. Brigham Young and a doctor came. . . .When Bro. Young came in he shook hands with us all. When he saw our condition--our feet frozen and our mother dead--tears rolled down his cheeks.

The doctor amputated my toes using a saw and a butcher knife. Brigham Young promised me I would not have to have any more of my feet cut off. The sisters were dressing mother for the last time. . . . That afternoon she was buried.

 

I refused to have my feet cut off, despite the pressing advice of another doctor when they didn't heal for a while.

One day I sat there crying. My feet were hurting me so--when a little old woman knocked at the door. She said she had felt some one needed her there for a number of days. . . . I showed her my feet and told her the promise Bro. Young had given me. She said, Yes, and with the help of the Lord we will save them yet. She made a poultice and put on my feet and every day after the doctor had gone she would come and change the poultice. At the end of three months my feet were well.

 

BRIGHAM YOUNG (October 5, 1856 – General Conference) – President Griffin

On the fifth day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with hand-carts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here; we must send assistance to them.

 

That is my religion, that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess; it is to save this people. We must bring them in from the plains…

 

I shall call upon the bishops this day-I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until next day-for sixty good mule teams, and twelve or fifteen wagons. I do not want to send oxen. I want good horses and mules…also twelve tons of flour and forty good teamsters.

 

I will tell you all that your faith, religion and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our Lord, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains.

 

MARTINS COVE – George Cunningham, 15 – Jed Woodward

I stirred my three ounces (of flour) with some water and gulped it down. It was extremely cold and the last of our flour was gone. Nothing was left but a scant supply of crackers reserved for the sick and small children.

 

The captain ordered that every critter be killed, but they were nearly as poor as we were. However, we used to boil the bones and drink the soup. Every particle that could be used was taken, even the hide was rationed and after scorching the hair off, we would roast it a little over the coals and cut it in small pieces and it made what we considered a delicious supper.

 

No one feared death now. Nearly everybody seemed indifferent or stupefied.   

 

MARTIN’S COVE – Samuel Openshaw, 22 - Martin Company, family of 8 made it to Utah) – Chad Falslev

We continued our journey until we arrived at the Devil's Gate. Here we were obliged to stop, the snow being about fourteen inches deep.

 

We traveled about two miles, crossed over the Sweetwater; some on the ice and others waded through, which was about three and one-half feet deep.  The women and children were all carried across by some of the brethren who had come from the valley. We then went into a canyon [Martin's Cove] where we camped for about three weeks.

 

In a few days after we arrived here our rations were reduced to four ounces of flour per day. …We now realized that such low rations and our bodily strength having been so much reduced by our former privations and being such cold and inclement weather, a great many died.

 

SWEETWATER RIVER – (narrator)

All were dismayed when they reached the river, remembering the devastating crossing of the Platte, but one fatigued and weakened man gave in to his despair. Oh, dear! I can't go through that, he exclaimed as he dissolved in tears. His wife, Elizabeth replied, Don't cry, Jimmy, I'll pull the handcart for you.

 

James was just twenty-six years old, his wife Elizabeth, twenty-seven, were among the youngest and hardiest adults of the company at the outset. With them were their four children.

 

As it turned out, Elizabeth did not have to pull the handcart for her husband. The small rescue party that had shepherded the destitute company sixty-five miles from the Platte River to this crossing of the Sweetwater would pull the handcarts across the stream and ferry women, children, and the disabled on their backs.

 

Among the rescuers were three teenage boys whose came to symbolize the heroism of all who joined in the rescue effort.

                                                          -Dan Dygert

Daniel Jones said, I have no remembrance of any one shirking his duty. Each and everyone did all they possibly could.  

 

SWEETWATER RIVER - John Jaques – Kent Fabricius

It was a severe operation to many of the company. It was the last ford the company waded over. The water was not less than two feet deep, perhaps a little more in the deepest parts, but it was intensely cold. The ice was three or four inches thick and the bottom of the river muddy and sandy. The stream seemed to be about forty yards wide.

In crossing the river the shins and limbs of the waders came in contact with sharp cakes of ice which inflicted wounds on them.

