LOOKING FORWARD Sara Ann Oakey had early childhood memories that were not typical — walking up a gangplank to a large sailing ship, receiving a hard sea biscuit for her fourth birthday a week later, riding more than a thousand miles in a loaded handcart, and...
LET US PRAY While traveling across Nebraska Territory, severe thunderstorms occasionally threatened the Willie handcart company. Thirteen-year-old Betsey Smith gave a description of what happened in one of these instances: “The wind . . . kept blowing harder...
I’LL NEVER LET GO Elizabeth Simpson Haigh Bradshaw was born into a family of wealth. Although she was orphaned at age nine, she continued to be raised as a child of privilege. By the time Elizabeth was 48 years old, she had been widowed twice, had five living...
I WILL GO On Sunday, October 26,1856, Brigham Young issued yet another of numerous calls for rescue of the handcart companies from the public pulpit. Many responded as quickly as possible, but Ephraim Knowlton Hanks had already been called by a voice during the night...
I ASKED GOD’S HELP Ann Jewell Rowley wrote: “There came a time when there seemed to be no food at all. Some of the men left to hunt buffalo. Night was coming and there was no food for the evening meal. I asked God’s help as I always did. I got on my knees,...
HOPE Ellen Parkinson was 5 years old, the sixth of 9 living children of John and Ellen Smalley Parkinson, when she traveled with her family in the Martin Handcart Company. In 1837, John and Ellen were among the first converts to the Church in Preston, England. John...
