Doctrine and Covenants 136, part 3: The Miraculous Story of Latter-day Saint Migration West

There are dozens of stories of miracles that occurred in the lives of individual Mormon pioneers. These build our faith, and encourage us to know that God is there for us in our personal challenges. But when my brother laid out, in a sacrament meeting talk, the overall picture of the Latter-day Saint Migration--how Heavenly Father arranged for different groups involved in different journeys from different places to work together in an intricate and complicated fashion to accomplish the establishment of Zion in the Great Basin--my faith was strengthened exponentially! Each of these groups--the overland pioneers, the ocean pioneers, the southern pioneers, and the Mormon Battalion--went through their own excruciating trials and terrors, and yet the Lord was working through them all to create a giant miracle.

I wanted to see this miracle visually, and I wanted to be able to comprehend and remember it, to be able to tell it from memory, so I laid it out in a timeline with maps. I color-coded the groups on the map and in the text (blue for the seafaring saints, red for the main body of overland pioneers, gold for the Mississippi saints, and green for the military group). I filled in more details as I discovered them, and each time, my faith was strengthened. Once I saw the timeline of the Latter-day Saint Migration, it became very difficult to believe that it could have been accomplished without Divine planning.  I recalled times in my own life where I was stuck crossing a trackless prairie of problems, entirely unaware of the benevolent machinations of my Heavenly Father in other places and in other people's lives that would all come together to create a miracle that I would later see and comprehend.

My trust and faith in my Heavenly Father has been strengthened through this study, and I hope yours will be as well.

This blog post is available in PowerPoint form. E-mail me if you want a copy; I'd love for you to share it with your ward or branch!   

thepianoisgrand@gmail.com

A Table in the Wilderness

A Timeline of the Miraculous Latter-day Saint Migration West

Shortly after the evacuation of Nauvoo, in a pioneer camp on the west of the Mississippi River, a destitute Mormon mother, Sarah Leavitt, was confronted by an antagonistic government officer.

"Why, madam," he said, "I see nothing before you but
inevitable destruction in going off into the wilderness among savages, far from civilization, with nothing
but what you can carry in your wagon…I see nothing before you but starvation.”

Quoting Psalm 78:19, Sarah told him, “The Lord [will] spread a table for us in the wilderness…”

The officer was right: there was no chance of success.
And yet the Mormons triumphed.
Here is the timeline of their story.

A statue honoring Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt is located in Santa Clara, Utah

On the base of her statue, excerpts of her testimony are inscribed.

--1841--
 

The first American overland pioneers leave Missouri for the Oregon territory. They follow existing trails to Fort Hall in Eastern Idaho, abandon their wagons when the trail ends but safely reach Oregon.

--1842--

Congress sends Army Captain John C. Fremont on a series of exploratory expeditions to the western territories. Copies of his maps are given to Mormon Church leaders by an Illinois senator. 

--1843--

 Large numbers of American pioneers are migrating westward to California and Oregon on the Oregon Trail.

--June 27, 1844--

Joseph Smith is murdered at Carthage Jail. 
Persecutions increase for the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo.

--October 1845--

The Quincy Convention calls for all Mormons to leave Nauvoo by May of 1846.

A few days later, the Carthage Convention calls for their forced removal by militia, should they fail to meet the deadline.

12,000 saints in Nauvoo and another 2,000-3,000 in the surrounding states will soon be homeless.

--October 11, 1845-- 

President Brigham Young calls team captains for the move west and Nauvoo saints begin gathering supplies and making wagons. Saints in other areas are called to gather with them and go west. The plan is that they will all go together in one gigantic 2,500-wagon train in an organized fashion.

--January 1846-- 
  

John Brown is sent from Nauvoo to collect the families he baptized on his mission three years earlier in Monroe County, Mississippi to join the expedition west. The congregation of saints there includes whites and blacks. Most of the black saints are slaves.

(I'm sorry I put the blue star on Boston instead of New York--

by I'm not sorry enough to fix it!)

Meanwhile, a community of converts on the east coast, too poor to make the overland trek, pools its money to charter the Ship Brooklyn. They will take a dangerous voyage around Cape Horn to the west coast, stopping off in Chile and Hawaii on the way. From there, they will travel to meet the saints at their final destination. Sam Brannan is called to lead the group.