 

Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford - Martin company – Jana & Justin Williams

After this crossing we camped for several days in a deep gulch called Martin's Ravine.  It was a fearful time and place.  The sufferings of the people were fearful, and nothing but the power of a merciful God kept them from perishing. The storms continued unabated for some days.

I and my children with hundreds of others were locked up in those fearful weather-bound mountains.

 

MARTINS COVE - EPHRIAM HANKS – Scott Jenson

Ephraim Hanks had a vision about the peril of the handcart pioneers even before Brigham Young’s announcement made in General Conference. Following the vision, he had pledged himself to go to their rescue. Traveling alone, he miraculously shot 2 buffalo and brought the fresh meat to the dilapidated emigrants.  He also describes resuscitating a man pronounced dead. Bathing him all over with warm water, he then administered to him.  To save the lives of several others, we amputated frostbitten limbs, fingers and toes.

 

The storms during the three days were simply awful. In all my travels in the Rocky Mountains, just before and afterwards, I have seen nothing like it-nothing worse.

 

I reached the ill-fated train just as the immigrants were camping for the night. 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 suffers, as they moved about slowly, shivering with cold… was enough to touch the stoutest heart.
When they saw me coming, they hailed me with joy inexpressible, and when they further beheld the supply of fresh meat I brought into camp, their gratitude knew no bounds. Flocking around me, one would say, Oh, please, give me a small piece of meat.

 

HARVEY CLUFF – Rescuer – Todd Ballard

In a blizzard, on a hill along the main trail above camp, Harvey Cluff volunteered to post a sign in the snow to direct a team of rescuers back to the main body of the relief party. 

 

I had only been back to camp a short time when two men rode up from Willie’s Company.  The signboard had done the work of salvation.

 

The sign pointed the way for Captain Willie who had left his beleaguered Company searching for the promised help of the rescuers.  He told them that if they didn’t go to his Company immediately, that soon there wouldn’t be any reason to go at all.  Immediately, though in a blinding snowstorm, the rescuers broke camp and returned with Captain Willey.

 

Oh what a sight to see.

 

Aged men, children, and young maidens plodding along through the snow several inches deep, with icicles dangling to their skits and pants as they walked along pushing and pulling their handcarts, the wheels of which were burdened with snow.

 

ROCKY RIDGE – James Kirkwood, 11
James age 11 was from Scotland. He was accompanied by his widowed mother and three brothers, one of whom was nineteen and crippled and had to ride in the handcart.

 

It was James's responsibility to care for his little four-year-old brother, while his mother and brother pulled the cart. It was snowing and there was a bitter cold wind blowing as  they climbed Rocky Ridge.  

 

It took the whole company twenty-seven hours to travel fifteen miles. When his little brother became too weary to walk, Jameshad no choice but to carry him.

 

Left behind the main group, James and his little brother made their way slowly to camp.

 

When the two finally arrived at the fireside, James, having so faithfully carried out his task, collapsed and died from exposure and over-exertion.

 

ROCK CREEK HOLLOW – Emma James, 17 – Shelly Egley or Ashlee Godrey

The time came when we were all too tired to move, so we huddled in our covers, close to each other for warmth. It was snowing, and we were so tired. Suddenly we heard a shout, and through the swirling snow we saw men, wagons and mules coming toward us. Slowly we realized that help had come. The wagons brought food and clothing. They hauled in wood for us, and as we gathered around the huge fire and ate the delicious morsels of food, we came alive enough to thank the Lord for his mercy to us.

 

ROCK CREEK HOLLOW – John Chislett, Willie Co. sub-captain – Stuart Andrew

Death was not long confined in its ravages to the old and infirm.

 

Men were worn down by hunger, scarcity of clothing and bedding, and too much labor in helping their families…Many a father pulled his cart, with his little children on it until the day preceding his death…I have see some pull their carts in the morning, give out during the day, and die before next morning.

 

ROCK CREEK HOLLOW – Dan Jones, rescuer – Roger Smith

They were in a poor place, the storm having caught them where fuel was scarce.  They were out of provisions and really freezing and starving to death…many poor, faithful people had gone too far, - had passed beyond the power to recruit.  Our help came too late for some and many died after our arrival.

