The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated over time from the mid-1840s until the late 1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the Salt Lake Valley in what is today the U.S. state of Utah. At the time of the planning of the exodus in 1846, the territory comprising present-day Utah was part of the Republic of Mexico, with which the U.S. soon went to war over a border dispute left unresolved after the annexation of Texas. The Salt Lake Valley became American territory as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war.
The journey was taken by about 70,000 people, beginning with advance parties sent out by church leaders in March 1846 after the 1844 death of the church's leader Joseph Smith made it clear that the group could not remain in Nauvoo, Illinoiswhich the church had recently purchased, improved, renamed, and developed, because of the Missouri Mormon War, setting off the Illinois Mormon War. The well-organized wagon train migration began in earnest in April 1847, and the period (including the flight from Missouri in 1838 to Nauvoo), known as the Mormon Exodus is, by convention among social scientists, traditionally assumed to have ended with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869. Not everyone could afford to transport a family by railroad, and the transcontinental railroad network only serviced limited main routes, so wagon train migrations to the Far West continued sporadically until the 20th century.
Background of the migration
Since its founding in 1830, members of the LDS Church frequently had conflicts and difficult relations with non-members, due to both their unorthodox religious beliefs and the conduct of the church leaders and members. These and other reasons caused the body of the church to move from one place to another—to Ohio, Missouri, and then to Illinois, where they built the city of Nauvoo. Sidney Rigdon was the First Counselor in the church's First Presidency, and as its spokesman, Rigdon preached several controversial sermons in Missouri, including the Salt Sermon and the July 4th Oration.Oration Delivered by Mr. S. Rigdon on the 4th of July at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, 1838 These speeches have sometimes been seen as contributing to the conflict known as the 1838 Mormon War in Missouri. As a result of the conflict, the Mormons were expelled from the state by Governor Boggs, and Rigdon and Smith were arrested and imprisoned in Liberty Jail. Rigdon was released on a writ of habeas corpus and made his way to Illinois, where he joined the main body of Mormon refugees in 1839. In 1844, Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob while in custody in the city of Carthage, Illinois. In 1846, religious tensions reached their peak, and in 1848 mobs burned the Latter-day Saint temple in Nauvoo.
According to church belief, God inspired Brigham Young (Joseph Smith's successor as church president) to call for the Saints (as church members call themselves) to organize and head West, beyond the western frontier of the United States.
During the winter of 1846–1847, Latter-day Saint leaders in Winter Quarters and Iowa laid plans for the migration of the large number of Saints, their equipment, and their livestock. It was here that Young first met Thomas L. Kane, a non-Mormon from Philadelphia with deep personal connections to the administration of U.S. president James K. Polk administration. Kane obtained permission for the Mormons to winter on Indian territory, and the site was originally called Kanesville. Young continued to trust Kane throughout his own lifetime, particularly as an intermediary with the often hostile federal government of the United States. This major undertaking was a significant test of leadership capability and the existing administrative network of the recently restructured church. For his role in the migration, Brigham Young is sometimes referred to as the "American Moses."
Young personally reviewed all available information on the Salt Lake Valley and the Great Basin, consulted with mountain men and trappers who traveled through Winter Quarters, and met with Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary familiar with the Great Basin. The wary Young insisted the Mormons should settle in a location no other colonizers wanted, and felt the Salt Lake Valley met that requirement, but would provide the Saints with many advantages as well.
The valley was then under the administration of Mexico, which had banned immigration from the United States with the Law of April 6, 1830. The Mormon settlers entered Mexico without government authorization, and despite the sovereignty rights held by the Shoshone, Utes, and the Goshutes. The U.S. Army captured Santa Fe de Nuevo México and the colonized parts of Alta California in late 1846, but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo would not cede northern Mexico to the United States until February, 1848.
Vanguard company of 1847
Young organized a vanguard company to break the trail west to the Rocky Mountains, gather information about trail conditions, including water sources and Native American tribes, and to ultimately select the central gathering point in the Great Basin. The initial company would select and break the primary trail with the expectation that later pioneers would maintain and improve it. It was hoped that the group could, wherever possible, establish fords and ferries and plant crops for later harvest. In late February, plans were made to gather portable boats, maps, scientific instruments, farm implements and seeds. Techniques for irrigating crops were investigated. A new route on the north side of the Platte River was chosen to avoid major interaction with travelers using the established Oregon Trail on the river's south side. Given the needs of the large volume of Saints who would travel west, church leaders decided to avoid potential conflicts over grazing rights, water access and campsites.
