Devil's Gate

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by David Roberts


  Ann Rowley witnessed an instance: Rowley, [Autobiography], ibid.

  On October 14, the Willie Company: Olsen, 110, 125.

  (An old legend had it): Clayton, 67–68.

  Robert Reeder swore that James Hurren: Adolph Madsen Reeder, Writings, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  The pious Ann Rowley: Rowley, [Autobiography], ibid.

  By contrast, William Woodward’s official journal: Willie Company journal, ibid.

  It would remain for John Chislett: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 320–22.

  On October 19, the Willie Company: Olsen, 131–32; T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 322–23.

  Bond remembered his shock: Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  As John Jaques remembered in 1878: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  Peter McBride, only six years old: Susan Madsen, I Walked to Zion, 45.

  Josephine Hartley remembered: Josephine Hartley Zundle, Biography of Josephine Hartley Zundle, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  The most harrowing testimony to hunger: Sarah Crossley Sessions, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.

  “The hardship on the men having”: Alice Welsh Strong, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.

  Fifteen-year-old Albert Jones: Albert Jones, [Reminiscences], ibid.

  Margaret Clegg remembered: Margaret Ann Griffiths Clegg, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.

  If his own testimony is to be believed: Aaron Barnet Giles, to Brigham Young, December 3, 1856, ibid.

  Samuel Openshaw’s diary places: Openshaw diary, ibid.

  According to John Jaques: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  Elizabeth Sermon would later claim: Elizabeth Whitear [Sermon] Camm, Letter, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  As Josiah Rogerson remembered: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 3, 1907.

  Their presence is explained by John Bond: Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  At the fort, several backouts: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 3, 1907.

  “Laramie’s Peak, in the distance”: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  John Bond took in the same view: Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  As John Jaques remembered twenty-two years later: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  Half a century later: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 10, 1907.

  In his journal, William Binder wrote: William Binder, Journal, quoted in Olsen, 316.

  The reminiscence of one Saint: John Watkins, Reminiscences, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Five miles east of where the Saints waded: Olsen, 317.

  Wrote John Jaques in 1878: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  Thomas Durham wrote in his journal: Thomas Durham journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Twelve-year-old John Bond: Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” ibid.

  The snowstorm was no passing squall: Durham journal, ibid.

  Heber McBride, thirteen years old at the time: Heber Robert McBride, Autobiography, ibid.

  Years later, his wife recounted: Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford, [Autobiographical sketch], ibid.

  Other Saints confirmed that fourteen: Watkins, Reminiscences, ibid.; Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 10, 1907.

  As John Jaques pithily put it twenty-two years later: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.

  Most of the volunteers: Bartholomew and Arrington, 8.

  Ephraim Hanks was a footloose frontiersman: Hanks and Hanks, Scouting for the Mormons on the Great Frontier, 116–19.

  The process by which Daniel W. Jones signed on: Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians, 60.

  After uttering his soon-to-be infamous phrase: Bartholomew and Arrington, 10.

  Traveling fast, Grant’s entourage: Ibid., 10–11.

  Meanwhile the main caravan pushed on: Olsen, 122.

  We began to feel great anxiety: Jones, Forty Years, 61–62.

  Although there was no way to know it: Olsen, 123.

  Daniel Jones later remembered: Jones, Forty Years, 62.

  But Robert Burton, one of the few men: Robert T. Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  But in any event, by the 18th: Bartholomew and Arrington, 11.

  With all the advantages of hindsight: Ibid., 11.

  in Robert Burton’s dry diary entry: Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  On the morning of October 18: Loleta Wiscombe Dixon, [Willie Handcart Company and William James], ibid.

  The party had reached a marshy lowland: Berrett and Anderson, 84.

  In the midst of the storm: Dixon, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  George Cunningham, fifteen years old: George Cunningham, Reminiscences, ibid.

  The Dane Michael Jensen: Michael Jensen, “The Story of My Life,” ibid.

  And John Chislett averred: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 322.

  Euphemia Bain remembered: Euphemia Mitchell Bain, “Pioneer Sketch,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  In the official journal: Willie Company Journal, ibid.

  According to Chislett: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 323.

  Chislett recorded, “They informed us”: Ibid., 322.

  The official journal dutifully recorded: Willie Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Chislett elaborated on that stormy bivouac: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 323.

  In the morning, new snow lay heavy: Ibid., 323; Willie Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  The last ration of flour had been issued: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 323.

  Wrote Chislett, “Being surrounded”: Ibid., 323–24.

  Robert Burton’s noncommittal journal notes: Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Ann Rowley, the widowed matriarch: Rowley, [Autobiography], ibid.

  Levi Savage’s journal entry for October 20: Savage journal, ibid.

  Twelve-year-old John Oborn: John Oborn, Reminiscences and diary, ibid.

  But after covering twelve miles: Joseph B. Elder journal, quoted in Allphin, Tell My Story, Too, 38.

  Ahead of them loomed Rocky Ridge: Berrett and Anderson, 94.

