Grant was attending a church meeting: Fanny Stenhouse, “Tell It All,” 313. See also Young, 184–85.
“call[ing] upon everybody to repent”: Young, 185.
Grant’s “spirit of fiery denunciation” sparked: Fanny Stenhouse, “Tell It All,” 313–14.
Indeed, Grant would suddenly die: Bigler, Kingdom, 129.
In a speech on September 14, just twelve days: Deseret News, September 24, 1856, quoted in ibid., 123.
Gustive Larson, an LDS scholar: Gustive O. Larson, “Reformation,” 45.
“The Church needs trimming up”: Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, 60–61, quoted in ibid.
Larson and others see the Reformation: Ibid.
The bishops were “whipped” for dereliction: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 294.
On November 3, in dramatic fashion: Autobiography of John Powell, quoted in Larson, “Reformation,” 53–54.
Later the catechism would be expanded: Diary of John Moon Clements, quoted in Sessions, Mormon Thunder, 220–21.
(The Prophet himself was obliged to confess): Journals of Hannah Tapfield King, quoted in Bigler, Kingdom, 128.
The catechism was no mere laundry list: Hirshson, 156.
At one all-male meeting: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 295–96.
One scholar demonstrated: Stanley S. Ivins, “Notes on Mormon Polygamy,” 231, quoted in Larson, “Reformation,” 48.
On September 21, he announced: Deseret News, October 1, 1856, quoted in Bigler, Kingdom, 126.
On November 5, 1856: Deseret News, November 5, 1856, quoted in Larson, 57–58.
In one tirade: Hirshson, 155–56.
According to historian David Bigler: Bigler, Kingdom, 124.
At the bowery meeting, Young urged the Saints: Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, 219–20.
Grant then elaborated on this doctrine: Deseret News, October 1, 1856.
The wife of one Elder: Fanny Stenhouse, “Tell It All,” 318.
Yet one LDS theologian: Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 92, quoted in Bigler, Kingdom, 124n.
In matter-of-fact prose: Beadle, ed., Brigham’s Destroying Angel, 47.
In Salt Lake City, Hickman continued: Ibid., 82–83, 87.
“The satisfied point and undoubted fact”: Ibid., 96.
Sometimes the victim was a Gentile: Ibid., 97–98.
The memoir, which was published in 1872: Ibid., 193.
That very imprisonment throws a monkey wrench: Ibid., 122–26.
On Christmas Eve 1856: Garland Hurt to Alfred Cumming, December 17, 1857, Territorial Papers, quoted in Bigler, Kingdom, 131n.
Even at the time, there were suspicions: Bigler, 131–32.
There is quite a reformation springing up: Brigham Young to George Q. Cannon, October 4, 1856, CR1234/1, Letterbook 3, LDS Archives.
Morris Werner, Brigham Young’s skeptical 1925 biographer: Werner, 404–5.
“The call to repentance in the Reformation”: Larson, Prelude to the Kingdom, 63.
Leonard J. Arrington manages: Arrington, Brigham Young, 300.
On May 4, 1856, the sailing ship Thornton: John Ahmanson, Secret History, 27.
The Atlantic crossing was largely uneventful: [Information on Thomas and Susannah Stone Lloyd], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
According to a Danish passenger, John Ahmanson: Ahmanson, 28.
Yet another Danish passenger, Peter Madsen: Peter Madsen diary, May 21, 1856, LDS Archives.
Despite the lapses of the English young people: Ibid., June 11, 1856.
With some misgivings: John Taylor to Brigham Young, June 18, 1856, CR1234/1, Box 43, Folder 4, LDS Archives.
“I wish the passengers”: The Mormon, April 26, 1856, quoted in Olsen, 59.
According to forty-six-year-old emigrant William James: Loleta Wiscombe Dixon, [Willie Handcart Company and William James], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
“There was a scarcety of seasoned wood”: Ibid.
The agents all talked economy: Young, 207.
One of the men in the company: “J. R.,” The Mormon, August 16, 1856.
