Revised Feb. 2013

They are people who had probably never been more than 50 miles from home. They traveled on foot, by sailing vessels, with wagon trains and handcarts, aboard trains and river vessels. A six month journey, a distance of about 5,500 miles and a world away from their homes. They settled in the valleys between the Utah Mountains and were among the first settlers of these areas. They are families with names of Gordon, Park, Meikle and Peacock and they are the

Pioneer Ancestors of Erma Phyllis Gordon Anderson

. .

.

http://www.dupinternational.org/ My Mother, Erma Phyllis Gordon Anderson, was a proud member of “Daughters of the Utah Pioneers”. One of her activities involved locating the gravesite of her great great Gordon grandparents and helping to prepare and install a gravestone to mark the site. The story of this activity is included with the “Foster Gordon and Sarah Francis Hogg” file. My Mother, along with many members of the Gordon family, was an active genealogist. I now have a considerable amount of genealogy material prepared for and by Gordon, Park, Meikle & Peacock family members. After retiring and finding more time for interest in family history, I became curious to learn more about where these ancestors had lived and how they traveled to Utah. Through the resources of the internet and LDS Family History Centers, Smithfield & Tooele Historical Societies, and other sources, I was able to significantly expand my understanding of these ancestors. The family histories attempt to tie together the genealogy data my Mother passed on and the supplemental information I have found and added to these family histories. I hope the information may be useful and/or interesting to other family members or to others who may find the source cited useful in investigating their pioneer family history. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OUR PIONEER ANCESTORS The mid 1800’s was truly an epoch period. Our ancestors crossed the Atlantic aboard the last of the great sailing ships. Travel by ship involved a voyage of 40 to 60 days on the high seas. These were not today’s ocean liners. Passengers provided their own food, and laundry. Toilet facilities were on the open deck. Passengers were not housed in cabins, but in dormitory areas that were dark, cold, wet, crowded and down right miserable. Not only seasickness, but disease outbreaks were common place. Also marriages, births, and development of life long friendships were part of the voyage experience. Upon arrival in the USA these ancestors became acutely aware that the Country was engaged in a Civil War. Encounters with troops were common place. From their arrival port (Boston, New York or New Orleans) they made their way to the Wagon train or Handcart staging areas, in Iowa or Nebraska, via trains and river boats. Nothing like travel today as this part of the journey took 10 – 15 days. They experienced hunger, crowded/cramped conditions, delays and often scorn from local populations. With handcarts and ox wagons, they traveled across the prairies of Iowa, Nebraska and eastern Wyoming and through the mountains of Wyoming and Utah. Most pioneers, unless they were teamsters, walked all or much of the distance. This was a time when settlements were most often military forts and were far between. Wolves, coyotes, buffalo, antelope, rattle snakes, bandits and Indians were common. Periodic encounters with US Military patrols were also common. Again deaths and births were frequent occurrences. Incidents of women being abducted by Indians (or maybe others) are noted in pioneer’s journals. After arrival in Utah, they were faced with making a living in what was truly the wild wild west. The territory was still in the early stages of development and where our ancestors settled was open country. But our ancestors helped carve out and build the cities and towns that make up our modern day communities. These Histories try to keep some of that “pioneer history” alive for our family and friends. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I will appreciate any corrections and/or additional information.

1863 - Harriet Louisa Peacock Meikle sailed aboard the AMAZON. “Amazon” later renamed “Mary Celeste” An engraving of the Mary Celeste as she was found abandoned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste GENERAL INTEREST COMMENT The Mary Celeste was a 103-foot (31 metres), 282-ton brigantine. She was built in 1861 as the Amazon at Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia, the first large vessel built in this community. The Mary Celeste was a brigantine found in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and under full sail heading towards the Strait of Gibraltar in 1872. The fate of the crew is the subject of much speculation; theories range from alcoholic fumes to underwater earthquakes, and a large body of fictional accounts of the story. The Mary Celeste is often described as the archetypal example of a ghost ship. ===================================================================== 1861 - Monarch of the Sea - Emily Ellen Peacock & her new husband traveled aboard this ship http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/ship_desc.htm#monarch A big three-decker, this clipper ship was exceptionally strong and fast and operated in the Washington Line out of New York. Built with the usual three masts, a round stern, and billethead, she was owned by Captain William R. Gardner and other businessmen. After more than a quarter of a century in service the Monarch of the Sea was reported lost in 1880

