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Show CHAPTER 9 From the Mississippi to the Missouri It had been apparent for at least three years, that the beautiful of Nauvoo was doomed. There is ample evidence that the city prophet and other church leaders were looking westward at least a year before the prophet's death in 1844, and the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum brought the idea into focus, and made the move doubly imperative.' Brigham Young and the other church leaders would have been the further the better long before to be in the far west glad - - the move began in February 1846. But to move thousands of Saints distance of fifteen hundred miles over prairies and mountains mostly without roads, to some place only vaguely imagined, with no waystations en route, and no source of food and supplies when they arrived at wherever they were going, was an undertaking that even a man of Brigham's stature hesitated to tackle. a Most Latter-day Saints of today have seen pictures of covered drawn wagons by sad-eyed oxen, driven by brave pioneers with long which whips they cracked occasionally, and a brave wife either to save walking weight on the overloaded wagon, or hidden within the cover wagon tending her babies. And over all was the organization with captains of tens, fifties, and hundreds, and the Quorum of Twelve with the matchless Brigham Young at the head. It was as easy as that the nothing could have gone wrong in the western exodus blood, sweat, and tears can be forgotten and just the success remem bered. - - But it was not as easy as that. The movement of the Latter-day Saints to the Rocky Mountains was one of the difficult feats of pio- |
