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Show Page 133 contemplation, to find a location west of the Rocky Mountains. Whenever Joseph spoke on that subject he proposed to send a company of young men as pioneers to seek a location and raise a crop previous to sending families." 8 More and more, Orson saw the westward exile to be an integral chapter in the progress toward apocalypse - as a member of the vanguard, he felt the breath of the Prophet in the prairies and saw Joseph's visions worked out in the very processes of nature. On April 27, the log cabins of Garden Grove were erected in the midst of a torrent. The next day Orson met in a council in Brigham's dripping tent and it was decided to sell the beloved temples at Nauvoo and Kirtland for the benefit of the poor Saints still in the East and unable to outfit themselves for the exile. Ironically, the Nauvoo temple was at last dedicated in its entirety only three days later under the direction of Wilford Woodruff and Orson Hyde. But the plight of those few remaining in the Mormon city required the immediate sale of the building. There were only a comparative handful in Illinois. As the cold spring turned into May, nearly twelve-thousand Mormons now straggled along behind the advance wagons of Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and the others. It was imperative that the small temporary settlements produce as much grain as possible, and, between bouts of sickness, Orson spent the first ten days of May struggling with fencing and putting up log houses. Impatient to see more land under cultivation, Orson set off with his fifty toward the forks of Grand River, where on May 16 they encamped at "Mount Pisgah," so named by Parley who first saw and declared it as beautiful as the promised land of the Bible. The next day Orson went fishing, "which was something of a variety to us." Soon thousands of acres at Mount Pisgah were cultivated. |