The first company, consisting of 955 Saints, sailed from Liverpool on 16 May 1861. Elder Jabez Woodard presided over the passengers. Captain William R. Gardner of Providence, Rhode Island, commanded the ship. During the passage the Saints were organized into eleven wards and lived together harmoniously. There were eleven weddings, nine deaths, and four births on shipboard. After thirty-four days at sea the Monarch of the Sea dropped anchor on 19 June 1861 at New York

The second company, totaling 974 Saints, sailed from Liverpool on 28 April 1864.

Ship Types

http://www.xmission.com/~nelsonb/sailing.htm

Under Sail to Zion By Conway B. Sonne It was Saturday, 6 June 1840. A full-rigged packet ship flying the American flag glided out of Liverpool harbor, bound for New York. Her hull was black with a white strake running the length of the vessel. Black squares painted on this white band would suggest gun turrets to any craft with hostile intentions. It is likely that the ship’s fore-topsail bore a painted black ball, the emblem of the famous Black Ball Line. [ … ] She was carrying among her passengers the first organized emigrant company of Latter-day Saints, Elder John Moon presided over these 41 British converts. [ … ] Waiting at the Docks

The Gathering This voyage was the beginning of an epoch a period when thousands of newly converted Latter-day Saints migrated from the Old World to Zion (Zion: a name for Utah). [ … ]

Come Aboard

In responding to the call, new converts left their homes, families, and native lands for an unknown future in an untamed country. Between 1840 and 1890, at least eighty-five thousand LDS emigrants braved the treacherous oceans, surviving the dangers of wind, wave, and arid disease. Some fifty thousand of them crossed the water in sailing v

essels.

Bringing Supplies Aboard Search for Stow Away

he Sailing Craft tually all LDS emigrants crossed the

e in

Underway – Leaving Port

Emigrants Organized ware of the hazards of an

significant that in a fifty-year period not one LDS y

From the outset, LDS emigrants were uniquely on 6

r

lark

ere

iss

ne languages were spoken aboard the ship, the 725 Saints had a successful and harmonious voyage.

TFrom 1840 to 1868, virAtlantic and Pacific in sailing ships. There were 176 known voyages under canvas, of which 154 were madfull-rigged ships, and the remainder in barks and brigs. [ … ]

Church leaders were well aocean crossing and had read the reports of emigrant ships sunk in the wrathful Atlantic. In fact, between 1847 and 1853, fifty-nine such vessels were lost, withall who were on board. Knowing this, Church leaderschartered only the most seaworthy ships, and it is

emigrant company was lost in the Atlantic. The onlshipwreck that took Latter-day Saint lives occurred in the Pacific; the bark Julia Ann was lost, and fiveChurch members died. Morning Roll Call

organized. An early example was a meeting heldFebruary 1841 in Liverpool to organize 235 Saints prioto their sailing on the Sheffield, Shipmaster Richard K. Porter joined Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Willard Richards in the planning session. Hiram Cwas appointed president of the company, with six counselors to assist him. [ … ]. Large companies wdivided into wards, each with its own presidency. Aboard the William Tapscott, five English and Swwards occupied one side of the steerage quarters, and five Scandinavian wards the opposite side. Although ni

Life between Decks

the early years, emigrants supplied their e legislation

bin

led on usand tons,

ve

Inown food. Later maritimrequired shipping lines to provide a daily ration. Few emigrants could afford cafare, and sleeping accommodations in steerage were rude and usually overcrowded. For emigrants who traveships that did not exceed two thoboth space and privacy were very limited. During the time of the wind ships, despite improvements in conditions under successiite primitive.

