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Show 116 John Tanner and His Family required all the brethren at Nauvoo to would assist the honest poor to the extent they of their ability in the movement West. Those who had been left behind and were in the poor camp were mostly of the indigent type whom the Saints found impossible to carry with them in the first Brigham Young make a movement to the to had covenant that bring Missouri, but later sent teams from the Missouri them out. Another item of interest in the early days of the trek, was the Some of the Saints had or foraging as Nathan called it. small amounts of money with which to buy hay, corn, and other necessities, but in addition many of them had brought along items of furniture, jewelry, feather beds, and more expensive articles of clothing which they could dispense with and for which the Iowa "trading," settlers would trade the necessities which the Mormons required. Nathan, who seemed to have a little more brass than most of the Saints, turned out to be a shrewd bargainer and was entrusted with much of this barter. interest: His own account of the part he played is of I was a little behind the camp as they left a few days before I did, but stopped at Richardson's Point and sent back after me. The camp organized there and I was elected or appointed commissary for the camp and there and then took in charge such stock and other pro perty as the camp had to trade or sell, and Brother George A. Smith notified me officially of my appointment and made quite a speech on the occasion. I got a man to take charge of my team and help my wife in my absence and started out on my errand. After a few trades made at our camp, I took about 30 horses and went north to trade for cattle. 17 It seems that horses were a luxury that only those with means could afford. A team of horses would trade for two yoke of oxen and the latter would pull as large a load as the horses and could live much better off the land. When Nathan got ready to start with the horses, Brother Hunt ington wanted to go along as he owned a fine span of horses which he hoped to trade for oxen. Nathan's story continues: We went and worked hard to trade his horses but could not. We sold or turned all the rest of our horses to a good advantage and returned and made a report to the council. I invited him out of to respect |
