December 1996 Blazer

Disaster in Wyoming, Caring for survivors in 1856

1 THE HISTORY BLAZER A7E11' S OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grailde Salt Lake Cit\: L'T 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3503 Disaster in Wyoming: Caring for Survivors in 1856 WHEN THE FROZEN, EMACIATED SURVIVORS FROM THE Willie and Martin handcart companies and the Hodgett and Hunt wagon trains arrived in Utah in November and December of 1856, they were greeted with enormous kindness and generosity. They had been stranded by bliz-zards in Wyoming until a heroic relief effort from Utah saved many of their lives. Despite famine conditions in the settlements, people donated tons of flour and other foodstuffs, and men risked their own lives to drive wagons loaded with food, bedding, and clothing to the suffering immigrants and carry them back to the Salt Lake Valley. This massive and selfless rescue response was one of Utah's finest hours. However, the relief effort continued for months after the survivors arrived and was equally important although less dramatic. Mormon bishops carried out the relief effort. They collected the food, clothing, bedding, wagons, and teams that were sent to Wyoming and then sent more food, wagons, teams, and men to meet them and keep the roads open through the snowy Wasatch Mountains. The bishops' work con-tinued after the immigrants arrived. In the early stages of the relief, the Salt Lake bishops carried much of the burden, but, later, bishops throughout the territory became involved. They found homes for those who had neither friends nor relatives with whom to stay. They continued to collect food donations to distribute to the destitute. Bishops in all parts of Utah sent wagons to Salt Lake City to bring families to their settlements so that the weight of caring for the survivors would be shared. Utah women also responded quickly to the need. Lucy Merserve Smith said that when Brigham Young in October Conference called for clothing, the ladies began to strip off petticoats, stockings, and everything else they could spare right in the Tabernacle. Though impoverished themselves, women sacrificed their own families' small clothing supply to help the immigrants, most of whom arrived in tattered summer clothing. To meet the urgent need, Relief Societies were formed in many settlements, and the women began making quilts and clothing and knitting socks. In Provo, for instance, Lucy Merserve Smith, Relief Society president, and her counselors organized women to prepare for survivors sent to Provo. They collected so much bedding and clothing that the four bishops could barely carry it to storage. Whatever was needed for the immigrants Smith could get without charge from the bishop's store. She and her counselors waded through deep snow to collect things and deliver notices. Provo women made 27 quilts and a great amount of clothing that winter. The same scenes were undoubtedly repeated in many other settlements. At Sunday services on November 30, Brigham Young announced that the afternoon meeting was cancelled so that the people could care for those immigrants expected to arrive then. When 104 ( more) wagons filled with the remnants of the Martin company stopped in front of the tithing office, crowds stood ready to take the survivors into their homes and hearts. As the immigrants were lifted from the wagons, the Salt Lakers could see: the challenge they would have to meet. Many arrivals were emaciated, their shabby clothing hanging loosely from their thin bodies. Many had severely frozen limbs that would require intense nursing, even amputation. Some had already undergone the gruesome procedure. Others were so weak they could not stand alone. All needed to be fed and washed, and many needed medical attention. During the next two weeks the Hunt and Hodgett wagon companies would arrive nearly as destitute. The work of relief was truly just beginning. As they had when the Willie company arrived earlier in November, Utahns provided housing for the survivors of the disaster. Within about an hour, all the members of the Martin company had been distributed by the bishops to homes in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities. Pattie Sessions was sent a 17- year- old boy to care for; she dressed his frozen feet and clothed him. The next day he was sent to Provo. Over the next few days, many would likewise be relocated to the settlements from Ogden on the north to Cedar City, Parowan, and Harmony on the south. Homes for 141 were found by Provo bishops. Families shared their homes for months before the newcom-ers were healthy enough to move on. Handcart families often had to be split up among several homes as cabins and houses filled to capacity. Beds and bedding were shared. Jobs were given to those able to work. Food supplies were stretched to the limit. No one lived lavishly that winter because of the famine; nearly everyone was hungry, but the people shared whatever they had. Frozen toes, feet, legs, and hands required immediate care. Decaying flesh and fear of infection, particularly gangrene, led to many amputations. However, the Deseret News warned people to not be too hasty with the knife and saw but to treat the frozen flesh patiently with good nursing. The article included a remedy. Through the long winter months women nursed the bedridden, many of whom were children and totally helpless. For many, the process of healing was excruciatingly slow. For some Utahns who took in orphaned children, care would continue for years. The Silas Richards family of Union, for example, took the three little Osborne girls whose parents had died in the Willie company. The girls could hardly walk and were malnourished and frostbitten. They had no shoes or woolen stockings, their only clothing the remnants of summer apparel. Widows and their children, taken into other families, sometimes became part of the family by marriage. The citizens of Utah acted valiantly in coming to the aid of the disastrous late immigration of 1856. Their generous care saved lives and gave survivors the opportunity to begin again. Sources: Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard J. Arrington, Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies ( Provo: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, 1982); Lucy Merserve Smith, " Narrative," LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City; Pattie Sessions, Journal, LDS Church Archives; Silas Richards, " Autobiography," in Kate Carter, ed., Our Pioneer Heritage ( Salt Lake City, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1972), vol 15; Deseret Nms Weekty, various issues in October, November, and December 1856; J. Marinus Jensen, Histmy of Prow, Utah ( Provo, 1924). THEH K~ ORBYL AZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centeunial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone [phone]. % 1205 ( LC)