[… ] Rations included water and such staples as beef, pork, beans, and potalaassigned two men to assist him. During the crossing, measles, chicken pox, and other ailments claimelives (43 of them children), or 11 percent of the company. Mortality was especially high among childre The only sanitary facilities were buckets or chamber pots. Some later packets had water closets built on thdown and could not get to the deck. It is easy to imagine the resulting chaos and stench

British and American passenger acts, sea travel remained qu

toes. There were eleven nterns, five furnished by the emigrants and six by the ship. The emigrants hired an extra cook and

d 48 n.

e main deck, but during severe storms sometimes lasting for day’s steerage passengers were hatched

Problems from Overcrowding Overcrowding compounded the misery of seasickness, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases. Between

n huddled together in a heaving, rocking craft, suffering in body

In 1861, during the first of her two emigrant passages, the Monarch f the Sea (Emily Ellen Peacock was aboard) carried 955 Latter-day

the

decks, these men, women, and childreand spirit. Even under the best conditions and discipline, the situation created a fertile environment forthe spread of disease.

oSaints. The passengers were housed on three decks. Families were berthed amidships, where there was somewhat more space, but single individuals were cramped uncomfortably together. The resourceful company president found a happy solution. He suggested that betrothed couples be married to relieve the imbalance. Many marriages were promptly solemnized, andcongestion eased.

The Lonely Sea

For travelers under sail, fear of the ocean often submerged all other hardships. It was a well-founded

aged,

ific oceans in all eir vastness created feelings of awe, loneliness, and

g g

officers and crew scrambling on deck and aloft.

was dark and confined. It was a g,

seasick,

ls, d

sengers often attributed the safe voyages to the hand of ps were usually dedicated and blessed before embarking. Many of

ered voyages. Sometimes ships were becalmed for days, creating

o combat disease, tedium, and discouragement, hed patterns of shipboard

t in well

spend time on deck in the air and sunshine. Religiousgames, instruction classes, reading, and needlework w

r , wife Jean and son Samuel as aboard] In his journal, Richard Ballantyne, who presided over the company of 403 Saints, recorded incidents

fear. When winter gales or summer hurricanes rthe ocean extracted a heavy toll [ … ] To the emigrants, the Atlantic and Pacthapprehension. Emigrants, who had never been far fromhome, soon found themselves at the mercy of varying winds and uncompromising waves. At night, lying in their berths, they could hear the creaking and straininnoises of the ship, the flap of canvas, the wind whistlinthrough the shrouds and rigging, and the shouting

Below deck, the emigrants’ little world

discordant symphony of children’s cryinthe retching and vomiting of the the muttering and groaning of despairing companions, and, above all, the waves crashing against the hull and over the deck. [ …] Many reported shredded saiserious leaks, and dismantled masts anrigging. Yet the safety record of these vessels was remarkable. Masters and pasProvidence, and to the fact that the shithese vessels were eventually lost at sea, but not while transporting Latter-day Saints.

It was not just storms that endang

water and food shortages. [ … ] Health and Safety TLDS emigrants establisliving. Scrupulous sanitation was emphasized, including frequent fumigation and sprinkling of lime (used as a bleaching powder) in living quarters. To promote health, leaders insisted thawarm and calm weather, everyone sick and services, prayer meetings, entertainment events, ere helpful distractions.

Among the notable passages was that of the clipper ship Charles Buck. [Samuel Park Jwof life at sea. He first organized the emigrants into four wards and selected their officers. He then gave detailed instructions on sanitation and cleanliness, moral conduct, and group activities. He blessed the sick, but also prescribed his remedies for dysentery, fevers, and other illnesses. On one occasion, he and Captain William W. Smalley sutured and dressed an eight-inch gash in the leg of a young girl.

