A TERRIBLE STORY:—THE HAND-CART EMIGRANTS CROSSING THE PLAINS.  
“I promised to write and tell you all about our journey across the Plains, but I little expected to have such a terrible tale to tell.
“You have heard so much of the journey to Salt Lake Valley that you know pretty well how we must have travelled to Iowa City, where it was necessary that we should wait until the whole company was quite ready for the long journey which lay before us.
“Our life up to a certain point was much the same, and we met with the same difficulties as all other emigrants who had gone before us. But there the comparison ends. Privation, and toil, and weariness, and not infrequently sickness and death, wore out many of the companies that went before us, but they never suffered as we did. It is utterly impossible for me to tell you all that we went through. And when I finish this letter and lay down my pen, and even when you read the fearful story of my own experience during that journey, you will still have but the faintest idea of the horrors and sufferings which we endured.
“At Iowa City we found nothing prepared for us. When we left Liverpool we were told that hand-carts, provisions, and all that we needed, should be provided before we arrived. If this had been done we should have had just fairly time enough to travel over the Plains and reach Salt Lake before the terrible cold of winter set in. As it was, everything went wrong. The Elders who had been sent out before us to buy tents and carts and all that we wanted had either been unfortunate or very careless, for, as I said, when we arrived in Iowa City not the slightest preparation had been made.
“You know how strong my faith was when we left New York, and how Brother Shrewsbury and myself were ready to sacrifice everything. I can assure you that we were fully[124] tested, and I do think that but for our strong faith not a single soul of all that company would have survived that journey.
“Three companies had, after a long delay, been sent out before we reached Iowa City. As it was then early in the season, they completed their journey before the cold of winter set in. I afterwards heard that Brigham Young and the Elders, when they saw those companies arrive safely in Salt Lake City, spoke of the scheme as a successful experiment. We had been taught that the scheme came directly from heaven, and was neither speculation nor experiment, and when I heard that, after all, the Prophet himself spoke of it as a matter of doubtful issue, I asked myself—Whom, then, can we believe?
“We waited three weeks in Iowa Camp while they were making the hand-carts. They were very lightly made, and I think not at all suitable for such a long and wearisome journey; and being so hastily put together, and most of the wood unseasoned, they were utterly unfit for the rough work for which they were constructed. Twenty of these carts—one to every five—were allowed to every hundred persons, who were also allowed five good-sized tents and one Chicago waggon, with three yoke of oxen, to transport the baggage and provisions. We were only allowed seventeen pounds of bedding and clothing each, which, with cooking utensils, &c., made up about one hundred pounds to each cart, and that was quite as much as the cart (itself only sixty pounds in weight) could carry. You can see, Sister Stenhouse, how difficult it must have been out of every hundred persons—men, women, and children—to find twenty who were strong enough to pull even such frail things as those hand-carts were. The married men and the young men and boys did the best they could, but they could do no more, and some of the carts were drawn by young girls alone.
“The girls and women who had no husbands used to occupy a tent by themselves at night; but in the other tents, whole families, without respect to age or sex, together with the young men who assisted them during the day, used to find shelter. This you will see at once was exceedingly inconvenient; but we had no choice, and we had been so long associated, and had suffered so much together, that we did not feel it as much as we otherwise must have done.
 
“GATHERING TO ZION”—LIFE ON THE PLAINS.
 
To face p. 125.
 
