I I I I i Martins MI Handcart Company 1856 I BY JOSIAH ROGERSON No 2 In No I 1 In the list of names of ot mem members memI members bers of Martins handcart company compan that le Florence Neb Monday Aug f 25 5 1856 1850 I find a few tew errors in mis misreading misreading misreading reading the manuscript fifty years ol oland old and faded by age In the ninth line o othe ot of the first column instead of ot John Par Parkins kins ins and family read r ad John Parkinson i and family one of ot the first elders or ordained ordained damned in Preston Lancashire Eng Ens England England land by Heber C Kimball and who win traveled and did yeoman coman service fo for several years in the preaching of Mor Mormonism Mormonism More e monism in Preston Penwortham th the birthplace of ot William Clayton one o othe ot of oft t the first historians of the tho church Lancaster and the towns townsand townsand townsand and villages among the hills and lakes lake where Coleridge and Wadsworth sang He and his wife left Liverpool in the Horizon th nine children but th the earnest John and his wife were buried on the plains and five of ot their chil children children children dren three children only reaching Salt Sal Lake Nov 30 1856 the oldest son SOil goir goin back from Red Buttes Wyo ant and spending the winter at Fort Casper 01 or Laramie One or two of ot his sons have hav lived in Cache valley valle Utah for many years and two daughters married years ago in this city In the middle of the second column instead of Thomas Wood and family I read Thomas Dodd and family am and near tear the tile close of the same column reat read Amelia Jarvis and family instead o oSam of Sam and in the last line read Sarah Saral 1 and family famy instead of Sarah Saral and family I remember a few names even now not in the list that I pulled handcarts handcart with and as soon as I hear from th the parties their names will be added anc and the list made as complete and amI accurate r as s possible Additional to our voyage over the At Atlantic Atlantic Atlantic lantic as published in No 10 1 ing anchor in sight of Boston Mass Saturday evening June 28 1856 w we find Sunday morning June 29 the doctor came on board and was pleased with will our QUI sanitary and good condition The Th government inspector also came on or onboard onboard board this morning Monday Monda June 30 we were towed In ir dock On July 2 took the cars from Boston to Albany The scenery of the villages towns and cities held our at attention attention attention and admiration Passing through Buffalo on the glorious glo glorious glorious rious Fourth de e reached Cleveland Ole vel and 0 O Oon on the passing Kirtland with it its temple in the night Sunday evening July 6 we arrived at Chicago Ill where we stayed all night Monday July Jub 7 i we left Chicago at in the morning and arrived at al Rok Roy k Island in the evening Tuesday July 8 S we crossed the Mis Mississippi by ferry boat and then took tool the cars from Davenport for Iowa City Ja Ia reaching there the same afternoon Wednesday July 9 yas tyas s employed ir in unloading and hauling our luggage to U Uthe the camping ground on Iowa hill three and a half halt miles northwest o of Iowa City la In the outfitting point for foi that years Mormon emigration Hero we found hundreds in their tents scores of young oung girls others of more mature years ears mothers and grandmothers busy bus as bees sowing on other tents and wagon covers In the carpenter shops am and 8 sheds fifteen or twenty were at won work on the handcarts and ami so o continued continue from break of day till dark of night from this on till the last cart necessary was finished for the last company Members of the Independent Wagon companies Hunts and were breaking l steers with a rose rope around their horns and a log behind before i being trusted on the If l ad of a wagon The members of compa companies companies companies nies were now advised that their pounds of luggage allowed to each pas passenger on the sea and on the cars had to be cut down to seventeen pounds and that this amount they the would learn would be all they the wanted to pull to the valley alIe Utah This necessitated the Deling and disposing of the mens m ns and boys Sunday suits extra clothing and surplus coats etc and the women folks their Sunday Sunda dresses and every other article of ot wearing apparel that they the could possibly dispense with withA A market was found for all this ex extra extra extra tra luggage with the residents at Iowa City the buyer buer putting his own price on the article the seller having to take that give it away or burn it and many a hundred dollars worth were thus bartered for to half halt its value alue Iowa City Cit Ia la was then the capital of the state and as I remember now contain over to population population population lation probably half a dozen brick stores of any size a score or orto two tuo of brick houses and the balance I lumber and log houses but a goodly I number of corn and wheat farms sur surrounding surrounding surrounding rounding Flour was per hundred corn com cornmeal cornmeal meal to W and bacon 5 to 10 cents per pound Captain J G Willies handcart com company compan company pany pan consisting of ot persons Dersons six wagons carts twelve yoke joke oke of oxen and