Brother Ballantyne recorded the tragic loss of a seven-year-old boy wwchildren were lost to disease and buried at sea. Brother Ballantyne’s most serious problem was a food shortage caused by a failure to reload some supplies from another ship that had been previously chartered but had proved to be unseaworthy. Emigrants had to subsist for days on rations of

ho was playing near the rigging hen a strong breeze sprang up and tightened the ropes.. To add to the sadness of the voyage, three other

oat-meal, rice, biscuits, and flour. Yet he kept the Saints usy during the 56-day passage to New Orleans at such tasks as sewing tents and wagon covers for the

There was also an unexpected danger. Although piracy had been largely swept from the seas, it still posed an occasional

nd .

nt ships varied widely. ts of voyages ranged from horror stories to tales of

ns and 38 days to New York from Liverpool

panies reported one or more deaths. On three other voyages, assenger manifests of the John J. Boyd, the Franklin, and the Monarch of the Sea (Emily Ellen Peacock

time, shipboard conditions improved. Yet some things ever overcome: overcrowding and its indignities, disease, and tedium. With some emigrant

btrek across the plains.

threat to shipping. One afternoon, Captain Smalley sighted astrange craft stalking the Charles Buck. He grew suspicious aimmediately ordered all passengers on deck hundreds of themThis display of numerical strength apparently induced the captain of the other vessel to turn away. [ … ] Over the years, conditions aboard emigraAccounpassages that seemed almost like pleasure cruises. The length of the crossings under canvas, averaging 54 days to New Orlea.

[ … ] At least half of the LDS emigrant compwas aboard) listed unusually high death tolls as well: in each case, more than 40 emigrants. Likewise, there were births well over a hundred recorded. [ … ] Travel under sail was always difficult; however, inwere ncompanies exceeding eight hundred people, the realities of squalid living often tested the stoutest hearts.

w age of travel by steamship provided increased comfort, speed, and fety to those pioneers on the sea who were headed toward Zion.

After 1868, things changed. A nesa

PORT OF ARRIVAL TO STAGING AREAS http://www.castlegarden.org/ <- Search

Castle Garden, New York opened August 3, 1855. The structure (a former military fort) became

merica's first immigrant receiving center, welcoming 8.5 million people before it was closed in 1890 and

net/newcompass/ancestral/imm_exp/castlegarden.html#cg_1

Asucceeded by Ellis Island. http://www.immigrantships. ttp://www.maggieblanck.com/Immigration.htmlh <- This is a good site, many images – Scroll down

) on the following morning for the railway station in

bridge

Trains ut it was far from

. Trains averaged 20 miles an hour and had no sleeping

r pick it

nts rail

e Iowa River and went to the staging areaof Iowa City, at a small settlement know

next day. When we left for the Suspension Bridge here we were immediately transferred to other cars and were speedily wending our way to New

t, ferring

Autobiography of David M. Stuart – “Cynosure”: (Foster & Sarah France Gordon were aboard

e landed at Castle Garden, New York and left there WThirty-second-Street, where we had to remain until 2 a.m. the following morning, on account of a on the Hudson River line having been damaged by a squall of wind which arose earlier in the day.

MORMON EMIGRANTS: 1848-1868

Train travel was easier than travel by wagon, bluxuriousaccommodations or dining cars. Smoke and soot were everywhere, sanitation facilities were primitive, and schedules were erratic. Travelers had to provide their own food oup en route. Many spent nights sitting up or in warehouses or barns. Some felt they were singled out for rude treatment by railway officials. Passenger cars sometimes caught fire or derailed. Some women gave birth en route. But on the emigracame. During the Civil War, because of wartime demands,travel became even more difficult and uncomfortable. Emigrants often had to travel in cattle cars. Handcart emigrants crossed th that had been located on the banks of Clear Creek, 3 miles west n as Clark's Mills, now called Coralville.

Autobiography of David M. Stuart – “Cynosure: We reached Albany and remained there until the wWindsor. We reached that place the following day and crossed the river in a ferry steamer to Detroiand took cars for Chicago, where we arrived the following day and immediately left, without transthe luggage - which we have had to do at every other point - for Quincy, where we arrived the followingday. We left after an hour or two for St. Joseph.