According to Peter Madsen: Peter Madsen journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
The hardship that this unforeseen restriction: Ibid.
“The health of the company is good”: Ibid.
This fourth handcart company: Olsen, 66.
Apparently he never wrote a word: Hafen and Hafen, 92n.
The official journal of the company: Olsen, 68.
In one of the few extant photographs: Ibid., 66.
Willie’s second-in-command, Millen Atwood: Ibid., 66–67.
Only a week after arriving in Salt Lake City: Millen Atwood, “Account of His Mission,” Deseret News, November 26, 1856.
Ahmanson’s lot was a particularly hard one: Ahmanson, 28–29.
After he left the church: Olsen, 186.
In 1876, he wrote in Danish a memoir: Ahmanson, 9–10.
Diaries and memoirs recount the occasional kindness: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
According to George Cunningham: George Cunningham, Reminiscences, ibid.
On July 25, near Muddy Creek: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, ibid.
The official company journal did its best: Ibid.
Within five days of starting from Iowa City: Ibid.
The most curious of them: Ibid.
“the first 200 miles”: Mary Ann James Dangerfield, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.
Another, Sarah Moulton: Sarah Moulton to Mark H. Forscutt, August 13, 1856, ibid.
More typical, though: Agnes Caldwell Southworth, [Autobiographical sketch], ibid.
Even the blindly partisan Millen Atwood: Atwood, Deseret News, November 26, 1856.
John Chislett later cogently appraised: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 316.
According to the official journal: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
In the end, about a hundred: Cunningham, Reminiscences; Dixon, ibid.
About these backouts: Atwood, Deseret News, November 26, 1856.
Many years later, the granddaughter: Margaret Bennett, [Interview], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Among the Saints remaining in the Willie Company: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317.
Born in Ohio, Savage was thirty-six years old: Olsen, 67–68.
With tears streaming down his face: Cunningham, Reminiscences; Ann Jewell Rowley, [Autobiography], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
In his own journal: Levi Savage journal, ibid.
For his pains: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317.
As one emigrant later recalled: James Sherlock Cantwell, Autobiography, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Savage himself recorded the captain’s rebuke: Savage journal, ibid.
Heaping further scorn on Savage’s misgivings: Ahmanson, 29–30; see also T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317.
It would be left to John Chislett: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317.
The recurrent problem: Ibid., 318.
CHAPTER 5: TROUBLES ON THE PLATTE
On July 9, 1856, as the Willie Company Saints: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
The Horizon had departed from Liverpool: Olsen, 219.
Some two hundred emigrants: Langley A. Bailey, [Reminiscences], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
as the Saints rode by train: Olsen, 227.
Eventually a company of about 650 emigrants: Ibid., 274.
Born in Preston: Ibid., 231–35.
In a letter to a friend in England: Edward Martin to John Melling, Our Pioneer Heritage, vol. 12, 356–57, quoted in Olsen, 233.
A poignant letter from his eleven-year-old daughter: Mary Ellen Martin to Edward Martin, September 29, 1855, Edward Martin correspondence, LDS Archives, quoted in Olsen, 235.
Recruited by President Franklin D. Richards: Ibid., 235.
He certainly had the hardest job of all:
Ibid., 243.
President Richards, who would see them off: Journal History, October 4, 1856, quoted in Olsen, 243.
A few of the Martin Company Saints: Margaret Ann Griffiths Clegg, Autobiographical sketch, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Yet the diary of Jesse Haven: Haven, Journals, ibid.
On July 22, Jesse Haven’s thermometer: Ibid.
More than half a century later: John William Southwell, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.
As Samuel Openshaw described it: Openshaw diary, ibid.
Some of the Saints regarded the meteor: Olsen, 279.
Fifteen-year-old Aaron Giles: Aaron Barnet Giles to Brigham Young, December 3, 1856, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
More than sixty years later: Langley Allgood Bailey, Reminiscences and journal, ibid.
