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Show Winterin at Winter 135 Quarters 1846, but as it became apparent that not all the Saints on the Missouri River would move to the West in 1847, plans were made for plowing and planting. Com, which is much easier to raise than wheat, was planted in abundance, and a good crop harvested. While not as desirable as wheat for human use, .corn had the advantage of being approved feed for cattle and oxen, and the fodder was valuable in as well. Brigham Young and his picked company toiled over and mountains in 1847 seeking a new home, John Tanner prairies and his sons and neighbors worked equally hard attempting to raise While the needed supplies for the John's Amasa the daughter Lyman one of care general migration which would come. Louisa Maria the of the watchful Lyman, who was married to original pioneers, who had remained under John arid his family, has left a couple of letters she wrote to her husband which indicated that the women were not having an easy time as they waited for their men folks to take them to their permanent home in the valley. They are long letters and give much of the local news and gossip, even mentioning "your Ladys" being in good health. The "Ladys" referred to were Amasa's plural wives, seven in all, which must have been quite a trial to Louisa Maria. One line knowing after him in. the him to be letter indicates her concern for her husband, average man who needed someone to look "I would feel much better" she wrote, "if you an constantly. good Woman with you that was interested to take care of your things & do your work. If L M L [Louisa Maria Lyman] was with you it would please me much. But the Lord's will be done not mine." One cannot but wonder if she would have been willing for one of the plural wives to have accompanied him to take care of his things. But she was careful not to betray her jealousy, however strongly she may have felt it. had a Her father John Tanner is mentioned in the letter. She reported that Daniel [Daniel P. Clark] and Sidney were at her father's "making cheese, gardening, carding and spinning, doing house work, sewing, knitting, washing, soap making, & in fact anything that come to hand." This is quite a list and one wonders whether it is the total of all activi ties being carried on at John Tanner's. The letter was dated over a seven-day period, June 6 to 13, 1847.17 What with gardens, milk, butter, and cheese, the Saints were much better fed in the summer and fall of 1847, than the previous |
