Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
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The Church of Latter-day Saints: Emigration
Having made the decision to leave Nauvoo, the Mormon community spent the winter of 1845-6 making preparations for their departure in the spring. In his diary's personal history, Job Smith wrote of the trouble he and his family had selling their home and obtaining a wagon and team of oxen. Nevertheless, on May 15, they left behind a field of "Wheat that had been put sowed the fall previous . . . all our household furniture and most of our farming implements" and embarked upon a "journey which proved to be of fourteen hun= dred miles, though at that time we knew not the direction nor distance that we were about to travel."
- What was the Mormons' goal in leaving Nauvoo?
- How did they prepare and organize themselves for a journey to an unknown destination?
From Nauvoo, the Mormons crossed Iowa into Eastern Nebraska where they established a settlement for the winter on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. They called it Winter Quarters. The following spring, Brigham Young led one company of his followers, called the Pioneer Company, along the Missouri and Platte Rivers until they came upon Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley, which Young proclaimed "the right place" for the Mormons' new settlement.
The Special Presentation Essay, "Where the Prophets of God Live": A Brief Overview of the Mormon Trail Experience, provides a descriptive overview of the Mormons' immigration to the Great Salt Lake Valley while the Interactive Maps provide the opportunity to trace their trail along the Missouri and Platte Rivers. Use the Trail Name Index heading Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail to access images and diaries that illustrate the Mormons' journey.
Diarists such as Smith, Harmon, Jackman, and Wells were among the first to make the journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley and record the trials of trail life, from monotonous days of travel through extreme heat and cold to encounters with potentially dangerous Native-American tribes.
Disease and death were prevalent, as Job Smith recorded in his personal history. Smith calls the winter he spent at Council Bluffs and Winter Quarters "one of the darkest periods that I ever hope to pass through." He suffered from a series of illnesses including Black Scurvy, noting "The disease was so prevalent that hun= dreds became victims thereto. The road leading to the burying ground led by our cabin and we could see every day numbers being carried thi= ther."
It was at about this time that the Mormons suffered an additional, unforeseen trial. Smith explains:
"Here we received a requisition from the United States for five hundred men to volunteer to go to California to fight in the Mexican War. This was one of the most barbarous and cruel
meanrequi-sitions that could have been made upon any people under the circumstances. The notion had gone out amongst them that the Mormons had gone out to join the Indians against theUGovernment. This requisition was got up as it was said to test our loyalty-and with a scheme laid, that if this call was not attended to an army should come and re=enact the Missouri scenes; only to destroy entirely the Mormons as a people. However, the men were forthcoming, which took the flower of the camp. The young, stout and robust men thus left their families shel= terless and many of them without food to travel on foot a journey of several thousand milesonfootacross deserts and plains almost impracti= cable to cross."Smith, Job. Diary and autobiography, 1849-1877. Personal History, page 59
- Why was the recruitment of 500 Mormon men such a trial to their community?
- According to Smith, why did the government demand that Mormons serve in the armed forces during the war with Mexico?
- How would the persecution of Mormons in Illinois and their earlier expulsion from New York and Missouri have impacted the Mormons' expectations of the government?
In the following two decades, over 60,000 Mormons followed the trail blazed by pioneers such as Harmon, Jackman, and Smith, to join their community in Great Salt Lake City. Some came from as far away as Europe, encouraged by the church through a series of emigration plans described in the Special Presentation Essay, "Where the Prophets of God Live": A Brief Overview of the Mormon Trail Experience. Diarists such as Ajax, Edwards, and Huntington describe the trials that continued to face anyone who made the long overland journey.
- According to Jackman, in what ways did the Pioneer Company take into account the needs of the emigrants that would follow them?
- Once it established a settlement in Great Salt Lake City, how did The Church of Latter-day Saints encourage and provide for immigration there?
- What were some of the dangers on the Mormon Trail?
- What did Mormon emigrants do for food and water during their journey? What were some of their other needs and how did they meet them?
- How did they ford rivers?
- How often did Mormons on the trail to Utah encounter Native Americans? What were these interactions like? Who else did they encounter on the trail?
- What were the major landmarks of their trail?
- What attitudes do diarists express toward the lengthy trek?
Despite the many trials, diarists also recorded some of the joys of the journey that became a right of passage for early Mormons, until the cross-continental railroad was completed in 1869. Harmon's enthusiasm for life on the trail comes through in entertaining stories of his hunting pursuits, while Emeline Wells shows that life went on as usual even on the trail:
"Tues. March 3. . . . It was after dark when we came in sight of the camp and a dismal looking it is the tents are all huddled in together and the ^ {begin inserted text}horses and{end inserted text} wagons are interspersed some are singing and laughing some are praying children crying &c. every sound may be heard from one tent to another; . . .
Monday March 9. . . . Pitchèd their tents on the side hill, next to Br. Kimball ; the tents here in rows like ^ {begin inserted text}a{end inserted text} city; it is really a houseless village. Just at dusk the band com- menced playing and some of the young people collected and amused themselves by dancing."
Wells, Emmeline B.. Diaries, 1844-1920 (vol 1). March 1846, pages 31 - 39
- What impact do you think making the trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley would have had on the Mormons?
- How would you expect it to have shaped their community and their church?