Even Webb’s daughter: Young, 207.
One member of the assembly later recalled: John Bond, “Handcarts West in ’56,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
A fifteen-year-old boy in the crowd: Josiah Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, October 27, 1907.
By the time the Martin party set out: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
The fourth handcart company was thus 133 miles: Clayton, 48.
The William B. Hodgetts Company: http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
now reduced to 404 individuals: Olsen, 86.
Many years later, Mary Ann James: Loleta Wiscombe Dixon, [Willie Hand-cart Company and William James], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Even John Chislett: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317–18.
The Saints invented many songs: Hafen and Hafen, 272–73.
Along with “The Handcart Song”: Louisa Mellor Clark, “A Record,” http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
which after its composition in 1846: Clayton, 101.
In today’s hymnal: Hymns of the Church, 30.
“Our carts were more heavily laden”: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 317.
“would like to see all the grumblers”: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
The official journal records: Ibid.
Seventeen-year-old Joseph Wall: Kate B. Carter, Heart Throbs of the West, vol. 4, 79, quoted in Olsen, 88.
The official journal tersely notes: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Levi Savage’s journal routinely recorded: Levi Savage journal, ibid.
John Chislett would later eloquently analyze: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 318.
By their own reckoning, they had covered: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Many years later, Emma James: Dixon, ibid.
Chislett describes the woeful solution: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 318.
On September 7, a Sunday: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
By September 12, the Willie Company: Ibid.
The next morning, with the wagons hitched: Savage journal, ibid.
Before riding onward: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 319.
And also before departing: Ibid.
James Bleak (pronounced “Blake”): Olsen, 270–72.
On the trail, Bleak kept a journal: James Bleak Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Like James Bleak, thirty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Sermon: Olsen, 264–65.
Though she apparently did not keep a journal: Elizabeth Whitear [Sermon] Camm, Reminiscence, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
In his diary for September 21: Stella Jaques Bell, Life History and Writings of John Jaques, 136.
In an 1879 reminiscence: Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, January 12, 1879.
“We saw a great many buffalo”: Peter Howard McBride, [Life sketch], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory; see also E. E. McBride, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.
Many years later, Josiah Rogerson: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, November 3, 1907.
Also many years later: John William Southwell, Autobiographical sketch, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
About a dozen years after the trek: Heber Robert McBride, Autobiography, ibid.
On September 7, twenty-two-year-old Samuel Openshaw: Openshaw diary, ibid.
“lower limbs were paralyzed”: Southwell, Autobiographical sketch, ibid.
The count is uncertain: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, October 27, 1907.
“A man fell down dead”: Openshaw diary, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
“An old sister died this morning”: Ibid.
“A change for worse occurred”: Southwell, ibid.
Perhaps the strangest of all the deaths: Rogerson, “Martin’s Handcart Company, 1856,” Salt Lake Herald, October 27, 1907.
The report was probably accurate: Schindler, 232n.
Babbitt had been a leading member: Hirshson, 72–73.
In 1851, he himself emigrated: http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Even before that, in 1849: Bigler, Kingdom, 47.
In Utah, Babbitt became one of the first: Hilton, “Wild Bill” Hickman, 20, 25.
In 1851, he was disfellowshiped from the church: Schindler, 230n.
Despite that disgrace: Ibid., 230.
In the summer of 1856: Ibid., 231.
On August 29, the Willie’s Saints: James Cantwell, Autobiography, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
The next day, the Willie Company: Ibid.
Another diarist recorded: William Woodward Journal, ibid.
According to Cantwell: Cantwell, Autobiography, ibid.
Despite warnings from the Willie Company: Schindler, 231–32.
Arriving at Fort Kearny: Ibid., 232–34.
(When the Martin Company came upon the site): Jaques, “Some Reminiscences,” Salt Lake Daily Herald, December 8, 1878.
Harold Schindler, Rockwell’s sympathetic biographer: Schindler, 233–36.