  Wrote Elder later: Elder journal, quoted in Allphin, 38.

  Elder swore that he and Willie rode: Ibid.

  But it occurred to one rescuer: Harvey Cluff journal, quoted in Olsen, 138.

  “When they saw us”: Elder journal, quoted in Allphin, 38.

  Church historian Andrew Olsen: Olsen, 139.

  John Chislett, who had been put in charge: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 324.

  Chislett records the momentous return: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 325.

  Even historians succumb: Hafen and Hafen, 127.

  Daniel Jones, the former mountain man: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 62.

  (In fact, at the moment): Clayton, 66, 70.

  In John Ahmanson’s private memoir: Ahmanson, 34.

  In his journal, Levi Savage: Savage journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Savage, again, in his longest journal entry: Ibid.

  Its last entry: Ibid.

  Michael Jensen, only eleven at the time: Jensen, “The Story of My Life,” ibid.

  As usual, John Chislett had the most comprehensive: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 327–29.

  William Woodward, in the official journal entry: Willie Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Chislett described the mass grave: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 329.

  Only seven years old at the time: Mary Hurren Wight, [Reminiscences], http:
//www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Nineteen-year-old Robert Reeder: Robert Reeder, History of Robert Reeder, ibid.

  In addition to the fifteen dead: Mettie Mortensen Rasmussen, Reminiscences, ibid.

  despite the arrival on October 24: Willie Company Journal, ibid.

  And according to Chislett: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 329.

  Yet from that date on: Ibid., 330.

  Woodward’s official journal records: Willie Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  On top of all their other miseries: William Woodward, 1907 letter to Joseph F. Smith, ibid.

  Years later, the eleven-year-old Danish boy: Jensen, “The Story of My Life,” ibid.

  Also years later, Agnes Caldwell: Madsen, I Walked to Zion, 58–59.

  During these onerous days: Ahmanson, 33–35.

  As usual, John Chislett had the keenest eye: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 330.

  A cherished piece of Mormon folklore: Stegner, 255–56.

  Thirty-one-year-old Margaret Dalglish: http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Church historian Andrew Olsen believes: Andrew Olsen, personal communication, August 28, 2007.

  Susannah Stone, twenty-five during the journey: Susannah Stone Lloyd, Lloyd family sketches, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Woodward’s journal systematically records: Willie Company Journal. ibid.

  Chislett would later write: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 331.

  Euphemia Bain recalled: Euphemia Mitchell Bain, “Pioneer Sketch,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Susannah Stone later remembered: Lloyd family sketches, ibid.

  As the Saints entered the city: Ahmanson, 35.

  But Susannah Stone remembered: Lloyd family sketches, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Of both bishops and families: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 331.

  Captain Willie, the proud leader: Adolph Madsen Reeder, Writings, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  The horror of the toll that frostbite: Ibid.

  Saints in the party put the toll: Bain, “Pioneer Sketch,” ibid.; Willie Company Journal, ibid.; Adolph Reeder, Writings, ibid.; T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 331.

  though Robert Reeder: Robert Reeder, History of Robert Reeder, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  In Handcarts to Zion: Hafen and Hafen, 193.

  After careful research, church historian: B. H. Roberts, ed., A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 3, 94.

  Andrew Olsen, in his recent: Olsen, 172.

  The already embittered Danish sub-captain: Ahmanson, 34.

  Millen Atwood, Willie’s fanatical second-in-command: Deseret News, November 26, 1856.

  And on November 12: Deseret News, November 12, 1856.

  CHAPTER 7: MARTIN’S COVE

  A curious footnote to the rescue mission: Bartholomew and Arrington, 31.

  A brief notice of this aborted expedition: Deseret News, October 22, 1856.

  A much more elaborate and bizarre version: Earl S. Paul, “The Handcart Companies of 1856 and Arza Erastus Hinckley,” 8–9.

  possibly Hinckley was the “doctor”: Bartholomew and Arrington, 31.

  George Grant had ordered: George D. Grant to Brigham Young, Deseret News, November 19, 1856.

  the half-decrepit remains of Fort Seminoe: Olsen, 337–38.

  The eternally overoptimistic Franklin Richards: Ibid., 337.

  Meanwhile, having dispatched William Kimball: Bartholomew and Arrington, 21.

  Grant began to speculate: Ibid., 21.

  As Daniel Jones wrote of this impasse: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 64.

  Jones would later claim: Ibid., 64.

  Harvey Cluff, the young man who had posted: Harvey H. Cluff, Journal, quoted in Hafen and Hafen, 235.

  According to Jones’s account: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 64.

  Their rations had recently been reduced: Margaret Ann Griffiths Clegg, Autobiographical sketch, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory; Heber Robert McBride, Autobiography, ibid.; Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 15, 1878.

  “At last the Company gave up and decided”: Louisa Mellor Clark, Reminiscences, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Heber McBride, thirteen at the time: Heber Robert McBride, “Tongue nor Pen Can Never Tell the Sorrow,” ibid.