five mules was nearly ready to roll out for Florence Neb when we made our camp here on the and though I have two good diaries before me I am unable to find the ex exact exaCt exact act date that company left this camp camping camping camping ing ground but it was not later than the or of or July 1856 I am promised the diary of Captain Willie as ac soon as it can be found but I have havea a full tull list of the names of ot that compa company ny which I will publish hereafter Being detained and delayed hero from at least the of July Juh three days after we arrived till tm the cost the lives lles of at least to one third of ot those that fell by the way after the first snow struck us the night nl ht after we left the Platte bridge and until we reached Salt Lake Nov SO 80 This was pas occasioned by b the hand handcarts handcarts handcarts carts having to be made after we got and the difficulty of obtaining emigrant ships at Liverpool that year I I more than any other as aa shown by a aletter aletter letter from the late D C Dunbar then at Liverpool England Englan dated March 28 S 1356 to Daniel bf Utah and printed in the Deseret News of July 23 1856 wherein he says Ships are e very ver scarce Indeed on account of Ct a great number being employed in the tl e war de do department department Everybody that could handle a saw plane and drawknife was put to work and the making of ot the carts was rushed early and late a so that on the morning of ot July 26 56 w we a were packing pack packing packIng ing our carts with seventeen pounds of ot extra luggage to each person bed bedding bedding ding dins cooking utensils tin Un plates and cups knives forks and spoons 5 iron bake kettles frying pans coffee pot or camp kettle and what extra provisions we had hd hid bought with our personal persona dimes and rolled down the hill to the bridge over the creek about in tho the afternoon Captains John Toone and Jesse C Haven had started about a week or orten orten orten ten days before with what at we called the fifth handcart company and the theo o of party were In t 1 t The Herald last Sunday with the names of our Martins handcart com company company company pany We Ve caught them at Florence Neb on the o of or August they were blended there and became one company to Salt Lake Now to our Journey from Brother Brothe Brother James G diary and our memo memory ry Crossing the Iowa river between 2 and 3 p m on the tile wagons laden with provisions to th the bows eight or ten yoke oke of oxen one light spring wagon one span of mules and two riding horses about eighty eight handcarts and men women ant and children we turned abruptly to the west after crossing the bridge br on to the theold theold theold old stage road and for a breaking in made four tour and to six miles that day Elder Edward Martin for formerly formerly merly merl a member of the Mormon batta battalion battalion lion llon was our captain with Elder Dan Daniel DanIel Daniel iel Tyler also a member of or the Mor llor Mormon Mormon mon battalion as advisory counselor not of or captain although he was made mad captain of the guard from here and till til the guarding and the snow had buried many miny o of his mighty platoons between tIle tHe crossing of the North Platte and the South Pass Sunday July 27 Held sacrament meeting travel today Monday July 28 Traveled a few miles camped and this evening lost los some loose cattle Tuesday July 29 Traveled a short shor distance apparently delaying for the return of the cattle and the hunters Wednesday July 30 Traveled about abou the same distance as yesterday Thursday July 31 Traveled five miles Mr Bleak also says I visited today the remains of a conical stone monument on the banks of one of ot the forks of the Des Moines river supposed to be the remains of an Indian council counci house Friday Aug 1 Traveled about six miles Nothing particular worthy of record only we wo are now on the ful waving meadows of Iowa Saturday Aug 2 Traveled ten miles Sunday Aug S Traveled seven miles Monday Aug 4 Traveled eich eight miles Tuesday Aug 5 Traveled twelve and a half halt miles Wednesday Aug 6 Traveled eight miles Thursday Aug 7 Traveled thirteen miles Friday Aug S Traveled twenty biles miles Iles and passed through the town of Newton which was quite a village o of farmers They came to our camp anc and entreated of us earnestly and sincerely not to go any an farther on account of or the lateness of the season and seemed to be very anxious in wanting us to stop That they could and would furnish us employment for a number of our able bodied men etc but we were west westward est vard ward bound and none stopped Up to this date there had been no deaths anc and the aged were picked up and put in the wagons as they became tired and the children after walking a while In the morning and afternoons were put on the carts and rode to noon and even Ing camps We were commencing now to make good time feed teed splendid our work oxen doing w and we had fairly plenty to eat Farms every few miles mileson on each side of the road where our fathers and mothers could buy a few pounds of smoked bacon near ly I every day since we started and In the thirteen days travel we had mae mate male about miles with from the babe in the arms the and feeble to the veteran of Waterloo aged 82 81 