They arranged to go up the river to Albany, instead of through New York State. We went on light freighters behind a steam tug, where we took the railroad from Albany to Chicago and on to Quincy. At

ins

ordon & Sarah Frances Hogg were aboard)

d they

igrant travel by rail was difficult, especially in Missouri, here pro- and anti-Union forces in that state often clashed: timetables were erratic; routes were

n't

ied

Mormon emigrants made little use of railroads

ntil the Chicago and Rock Island RR reached

ds by ormons became common. When the railroad

o

Another big rise in the use of rail travel was when the Hannibal and St. Joseph RR reached St. Joseph,

issouri, on the Missouri River in 1859, whence emigrants generally took riverboats to the Council

e Civil War, the Union Pacific RR began moving west from Omaha, Nebraska, on July 10, 1865. he following year, the Mormons abandoned the rail terminal at St. Joseph and the connecting Nebraska

d Utah in 1869, emigrants took rails all the way from the east coast.

Chicago, they put us on cattle trucks, as the passenger cars had all been burned, and we had "Hopkchoice," for everything was under military rule, and that was to rule or ruin. Account from “Cynosure” passenger (Foster GLeaving by rail, they traveled to Rock Island, Illinois. The train being 15 minutes late saved all of them from plunging into the Mississippi River as the bridge has broken with the train ahead of them. They stayed at Rock Island until Monday morning crossing the Mississippi River by boat. Here they travelein box cars to Iowa City. From herewalked 4 miles to the Iowa camp grounds. During the Civil War years of 1861-1865, emwinterrupted, impeded, and changed. Trail travel was dangerous. Bridges were blown up or burned by military units. Rail travel, at least the accommodations most Mormon emigrants could afford, hadimproved much over the conditions of the 1850s. Passenger cars often had no springs, benches had no backs, and sometimes emigrants rode in cattle cars full of lice and dirt. Food and water had to be carror purchased in route. RAIL AND TRAIL PIONEERS: 1856-1868

uthe Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois, in 1854, whence it was possible to continue west byriverboats to various jumping-off sites, such as Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri River It was not until 1856 that the use of railroaMwent from Rock Island, Illinois, to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1856, many Mormon emigrants, especially the handcart pioneers, "took cars" tthat terminal.

MBluffs-Florence area and proceeded west. (The handcart company of 1859 did this, the first Mormons todo so.) After thTCity Cutoff and, sequentially, took trains to four Union Pacific railheads: North Platte, Nebraska, and Julesburg, Colorado, in 1867, and Laramie and Benton, Wyoming, in 1868. Here the emigrants were met by church trains from Salt Lake. After the Union Pacific RR reache

RIVERBOATS

After the Mormons began departing the Far West

ched

perienced not only enchantingly beautiful scenery," kind "colored

o snags,

"anti-Mormon" sentiments. A few emigrants could afford cabin class passage, but most, unfortunately, traveled in steerage—on the crowded lower decks with

l

o Hadley” ABOARD CYNOSURE – New York to Western Missouri …] This boat was run by steam and

t a

ck us up. So daddy took my older brother and myself and we ber for about a mile. It was about nine or ten that night when we

this boat was when one of the crew lifted a trap door in the bottom of the boat and hen took a bucket to draw water up from the river. He forgot to replace the door and Thomas

oat and

NS, LA

n TO FLORENCE

s as there was a heavy ge

Then we would have to stop and repair and altogether m been.

Thousands of Mormons traveled on riverboats.

from various Missouri River locations, most emigrants reached Missouri via Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri riverboats until the railroad reathe Missouri in 1859. Mormon emigrants ex"waiters," and their own preaching, but alscholera, accidents, death (most riverboats carriedextra coffins for those who died aboard), miscarriages, explosions, and what they took to be

the animals and baggage (including an occasional occupied coffin), and few amenities. Sometimes passengers, including at least some Mormon children, feloverboard and were lost. “Autobiography of Lorenz[they burned wood for fuel and the boat crew would have to pull up to the bankfor wood and one time when they did this the boat stuck in the sand. The captain ordered all able bodied men and women to walk up the bank aboumile and that when they got the boat out they would blow a whistle and then piwalked up a roadway through the timgot back on the boat. Another experience ontCunningham's smaller brother had become frightened when some mules in a stall nearby started kicking and making a lot of noise. He became excited and fell through the trap door. They stopped the bsearched but never found a trace of his body. They thought he might have been struck by one of the large wheels on either side of the boat.