In April 1847, Young consulted with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who had recently returned from the British mission. John Taylor, Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde brought money contributed by the English Saints, a map based on John C. Fremont's recent western expedition, and instruments for calculating latitude, elevation, temperature and barometric pressure. Chosen members of the vanguard group were gathered together, final supplies were packed, and the group was organized into military companies. The group consisted of 143 men, including three enslaved African-American men,Dockstader, Julie A. "With the Just We Shall Dwell", Pioneer Magazine, National Society of the Sons of Utah Pioneers, 01 March 1996. Retrieved on 21 June 2020. and eight members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, three women, and two children. The train contained 73 wagons, one cannon, 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, 19 cows, 17 dogs and some chickens, and carried enough supplies to fully provision the group for one year. Young divided this group into 14 companies, each with a designated captain. Apprehensive of possible danger posed by Native Americans, a militia and night guard was formed under the direction of Stephen Markham.
On April 5, 1847, at 2 p.m., the wagon train moved west from Winter Quarters toward the Great Basin. With the afternoon start, they made three miles (5 km) and camped in a line a few hundred yards from a stand of timber. Journal records show that Young actively managed the journey, supervising details and occasionally giving reprimands when evening and Sunday recreation became rowdy or group members failed to complete their tasks. On one occasion, he chastised the camp's hunters "for being wasteful of flesh... killing more than was really needed."May, Dean L. Utah: A People's History p. 57. Bonneville Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1987. . The camp was awakened by a bugle at 5a.m. and the company was expected to be prepared for travel by 7a.m. Each day's travel ended at 8:30p.m. and the camp was in bed by 9p.m. The company traveled six days during the week, but generally stayed in camp on Sunday to observe the Sabbath.
Some camp members were assigned specific tasks. William Clayton was appointed company scribe and was expected to record an accurate description of their journey and the distance they traveled each day. Clayton collaborated with Orson Pratt, a mathematician, and Appleton Harmon, a carpenter, to create a wagon-wheel odometer, or roadometer. It showed that the company averaged between fourteen and twenty miles per day. Apostle Orson Pratt was named the company's scientific observer. He made regular readings on scientific instruments, took notes on geological formations and mineral resources, and described plants and animals. Journals kept by both Clayton and Pratt have become valuable resources for historians of the Mormon trek west. Clayton made his notes and measurements available to other emigrants in his The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide.
Women of the company also performed vital tasks along the way. While much time was spent on traditional activities such as cooking, sewing, and tending children, several women served as scribes and diary keepers. Harriet Page Young, wife of Lorenzo Young, was the first woman selected for the company. She was in ill health and Lorenzo Young feared to leave her and their young children behind. The other original women of the company, Ellen Sanders Kimball, wife of Heber C. Kimball, and Clarissa Decker Young, wife of Brigham Young, were asked to accompany the group to look after Harriet Young and keep her company. The three women were joined by a larger group of women church members from Mississippi who merged with the main party at Laramie, Wyoming.
The first segment of the journey, from Winter Quarters to Fort Laramie, took six weeks, with the company arriving at the fort on June 1. The company halted for repairs and to reshoe the draft animals. While at Fort Laramie, the vanguard company was joined by members of the Mormon Battalion who had been excused from service due to illness and sent to winter in Pueblo, Colorado. Also traveling in the new group were church members from Mississippi who had taken a more southern route toward the Great Basin. At this point, the now larger company took the established Oregon Trail toward the trading post at Ft. Bridger. At a difficult crossing of the Platte, just before encountering the Sweetwater River, the company made use of their portable boat and were able to cross with comparative ease. Seizing the opportunity to both help future travelers and increase the cash available to the migration, nine men under the direction of Thomas Grover were left behind to construct and operate a ferry at that location. Missourians and other travelers at the river paid the Saints $1.50 or more per wagon to help them cross.