The writer remembers seeing several villages and towns on each side of the road during this distance but not the names nor is it material as when night came we turned out of ot the road and camped water grass and fuel be ing favorable so that the stage could pass unobstructed Tens of ot thousands of acres of the cream of lands of Iowa we traveled over ed and unfenced Again to our journey and Journal Saturday Aug 9 Traveled thirteen miles A very violent thunderstorm to day C Sunday Aug 10 Rested today toda Et Ei der William the tha captain At of Atour our and the first hundred from Preston Lancashire England blessed a daugh daughter ter of Brother Charles and the sacrament was administered and here hereit it is in place to say that every ever morn mornIng mornIng morning Ing before starting and every night before retiring to our tents every member of the party part was called together er with the cornet comet by John Watkins for prayer and with bowed and uncovered uncovered uncovered ered heads prosperity on our Journey and the blessings of God were invoked from the day we arrived on Iowa hill Iowa July 9 till we reached reacted ed the South pass Monday Aug 11 A brother in in the church and a child were buried today names not in the Journal We Ve e traveled trav traveled sled twelve miles today toda First deaths on our Journey We passed the town of Marengo a afew afew afew few days before on the north side of the road and on our right then the town of Newton on the and in this part of Iowa now I remember numer numerous numerous ous patches and groves of hardwood timber Umber with wild grapes and hazelnuts that the white mans ax me had never as assailed assailed sailed Indeed for miles at a stretch it was the red mans primeval meadow and ind the paradise of his hunting grounds Tuesday Aug 12 Traveled twelve miles water very bad Wednesday Aug 13 Traveled eighteen eight eighteen eIghteen een miles today and camped on Coon river Thursday Aug 14 Traveled sixteen miles Friday Frilla Aug 15 Traveled ten miles mUes and ind had a general washing day Saturday Aug 16 Traveled sixteen miles and all day y without water Sunday Aug g 17 Traveled seventeen miles Julies no water ater on tho the road A thun thunderstorm this evening As the thun thunderstorm abated in the afternoon Re Recorder Recorder corder Bleak the writer and his older brother rother Thomas Dobson and his younger brother and others in Wig nails nalls hundred leading the company that hat day distinctly observed a meteor that hat appeared not more than a few hundred yards ahead of ot us and right righton on m our track about thirty or fifty yards In n the tho air all and going in a westerly course ourse It seemed to be about the size of if a Chinese lantern All of ot ota ofa a L sudden as we ve stopped our carts and were ver watching Its course it exploded and as we passed along to the point of the he explosion as we guessed we could see ee no remains of the piece of the break reak off from Mars Monday Aug 18 We traveled twenty twenty ty y miles today A sister in the church named lamed Mary Scott died in one of the wagons and was buried burled In the evening liter alter we stopped She was a member of if the Manchester England confer conCer conference ence in ce Wrapped and sewed up in a counterpane as hundreds of others have havo lave been laid away since the exodus from rom Nauvoo In 1846 sh ehe h ests Just as Continued on Page 13 c MARTINS MARTI NS HANDCART COMPANY 1856 Continued from Page 12 well as in c casket and anda ant anta a livery pageant Tuesday Aug 19 We traveled t miles Wednesday Aug 20 OWe We traveled twentythree t miles Thursday y Aug 21 Traveled about twenty most excellent water Friday Frida Aug 22 Traveled about five miles milea to Florence The last four days das as above aboe are ver Ter verbatim from Brother journal but we cannot let them pass for an another another another other fifty years without the adding of important i details that we well remember ber her berOn herOn On Thursday the of August AUgu t as our company was passing on the north northside northside northside side of ot the mead meadows meadows meadows and near to the then town of Council Bluffs our captain Edward Martin came to our cart and coiled called the writers and his mothers attention to toa toa toa a kind of a sod or copse fence enclosing ing i ng an un acre or two of ground and I pointing to it said Theres whore Mormon lormon battalion camped were drilled and put in shape before starting for Santa Fe FeIn FeIn FeIn In an hour or so afterward we passed through Council Bluffs then Consisting of one street of lumber stores residences carpenters and an blacksmiths shops and a population of to 1000 people The buildings most of them seemed to be new and quite quit quita f a number In course of erection Fill FillIng FillIng Filling Ing in the brief paragraph h of Brother Bleak as to Thursday Aug A g 21 after we left Council Bluffs city we went up Pigeon creek that afternoon In tiu twenty miles mile as he has it recorded and camped between the tile bluffs that night where the most excellent water came out of a spring on the right of ot the road and next day da Aug 22 2 we were ferried ferric across the Missouri and made camp close to and below the old Mormon Monnon sawmill of ot Winter Quarters near