SOME ARRIVED AT NEW ORLEA“Charles Buck” (Samuel Park Jr. & family)

DEPART NEW ORLEANS to ST. LOUIS and oDepart New Orleans and it took us about 12 days to get to St. Louicurrent. River was rising ice breaking up lartrees coming down the river the Mississippi &Ohio and Missouri Rivers all rising made a large steam and a heavy current and the trees would get into the wheels and smash them.

ade us about 3 days longer than we should have

The captain of the Michigan behaved very badly toward the Saints. As the boat left the wharf in New Orleans, John Eccleson fell overboard and was drowned. Four children died on the way to St. Louis. A

RTS PONEERS o, John, along with the rest of the men, made their handcarts on which they could haul the few things

cross the plains, one thousand miles to Utah.

Danish brother by the name of Nordberg fell overboard the morning before arriving at St. Louis and perished. HANDCASnecessary to make the journey a http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/mopi/hrs6.htm The following has been edited from information at the site above.

y Jane Park Draney & family, argaret Jessie Jackson Meikle, James Joseph Meikle and his ½ brother William and sister Isabella.

major change in the pattern of Mormon immigration took place in 1856 in Iowa City, Iowa, with the ry of the west—the handcart experience. In

nly the first to transport migrant companies with them.

The Mormon open carts varied in size and were odeled after carts used by street sweepers; they were

flour,

by train

This famous experiment involved 2,962 people in 10 companies from 1856 through 1860, but only the first 7 companies, or 2,071 Saints trod Iowa soil (Including our Park & Meikle ancestors with 2nd

(the h the

Handcart Ancestors Include: Isabella Gray Park, her daughter, Mar M THE HANDCART EMIGRANTS 1856-1860 Adevelopment of a remarkable travel experiment in the histo1854 the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad (C&RI) reached the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois; two years later the railroad bridged (or should one say trestled?) the Mississippi and connected with the Missouri and Mississippi Railroad that ran to Iowa City, Iowa. While the Mormons were not the first to use some kind of carts …, certaie

mmade almost entirely out of wood. They were generally six or seven feet long, the width of a wide track wagon, and carried about 500 pounds ofbedding, extra clothing, cooking utensils, and a tent.The carts could be pushed or pulled by hand. Most companies also had a few ox-drawn wagons to carry extra supplies. These Mormons, mainly from England, Wales, and Scandinavia, landed in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and traveled via Chicago to Iowa City, Iowa.

Handcart Co.). The handcart company of 1859 entrained at New York City and reached St. Joseph, Missouri, on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, where they took a Missouri River riverboat to Florence, Nebraska. The C&RI reached Council Bluffs in 1860 and handcart companies of that year last year of the handcart experiment) were able to ride the C&RI all the way to Council Bluffs. Witexception of the fourth and fifth companies of 1856, the famous Martin and Willie companies (Included Alfred Peacock), which started too late in the year and were trapped in Wyoming snows, the system was a success.

The first 7 companies made the 275-mile trip across Iow ce, Nebraska, t

of all songs was

http://

a from Iowa City, Iowa, to Floren

the famous "Handcart Song":

huEo

in from 21 to 39 days, averaging 25 days and 11 miles a day. The first company of 226 persons started ouon June 9, 1856, led by the Birmingham Brass Band from England, and arrived in Utah September 26th 1856. (Included our Park & Meikle ancestors) March music and singing kept the people together and helped ward off tedium and fatigue.

The most popular

Some must push and some must pull - As we go marching up the hill, As merrily on the way we go - Until we reach the valley, oh!