--February 4, 1846--

Because of violence and threats, the first saints leave Nauvoo. The organized plan is abandoned, and there are eventually three exoduses over the following 9 months or so.

--also February 4, 1846--

The very same day, the Ship Brooklyn leaves New York City with 238 saints living between-decks in 2,500 feet of space. The lower hold is full of cows, pigs, chickens, sawmills, a gristmill, seeds, tools, a printing press and everything they need to set up a civilization from scratch.

--The Nauvoo Covenant--

Time has not been adequate to prepare wagons and supplies for all the saints in Nauvoo. Many do not have the means, having been unable to sell their homes at fair prices. A covenant is made that those who leave first will stop at a safe spot along the trail and send wagons and teamsters back and forth for all those who wish to come. 

By spring, there are over 10,000 saints scattered across Iowa, obtaining jobs to earn money along the way. The Nauvoo Brass Band plays concerts for pay as they travel. Pioneers build temporary settlements with crops planted for those who follow.

Pres. Young calls Jesse Little to go to Washington, D.C. to petition the government for a contract to build roads and forts on their way west in order to finance the trek.

--Early Spring 1846--

The Ship Brooklyn has blown nearly to Africa before finding trade winds to blow her back to the Cape. She's made it safely around Cape Horn, chipping ice ahead of her in the water, and she's survived the oppressive heat of the tropical doldrums. Now a huge storm blows her away from Chile, where the passengers had planned to resupply. So instead, the captain steers them to the Juan Fernandez Islands. 

There they are able to obtain fresh water, fish, fruit, potatoes and firewood at a cost hundreds of dollars less than Chilean prices. It is another “table in the wilderness.”

--April 8, 1846--

The first group of Mississippi saints leaves to join the Nauvoo saints and travel to the west. There are 43 in the company.

--May 1, 1846--

The Nauvoo Temple is finally dedicated, although temple work had ceased in February. Over the winter, 6,000 saints had received their endowments in the completed portions of the Nauvoo Temple. The temple is immediately put up for sale, but no reasonable offer is made. They ask $200,000 and years later finally receive $5,000.

Even while in this distress, a few men are called on missions to Europe straight from the refugee camps.

--May 13, 1846--

The U.S. declares war on Mexico

--May 21, 1846--

  

Jesse Little arrives in Washington, realizes the government’s focus is now the war, and petitions U.S. President James Polk to contract a battalion of Mormon men to fight in the war. It is a very bold move, considering the government had just forced the Mormons to surrender all their weapons the year before because of the conflict in Missouri. Polk is highly dubious, but amazingly, Little convinces him and wins the contract.

The formation of the Mormon Battalion puts Brigham Young and the Mormons on the same team as the U.S. government at last, and ends the very real threat of governmental interference on the trek west.

--May 26, 1846--

John Brown and the Mississippi saints arrive in Independence, Missouri, the jumping-off point for all travel to the west, hear wild stories about Mormons killing people in the west, and assume that Brigham Young has gone on ahead of them. They decide to head west to catch up, rather than go north to Nauvoo.

--June 20, 1846--

The Ship Brooklyn stops in Hawaii to deliver a load of cargo. 

12 people have died on the voyage. The U.S. Navy is stationed at Pearl Harbor, preparing for war with Mexico.

--June 29, 1846--

The Nauvoo refugees arrive at the Missouri River.

U.S. Army Captain James Allen meets them & musters 540 men for the Mormon Battalion.

Pres. Young delays the journey west for a year to allow time for the Battalion to earn money. He establishes Winter Quarters in Nebraska.

--July 10, 1846--

Meanwhile, the Mississippi wagon train has hurried all the way to Laramie, Wyoming before a passing traveler (it's a busy road these days) tells them that no Mormons are ahead of them on the trail. At the invitation of a trapper, they leave the trail to wait out the winter at Pueblo, Colorado with the group of trappers and their Spanish and Indian wives. 

--July 21, 1846--
The Mormon Battalion leaves Winter Quarters, the only religiously-based military unit in the history of the United States. 

Brigham Young promises them that none will die in battle. 

