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Show tized with the rest, .feeling a detennination to keep the commandments of God more faithfully hereafter, the Lord being my helper ...• In a magnificent display of renewed faith, Union settlers jumped to the call to assist the handcart companies on their way to Salt Lake Valley. First, a word is necessary about the establishment of handcart companies. Crop failures, caused by the drought of 1855, had served to cripple the economics of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund <P.E.F.) Company.' The P.E.F. Company was designed to supply poor Mormon converts in Europe with money to pay for the costs of their pilgrimage to Utah. After the immigrants reached J>' ed :"LVtah...th~tf~as to repay the P.E.F." To ~eet the e~nses ~ of transporting converts from Europe to Utah 10 1856, Bngham Young suggested that handcarts, instead of ox-drawn wagons be used. One historian records, "Some nineteen hundred European Saints signed up to cross the Plains with handcar~that.year..!! efeJe This experiment with the early handcart companies proved a success. The last two of the handcart companies, however, were delayed at outfitting stations in the East. They did not begin the long trek to Utah until the middle of July - late in the migrating season. These groups, known as the Willie and Martin handcart companies, encountered much hardship and death on the march to.. ,'I their Utah "Zionif.) When B~gham Young lea~ed .in. O~to~~J!l~t Z. i CV'o, • • over one thousand han(lcart pioneers were still on the Immigrant road to utah, he quickly formed relief parties to transport food and supplies to the belated companies. II On October en the Latter-day Saints of Union "started five horse teams back east to assist the handcart companies," said Bishop Richards. Richards further noted, "Our teams were loaded with feed, provisions, clothing, bedding, etc., a free will offering of the saints in Union for the benefit and assistance of the handcart emigration, amounting to hundreds of dollars." On November 3, Richards made a note in his diary that the Union Ward "sent one wagon and two yoke of oxen loaded with corn and hay in charge of Bros. C. Nowlan and George Done f~r the relief of our teams on the plains." Six days later, the "teams returned to Salt Lake City with 400 persons of handcart immigration, having been gone two weeks, and traveled 280 miles in snow storms and cold and hunger," wrote Richards. n After the arrival of the handcart immigration, LDS leaders d Warren Foote. Courtesy LDS Church Archives. the whole Territory. Many confessed their sins and made restitution. 4 To enforce the call to reform, Warren Foote said, "The Sacrament \ ';\ was ordered to be withheld until the people humbled themselves ( .{,-, and again renewed their covenants by baptism.'" At this time, a .\~. I baptismal font was completed at the Endowment House in Salt "",--- Lake City.' On October 9, Silas Richards, bishop of Union, was bap\ ).tize<lJ~thd~t'.n along with many other bishops. That evening, R,t~dH~..:_~~hOI(!!!.<:h!m:§~1 shows he "attended meeting in ... Union and gave instructions to the teachers." Three days later, he again \6'i";1 . "P~eaC~~_i"-l!~o~)1.)~inaUy, on October 26, the bishop wrote, "I t}f\ preached ... ana baptized about 125 persons assisted by several 7 elders." On this occasion, Warren Foote stated, "The most of Union Ward w~ rebaptized on the [281 J of Oct 1856. I was rebap36 |