The Handcart Song – YOU TUBE www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZIUn5d

ican Revolution have erected a bronzed tablet

The joy of the success of this new, faster, and cheaper th the

m

In Coralville, Iowa, the Daughters of the Amercommemorating the handcart companies.

way of immigrating soon turned to sorrow wi

nd 1860, in

a

tragic experience of the Willie and Martin companies, the 4th and 5th companies of 1856. When they arrived on the Missouri River, they found their carts were not yet prepared. Some wisely thought theyshould postpone the crossing of the plains that year, but such wisdom was decried by others as evidenceof a weak faith. So, after a delay and with some carts made of green wood, the two companies headed west. The handcart experiment continued in 1857, and worked well until it ended in 1860. In summary, about 3,000 emigrants in 10 companies were transported west between 1856 a653 carts and 50 supply wagons. Generally, they traveled successfully, and cheaper and faster than wagon trains. The handcart era ended after 1860, when the Mormons switched to large church ox-tetrains sent out from Salt Lake City to haul emigrants and freight west from the Missouri and other points.

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/mopi/hrs6.htm PIONEER WAGON TRAIN In 1860 Mormon leaders abandoned the handcart experiment in favor of the church ox-team method. This was done for two reasons: the discovery that loaded ox teams could be sent from Utah to the Missouri, pick up emigrants (and merchandise), and return to Utah in one season, and for better use of the church's own resources, that is to save money

By means of these "down and back" trips, [Utah to their own flour, beans, and bacon to supply the emigraneeded supplies not available in Utah. Furthermore emobtaining their own wagons or carts and draft animals to

Nebraska back to Utah] the Mormons could export nts, and use the cash saved to buy and freight back igrants could be saved the expense and trouble of

take them west.

The 2,200-mile round trip could be made in approximately six months. Church leaders arranged for the men, equipment, and supplies, and organized the trains into groups of about fifty each. The captain of ach company was given complete authority to get the job done.

All the men involved were regarded as "missionaries," and were given credit on the tithing books for the value of service rendered—they were in effect paying their 10 percent church tithing "in kind." There was one other fringe benefit—bachelors often found brides among the emigrants (See: Martha Peacock &

artin Luas) —had first pick, so to speak.

pplies. The teams were expected to reach the Missouri River at Florence (old Winter

e

MHappily, romance flourished throughout the entire Mormon immigration period. Each wagon was pulled by four yoke of oxen r mules and carried about 1,000 pounds of o

su

Quarters or modern North Omaha), in July and return with ten to twenty emigrants per wagon and all the freight they could load. This system la2,500 teamsters, 17,550 oxen and brought appthe jumping-off place was Florence, Necommunity of Wyoming, Nebraska, whTrail. .

sted for the period 1860-1868, and required about 2,000 wagons roximately 20,500 emigrants to Utah. The first three years,

braska Territory. In 1864, however, the Mormons switched to the ere they followed the (little known today) Nebraska City Cutoff

The principal reasons for the Mormons' switch from Florence to Wyoming seems to have been because emigrants from the east could take trains directly to St. Joseph, Missouri, then

g,

shortened the distance from the Missouri River to the

Mormons could either continue on the Oregon Trail or cross the Platte River--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Our pioneer ancestors did not keep journals in which they recorded their imHowever, in most cases, some of their traveling companions did keep journalavailable today. I have used excerpts from these public journals. The sections I used are descriptions of items that would be common for everyone traveling with them. These excerp tter appreciation of what our ancestors experienced during their immigration. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOME YOU TUBE SITES - PIONEERS.

Pioneer Scenes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Y8x5z2pd8&feature=

take an approximately 94-mile riverboat ride to thecommunity of Wyominand then the cutoff trail

area of Fort Kearny, by about 50 miles. The cutoff ran 169 miles directly west to Fort Kearny on theOregon Trail, where the and pick up the MPNHT ------------------------------- migration experience. s which are publically

ts help me have a little be

------------------------------

related

Mormon History: LDS Pioneers Reference is made to Ship ‘Amazon & Charles Dickens

Read the account with ancestor Harriet Louisa Peacock History http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5V1hDBk4Co&feature=related

SEVERAL OTHER PIONEER VIDEOS ON YOU TUBE