 

JAMES WILLIE (Diary of George Cunningham, age 15) – Jed Woodward

Our Captain (James Willie) showed us a noble example. He was furnished a mule to ride on but he said, I will never get on its back. I will set the example-you follow it.' And thus our captains set the example. They would crowd ahead and be the first in the streams to help others across and they were the last out.

 

Their feet were worn and bleeding, they became exhausted and had to be hauled the balance of the way, some of them not being able to stand.

 

BRIGHAM YOUNG (November 2, 1856) – President Griffin

We can return home and sit down and warm our feet before the fire, and can eat our bread and butter; but my mind is yonder in the snow, where those immigrating Saints are, and my mind has been with them ever since I have had the report of their start from Winter Quarters on the 3rd of September, I cannot talk about anything, I cannot go out or come in, but what in every minute or two minutes my mind reverts to them, and the questions-where are my brethren and sisters who are on the plains, and what of their children?

 

Ellen Nellie Pucell Unthank, 9  
		- Martin Handcart Company – Alysia Jenson
Hi, my name is Ellen Nellie Purcell Unthank.  I left England with my parents and came  
		to Utah to help build Zion.  My friends and kinsfolk called me Nellie.
 
My parents were among those who died and were laid  
		to rest in snow banks. But those who died and were laid to rest in the snow perhaps were most fortunate of all. They were through  
		with their suffering and had gone to their reward. 
 
Nothing could be done to save my feet. When they took off my shoes and stockings,  
		the skin, with pieces of flesh came off too. The doctor said my feet must be taken off to save my life. 
 
They strapped me to  
		a board and without an anesthetic the surgery was performed. With a butcher knife and a carpenter's saw they cut the blackened limbs  
		off. It was poor surgery, too, for the flesh was not brought over to cushion the ends. The bones stuck out through the ends of the  
		stumps.
 
In pain and poverty, I waddled through the rest of my life on my knees. I reared a family of six children but never asked  
		for favors of pity or charity.
 
My husband William was a poor man and unable to provide fully for our family; so I took in washings.  
		Kneeling by a tub on the floor I scrubbed the clothes to whiteness on the washboard. I also knit stockings to sell, carded wool and  
		crocheted table pieces. 
 
The bishop and the Relief Society sometimes gave a little assistance which I gratefully accepted, but once  
		a year, to even the score, I took my children and cleaned the meeting house. My boy carried water and the girls washed the windows  
		and I on my knees, scrubbed the floor. 
 
This heroic woman gave to William Unthank, a posterity to perpetuate his name in the  
		earth and he gave her a home and a family to give comfort and care in her old age.
 
In memory I recall her wrinkled forehead,  
		her soft dark eyes that told of toil and pain and suffering, and the deep grooves that encircled the corners of her strong mouth.  
		But in that face there was no trace of bitterness or railings at her fate. There was patience and serenity for in spite of her handicap  
		she had earned her keep and justified her existence. She had given to family, friends and to the world more then she had received.
        

SALT LAKE CITY – BRIGHAM YOUNG (Sunday, November 30th) - President Griffin

The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to go home and prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat, and to wash them and nurse them up. . . . Were I in the situation of those persons who have just come in, . . . I would give more for a dish of pudding or a baked potato and salt, . . . than I would for all your prayers, though you were to stay here all afternoon and pray. Prayer is good, but when baked potatoes and milk are needed, prayer will not supply their place.

 

SALT LAKE CITY - Mary Powell, 12 years – Colleen Woodward

My little sister, Annie, age four, had been promised a big piece of bread and butter when she should reach the valley. Just as we were lined up to hear a few words from Bro. Brigham Young, a lady held up a large piece of bread. Annie ran toward her. That's my piece of bread and butter, she cried joyously. At the sight of this Pres. Young wept, God bless the child, said he. There were tears in the eyes of the people from the valley.

 

JOSEPH SMITH  (September 6, 1842) – Troy Jenkins

D&C 128:23-25

     Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!

     Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand; and who can abide the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.

     Brethren, I have many things to say to you on the subject; but shall now close for the present, and continue the subject another time. I am, as ever, your humble servant and never deviating friend,

Joseph Smith.

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