Читать книгу Memoirs of John R. Young, Utah Pioneer, 1847 - John R. Young - Страница 4

Table of Contents

Camp on Sugar Creek.—Brigham's Charge to the Exiles.—Death of a Noble Woman.—Garden Grove.—Free from Mobs.

God pity the exiles, when storms come down—

When snow-laden clouds hang low on the ground,

When the chill blast of winter, with frost on its breath

Sweeps through the tents, like the angel of death!

When the sharp cry of child-birth is heard on the air,

And the voice of the father breaks down in his prayer,

As he pleads with Jehovah, his loved ones to spare!

My father was among the first of the Saints who left Nauvoo and the State of Illinois to avoid the storm of persecution that religious prejudice had created against us. A general gathering place had been chosen nine miles from the river, on Sugar Creek. Here an advance company of brethren had prepared for our coming by shoveling away the snow, so that we had dry spots on which to pitch our tents. Nor did we pitch camp a day too soon; for a heavy storm swept over that part of the country, leaving the snow fourteen inches deep, and being followed by a cold so intense that the Mississippi froze over, and many later teams crossed on the ice.

On the fifteenth day of February Presidents Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball joined us; and for the next two weeks a continuous stream of wagons poured into the encampment so that by the first of March over five thousand exiles were shivering behind the meager shelter of wagon covers and tents, and the winter-stripped groves that lined the Creek. Their sufferings have never been adequately told; and to realize how cruel and ill-timed was this forced exodus one has only to be reminded that in one night nine children were born under these distressing conditions.

When it is remembered that only seven years had elapsed since twelve thousand of our people had fled "naked and peeled" from the state of Missouri, and that now the entire community of twenty thousand souls were again leaving their homes unsold, it can be easily understood that they were ill prepared to endure the hardships they were thus forced to meet.

By ascending a nearby hill we could look back upon the beautiful city and see the splendid temple we had reared in our poverty at a cost of one and a half million dollars; moreover, on a clear, calm morning we could hear:

The silvery notes of the temple bell

That we loved so deep and well;

And a pang of grief would swell the heart,

And the scalding tears in anguish start

As we silently gazed on our dear old homes.

To remove this ever present invitation to grief and sorrow, our leaders wisely resolved to make a forward move. It was believed the frost would hold up our wagons. If not, short drives could at any rate be made. Activity would relieve our severely tried hearts. I remember hearing the ringing voice of President Young as standing early in the morning in the front end of his wagon, he said:

"Attention, the camps of Israel. I propose to move forward on our journey. Let all who wish follow me; but I want none to come unless they will obey the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Cease therefore your contentions and back-biting, nor must there be swearing or profanity in our camps. Whoever finds anything must seek diligently to return it to the owner. The Sabbath day must be hallowed. In all our camp, prayers should be offered up both morning and evening. If you do these things, faith will abide in your hearts; and the angels of God will go with you, even as they went with the children of Israel when Moses led them from the land of Egypt."

This brief epitome of the rules and regulations that were to guide us, will give the thoughtful reader a key to the wonderful influence of President Young and the Twelve Apostles. The Saints were intensely religious and their peculiar faith in prophets and present and continuous revelation had stirred up the anger and prejudice of their Christian neighbors until it culminated in the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo. Americans, and in many instances the near and direct descendants of Revolution sires, cast out from American civilization because they believed in the visitation of angels and persisted in worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

It was on the first of March, 1846, only two weeks after leaving Nauvoo, that the Saints broke camp and moved forward in two general divisions, under the leadership respectively of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. Their course was westward over the rolling prairies of Iowa. Only too soon did they find every hollow to be a mud hole, in which the wagons would sink to the axle. But having started, they could do no better than "double teams" and go slow. Often they would not make over three miles a day, and what added to their discomfort was the continuous rain which wet those who were walking to the skin, and even beat through the wagon covers, wetting and chilling the sick and feeble. These conditions gave rise to acts of heroism as noble as were ever recorded.

I remember one notable instance:

Orson Spencer was a graduate from an eastern college, who having studied for the ministry, became a popular preacher in the Baptist Church. Meeting with a "Mormon" elder, he became acquainted with the teachings of Joseph Smith and accepted them. Before doing so, however, he and his highly educated young wife counted the cost, laid their hearts on the altar and made the sacrifice! How few realize what it involved to become a "Mormon" in those early days! Home, friends, occupation, popularity, all that makes life pleasant, were gone. Almost over night they were strangers to their own kindred.

After leaving Nauvoo, his wife, ever delicate and frail, sank rapidly under the ever accumulating hardships. The sorrowing husband wrote imploringly to the wife's parents, asking them to receive her into their home until the Saints should find an abiding place. The answer came, "Let her renounce her degrading faith and she can come back, but never until she does."

When the letter was read to her, she asked her husband to get his Bible and to turn to the Book of Ruth and read the first chapter, sixteenth and seventeenth verses: "Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God."

Not a murmur escaped her lips. The storm was severe and the wagon covers leaked. Friends held milk pans over her bed to keep her dry. In those conditions, in peace and without apparent suffering, the spirit took its flight and her body was consigned to a grave by the wayside.

A thousand times thereafter the Saints had occasion to sing:

"How many on the trackless plains

Have found an unknown grave,

Pure, faithful Saints, too good to live

In such a wicked place.

But are they left in sorrow,

Or doubt to pine away?

Oh, no, in peace they're resting

Till the Resurrection Day."

From the first of March until the 19th of April not a day passed without rain, making the roads almost impassable, and entailing a vast amount of labor with but little advancement. At this date our camps had reached Grand river. President Young called a halt and set all hands at work fencing a field and planting crops for the benefit of the poor who would follow. First an ample guard was selected to look after the stock. That left three hundred fifty-nine laboring men; of these, one hundred were selected to make rails under the direction of C. C. Rich; ten under James Allred to put up fence; forty-nine under Father John Smith, uncle of the Prophet Joseph, to build houses; twelve under Jacob Peart to dig wells; ten under A. P. Rockwood to build the bridges, and one hundred eighty under Daniel Spencer to clear land, plow, and plant.

All were thus employed, and the camp became presently like a hive of bees. There being no room for idlers, all seemed happy. This place was named Garden Grove; and Samuel Bent, Aaron Johnson, and David Fullmer were chosen to preside over those that should remain. They were instructed to divide the lands among the poor without charge; but to give to no man more than he could thoroughly cultivate. There must be no waste and no speculation. Moreover, the settlement was not regarded as more than temporary; for as soon as our leaders should find the "place," all energies were to be centered in gathering to that place. As yet, however, no one, not even Brigham Young, knew where the "place" would be; but it was talked at the camp fires that President Young had seen, in vision, a wonderful valley, so large that all our people could be gathered into it, and yet so far from civilization, that mobs could not come at night to burn and whip and kidnap. Strange as it may seem, this vision formed the most entrancing theme of our conversations, and the national song of Switzerland became our favorite hymn:

"For the strength of the hills we thank Thee,

Our God, our father's God."