“What weary days we spent! Hour after hour went by, mile after mile we walked, and never, never seemed to be a[125] step the further on our way. Sometimes I recalled to mind a hymn which we used to sing at Sunday School, when I was a child—an evening hymn in which we returned thanks that we were—
‘A day’s march nearer home.’
“But day after day went by—wearily, hopelessly—and when each night came on, and, tired and footsore, we lay down to rest, we seemed no nearer to our home in Zion.
“Do not think, Sister Stenhouse, that we gave way to despondency. What we felt, God alone knows; but our poor weary hearts were full of confiding faith in Him, and we placed undoubting confidence in the promises and prophecies which we had received through His chosen servants. The young folks were light-hearted and gay, and with all the enthusiasm of youth they pressed on, thinking not of the way but only of the end; and their example was most encouraging.
“My husband was one of the bravest and truest of all that band. He drew the cart which we shared with another Elder and his wife and their grown-up daughter. They were old people—I mean the Elder and his wife—and the daughter was an old maid, unpleasant, thin, and sour, and too feeble to do anything. There were reasons why I was excused from taking any share in hard work; but I felt as zealous as the rest, and day after day walked beside my husband, thinking that, if nothing more, my companionship might cheer him. The old folks walked behind, and so did the children; but sometimes, when the little ones were very weary indeed, the parents would place them on the top of the bedding in the hand-cart, and give them a lift. But some of the elderly people who were unused to walking far, and whom it was impossible to carry, suffered a great deal; and sometimes mothers with children at their breasts would trudge on mile after mile in all the heat and dust without a murmur or complaint, until they almost dropped down with fatigue. What some of those poor creatures suffered, no words could tell.
“The sun shone down upon us with intense heat as we travelled through Iowa, and the people from the farm-houses and villages came out to see us, and wondered at our rashness in undertaking such a journey. They were very kind to us, and came and visited us in our camps, and offered some of the men work and good wages if they would stay there instead of going on to Zion. A few of the people accepted these offers; but the Elders, as you may suppose, watched carefully every[126] company and every man; and in the evening, when meetings for prayer and preaching were held, we were earnestly exhorted to obedience, and the sin of acting upon our own judgments was set forth in the very plainest terms. The kindness of the Iowa people, however, encouraged us, and they freely gave to those who most needed whatever they could to help us on our way.
“And we needed help and sympathy.
“Of course, with only one waggon to carry all the provisions for a hundred persons, besides five tents, our supply of food was very limited. At that period of the journey the grown-up people were allowed ten ounces of flour a day and a little—and but a very little—coffee, sugar, rice, and bacon. This was a very scanty allowance for people who all day long had to draw the hand-carts or to trudge mile after mile in all that burning heat and dust—but we never complained. Some of the men ate all their rations at breakfast, and went without anything more until the next morning, unless they were able to beg a little of some friendly farmer by the way. The little children received just half as much as the others. With a very small amount of management this inconvenience might certainly have been avoided, for provisions of all sorts were very cheap in the districts through which we passed. Some of the more thoughtful saints, I know, felt very bitterly the injustice of this; for, as you are aware, we had paid all our expenses in full—even to the uttermost farthing; and we had been promised in return a safe and sufficient outfit with plenty of provisions, and in fact all that was necessary. Had we been left to ourselves, we should of course have provided for every contingency; but we came in obedience to counsel under the direction of the Church, and after we had paid for everything; the Church even ‘took care’ of our money, so that we therefore could not procure necessaries by the way, as otherwise we might have done.
“Thus wearily, and suffering not a little privation, we travelled all through Iowa, until we came to the Missouri river and encamped at Florence, a place about six miles north of Omaha, and there we remained about a week, preparing for our journey across the Plains.
“It was the middle of August when we arrived at Florence, and we had been delayed so much on the way that it appeared to many of the more experienced that it would now be the height of imprudence for us to cross the Plains at that season. With old people, delicate women, and little children, and without[127] carriages of any sort—except the frail hand-carts that carried our bedding—it would be a weary, long time, before we could reach Salt Lake. Every step must be trudged on foot, and it was quite impossible that we could walk many miles a day, while there was before us a journey of over a thousand. Some of the Elders proposed that we should settle where we were, or somewhere near by, until the following spring, and then go on to Zion; but others who were more confident urged that we should proceed at once. The Elders called a great meeting to settle the matter, at which we were all present.
“I should tell you that when we first started our whole company was placed under the guidance of Elder James G. Willie as captain; and we were again subdivided into five parties of about one hundred each, and over every hundred was placed an Elder or sub-captain. The first hundred was headed by Elder Atwood, the second by Levi Savage, the third by William Woodward, the fourth by John Chislett, and the fifth by Elder Ahmensen. About two hundred of the p............