They head south to be outfitted at Fort Leavenworth.

(There's an itty-bitty green line down from Winter Quarters.)

--July 31, 1846--

After a 24,000-mile voyage, the Ship Brooklyn saints arrive at present-day San Francisco, then just a small town, and find out that an American warship had sailed into the harbor just 3 weeks earlier, and planted a flag. They are back in the United States! 

One passenger later writes, “Of all the memories of my life, not one is so bitter as that dreary six months’ voyage, in an emigrant ship, round the Horn.” 

San Francisco immediately becomes an overwhelmingly Mormon community. They start farming while they await instruction from Brigham Young.

--August 7, 1846--  

The Mississippi saints arrive at Pueblo with plenty of summer left to build homes and a log church, earning food by working for the trappers.

John Brown returns east to meet with Pres. Young and then bring more saints from Mississippi. 

--August 1846--

The Mormon Battalion leaves Fort Leavenworth, marching southwest to fight Mexico. They are given a clothing allowance of $42 each ($21,000 total), which they immediately turn over to the Church, opting to wear their old clothes. Through their term of service, they earn $50,000, an enormous sum of money, which finances the pioneer emigration west.

 --September 13, 1846--

The Battle of Nauvoo

Less than 1,000 of the most destitute Mormons remain in Nauvoo, including Hyrum Smith’s widow, Mary Fielding Smith, with her children, as well as Truman O. Angell, the future architect of the Salt Lake, St. George and Logan Temples. These stragglers are attacked by anti-Mormons, and forced to sign the surrender of the city three days later, whereupon they are driven out at gunpoint.

--September 14, 1846--

At Winter Quarters, an 11-man rescue party leaves to bring the last saints out of Nauvoo, knowing nothing about the attack.

--September 25, 1846--

Reports of the Battle of Nauvoo reach Winter Quarters, and another rescue party is sent with 20 wagons.


--October 6, 1846

The rescue party arrives at the "poor camps" outside Nauvoo to find the situation much more desperate than they are prepared to meet. The rescue captain, Orville Allen, sends some of his men into the surrounding area to purchase more supplies. Meanwhile the people are starving.

--October 9, 1846--

Thousands of exhausted quail suddenly fly into the refugee camp, flopping onto the ground all around the wagons and tents, and even onto the arms and the heads of the pioneers. Even the sick can easily pick up a bird with no resistance at all. The suffering saints eat well that day at a “table in the wilderness.” The quail stop coming at 3:00 p.m. The men arrive back with the supplies and the rescue team heads back with the first group at 4:30.

--October 1846--

The Mormon Battalion arrives at Santa Fe. Many members have fallen ill along the way. The sick Battalion members are sent to Pueblo, Colorado.

--October 1846--

John Brown arrives back at Winter Quarters. Pres. Young requests that he enlist several strong Mississippi men to join his advance team and wait to emigrate the rest of the Mississippi saints the next year.

The sick Battalion members arrive at Pueblo to find the Mississippi saints waiting there--surprise! To add to the reunion, the leader of the sick contingent is James Brown, another missionary who served in Monroe, Mississippi. 

--October 24, 1846--

Sam Brannan publishes an early edition of The California Star newspaper, printed on the Mormon press.

--January 9, 1847

The first subscriptions are delivered by hand, or hawked on street corners in San Francisco, and are sent east and to Great Britain on ships.

--January 1847--

John Brown arrives back in Mississippi. He selects four white men with four black slaves for the journey. Two of the slaves die before reaching Winter Quarters. The other two are brothers, Oscar Crosby and Hark Lay, who are owned by different masters.

--January 22, 1847--

The Mormon Battalion arrives at San Diego, having walked 2,000 miles, the longest military march in history.  It has been an almost unimaginably difficult journey. The war is over, so they are assigned to garrison duty and civic improvement. 20 men have died on the journey due to sickness or injury, and all the men are nearly starved to death, but they have seen no armed conflict.

--April 5, 1847--

The advance pioneer party leaves Winter Quarters, led by Pres. Young. There are 148 in the party, including the four men from Mississippi and an additional black Mormon slave from the south already there (a friend of the other two) named Green Flake. Green remains faithful all his life, and later works as a servant in the home of Brigham Young.