  The stalwart John Jaques insisted: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 15, 1878.

  Both Patience Loader and Jane Griffiths: Archer, 76; Jane Griffiths Fullmer, [Reminiscence], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Josiah Rogerson went even further: Josiah Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1907.

  But twelve-year-old John Bond: John Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  And Bond was able to confess: Ibid.

  She remembered that she and her sister: Archer, 74.

  The single repast that stuck in her memory: Ibid., 75.

  Patience lavishes considerable detail: Ibid.

  scholar Lyndia Carter believes: Ibid., 215 n38.

  Patience’s family offered the man: Ibid., 75–76.

  Elizabeth Jackson, who had lain: Elizabeth Horrocks Jackson Kingsford, [Autobiographical sketch], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Josiah Rogerson reported the prophetic vision: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1907.

  The best account of the Martin Company’s deliverance: Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Also many years later: Albert Jones, Address, ibid.

  Patience Loader remembered: Archer, 76.

  Martin reported that fifty-six members: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1907.

  Young then ordered the immediate disbursement: Bartholomew and Arrington, 23.

  And he “told the people”: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 65.

  Daniel Jones’s account of the meeting: Ibid., 65.

  The official journal of the Hunt Company: Dan Jones Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  On the morning of the 29th: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 66.

  By the time Jones and Garr: Ibid., 66–67.

  In a letter to Brigham Young: George D. Grant, “The Companies Yet on the Plains,” Deseret News, November 19, 1856.

  though nine hundred is probably a more accurate count: Olsen, 364.

  As Grant wrote to Young: Grant, “The Companies Yet on the Plains,” Deseret News, November 19, 1856.

  Even so, a few Saints died: Olsen, 350–51.

  The Martin Company reached Devil’s Gate: Ibid., 352.

  Daniel Jones recalled: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 68.

  Patience Loader, however, remembered: Archer, 81.

  John Jaques recaptured the ordeal: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 15, 1878.

  The next day, as another storm descended: Olsen, 355.

  Meanwhile, Grant was vexed: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 68.

  Young and Garr covered the 327 miles: Olsen, 356.

  the official newspaper of the colony also published: “Express,” Deseret News, November 19, 1856.

  As well as flour: Robert Burton, [Journal], quoted in Olsen, 357.

  Patience Loader remembered: Archer, 79.

  The cache plan evolved into something: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 69–70.

  On November 4, the thermometer registered: Jesse Haven, Journals, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  at Devil’s Gate, it ran only two to three feet deep: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 15, 1878.

  John Jaques later recalled a vignette: Ibid.

  He rolled up his pants: Ibid.

  Jaques’s sister-in-law Patience Loader: Archer, 83–84.

  It was crystallized by Solomon Kimball: Kimball, “Belated Emigrants of 1856,” Improvement Era, February 1914, 288. />
  Chad M. Orton demonstrated: Orton, “The Martin Handcart Company at the Sweetwater: Another Look,” BYU Studies 45, no. 3 (2006), 5–37.

  The cold was beyond brutal: Robert T. Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  on the worst day the gusts blew down: Samuel S. Jones, Reminiscences, ibid.

  Of this reversal: Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion, 46.

  Patience Loader thought: Archer, 84.

  Samuel Openshaw, who had managed faithfully: Openshaw diary, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  On November 5, the daily ration: James Godson Bleak, Journal, ibid.

  Peter McBride remembered: Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion, 46.

  His thirteen-year-old brother: Heber McBride, Autobiography, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Fifty years later, Samuel S. Jones: Samuel S. Jones, Reminiscences, ibid.

  several Saints later testified: E.g., James Cantwell, Autobiography, ibid.; Louisa Mellor Clark, Reminiscences, ibid.

  Thus Elizabeth Sermon: Elizabeth Whitear [Sermon] Camm, Reminiscence, ibid.

  As if the loss of her husband were not tribulation: Ibid.

  Their daughter, only two years old: Olsen, 368.

  As another daughter, thirteen-year-old Mary: Mary Goble Pay, Life of Mary Goble Pay, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  Patience Loader paints an affecting picture: Archer, 86–87.

  Robert Burton’s journal says only: Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  The story was told most fully by Hanks: Hanks and Hanks, Scoutings, 122–23, 131–39.

  Hanks, however, had no cure for frostbite: Ibid., 140.

  In Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies: Bartholomew and Arrington, 32–33.

  But there, according to Bartholomew and Arrington: Ibid., 33.

  Stout’s diary gives the clearest account: Juanita Brooks, Diary of Hosea Stout, vol. 2, 605–6, quoted in Bartholomew and Arrington, 33.

  In Forty Years Among the Indians: Daniel Jones, Forty Years, 72.

  About a dozen years later: Heber McBride, Autobiography, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

  As John Jaques later indicated: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 22, 1878.

  Some of the Saints actually chose to walk: Ibid.

  From the 9th of that month on: Bartholomew and Arrington, 35.

  It is curious that Robert Burton’s diary: Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.

 

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