When Babbitt’s small party failed to show up: N. H. Felt, Correspondence, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Enter, at this point: Caleb Green Diary, Missouri Historical Society.
Caleb Green’s diary adds: Green Diary, MHS.
In 1862, Brigham Young cast: New York Times, August 30, 1877, quoted in Hirshson, 160.
Levi Savage recorded his disappointment: Savage journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
It was not a military establishment: Berrett and Anderson, 18–20.
At the fort, there was a very limited amount: Olsen, 106.
Levi Savage wrote in his diary: Savage journal, http://www.lds.org/church history.
In the end, Captain Willie: Olsen, 109.
Salt Lake City was still 509 miles away: Clayton, 60.
He called a meeting of the whole company: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 319.
“It was resolved to reduce”: Ibid., 319.
Historians struggle to come up with an explanation: See, e.g., Olsen, 108–9.
In a diary entry on October 3: Openshaw diary, http://www.lds.org/church history.
On October 4, the Willie Company: James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, ibid.
Jesse Haven’s diary recorded the death: Haven journals, ibid.
Unlike the vast majority of the Saints: Olsen, 227–28.
CHAPTER 6: ROCKY RIDGE
We know that the Prophet’s protestation: William Woodward to Heber C. Kimball, 11 June 1856, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
For example, as Andrew Olsen writes: Olsen, 115. See also Bartholomew and Arrington, Rescue, 5, and Hafen and Hafen, 119.
The very next day: Deseret News, October 15, 1856.
(The Martin Company at that moment): Clayton, 56.
“That is my religion”: Deseret News, October 15, 1856.
After Young finished: Ibid.
And then, after Spencer: Ibid.
in the Prophet’s formula: Ibid.
The minutes of the conference: Ibid.
(After the pioneer trek to the Great Basin): Bigler, Fort Limhi, 135ff.
Yet even as the colony awoke: Deseret News, October 15, 1856.
On October 7, the first rescue wagons: Olsen, 121–22.
Some LDS historians and scholars: For example, William Slaughter and Michael Landon, personal communication, February 2006.
Even T. B. H. Stenhouse: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 339.
Leonard Arrington, author of Brigham Young: Arrington, Brigham Young, 404–5.
“About this time Captain Willie”: T. B. H. Stenhouse, Saints, 320.
At the times of those encounters: Clayton, 56, 70, 72, 74.
Richards and Spencer’s account: Deseret News, October 22, 1856.
Tackling this thorny problem: Olsen, 107–8.
But Olsen also points to the diary: Robert T. Burton, [Journal], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory, quoted in Olsen, 108.
At Fort Laramie in the beginning of October: Olsen, 110; James G. Willie Emigrating Company Journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
On October 4, the day the rations: Levi Savage journal, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
John Oborn, then twelve: John Oborn, Reminiscences and diary, ibid.
Michael Jensen, an eleven-year-old Dane: Michel [Michael] Jensen, [Interview], ibid.
On October 12, Levi Savage recorded: Savage journal, ibid.
Five days later, a calf gave out: Willie Company Journal, ibid.
Fifteen-year-old George Cunningham: George Cunningham, Reminiscences, ibid.
Eighteen-year-old Sarah James: Loleta Wiscombe Dixon, [Willie Handcart Company and William James], ibid.
Ann Rowley was a forty-eight-year-old English widow: Ann Jewell Rowley, [Autobiography], ibid.
According to one emigrant: Dixon, [Willie Handcart Company and William James], ibid.
On October 15, Willie convened a council: Willie Company Journal, ibid.
“It was unanimously agreed”: Ibid.
In the first week of October: Olsen, 111.
Within eight days: Robert Reeder, History of Robert Reeder, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Also within days, the Gadd family: Olsen, 111–12.
Ann Rowley, the matriarch traveling: Rowley, [Autobiography], http://www.lds.org/churchhistory.
Susannah Stone, twenty-five at the time: [Information on Thomas and Susannah Stone Lloyd], ibid.