(Green Flake)

--May 1847--

Seventeen saints from the group waiting at Pueblo watch two weeks for Brigham Young’s arrival on the trail at Fort Laramie.

--June 3, 1847--

Pres. Young’s advance team arrives at Fort Laramie. Those waiting from Pueblo join the group, and one of the apostles in the team, Amasa Lyman, goes to Pueblo to bring the rest to the Great Basin.

--June 30, 1847--

Sam Brannan, having made his way back from California, reports to Pres. Young at his camp along the trail. 

--July 16, 1847--

The Mormon Battalion is mustered out of service at Los Angeles and the men begin to make their way north.
Some head straight to the Salt Lake Valley to get on the trail back to Winter Quarters to get family.
Others go north to San Francisco to join with the Brooklyn saints in the biggest Mormon community in the west, and earn money to take back to Salt Lake. 

--July 22, 1847--

Happily surprised to find the cut-off from the Oregon Trail down to the Great Basin has already been blazed (by the Donner party, who were following bad advice about it being a great shortcut to California), the first advance party (including the three black slaves) arrives in Salt Lake Valley far ahead of schedule and immediately plants crops.
Two days later, on what is now celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah, Pres. Young’s party arrives in Salt Lake Valley. Sam Brannan teaches the Saints to make adobe bricks for houses, a skill he learned in California.

--September 8-11, 1847--

About 100 Battalion members find work building a saw mill for John Sutter on the American River near San Francisco.

--Autumn 1847--

The first Battalion members arrive in the Salt Lake Valley from
Los Angeles. They are able to teach the saints invaluable skills for desert farming and irrigation which they learned from the Pueblo Indians and the Mexicans as they toiled through the southwest.

--January 24, 1848--

Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill. The location of the biggest find is dubbed “Mormon Island” because of the Mormons who worked there. Word travels quickly by mouth and ship first to Oregon, Hawaii and Latin America. 

--March 15, 1848--

 The Californian newspaper publishes the first article proclaiming the discovery of gold. 

--June 10, 1848--

Sam Brannan's California Star publishes the cautiously optimistic opinion that there is room for another 50,000 prospectors without ruining the area. This news is dispatched back east by Mormon Battalion express riders. Four days later, they suspend publication so that the staff can rush to the gold fields themselves. Eventually tens of thousands around the world rush to California to get rich.

--Summer 1848--

Many more Mormon families emigrate. To avoid harassment from anti-Mormon pioneers, they travel on the north of the Platte River, rather than on the Oregon Trail to the south. This separation contributes to a better survival rate for the Mormons, thanks to the organization and cleanliness of their camps, and the avoidance of cholera contamination left behind
by Oregon Trail travelers.

--Summer 1848--

Insects, frost and drought destroy much of the crop in the Great Basin. The saints nearly starve through the winter. In the midst of this crisis, Heber C. Kimball, a counselor in the First Presidency, prophesies that “States’ goods would be sold in the streets of Salt Lake City cheaper than in New York, and that the people would be abundantly supplied with food and clothing.”

--1849--

The tools of the settlers in Salt Lake City are wearing out with no chance of replacement. The California Gold Rush brings many fortune-seekers out west. Merchants race from the east to make a profit off the prospectors; hearing that merchant ships have beat them to San Francisco, some overlanders change their minds, head down to Salt Lake City, and sell their wares at extremely low prices in order to lighten their loads and rush ahead to prospect for themselves. The prices are lower than in New York City by half. The presence of the prospectors also greatly inflates the prices the Mormon retailers and tradesmen can charge. In addition, prospectors drop tools and supplies all along the trail near Utah in order to lighten their loads and speed their journey, knowing they can buy more in California. Mormon men go along the trail and pick up amazing amounts of tools, wagons, stoves, even food like beans and bacon. It’s another “table in the wilderness.”

--May 25, 1849--

Apostle Amasa Lyman arrives in San Francisco and encourages the Brooklyn saints to come to the Salt Lake Valley. Increasing lawlessness in California provides additional incentive. Besides gold-prospecting, Mormons have made money from the prospectors themselves. Alondus Buckland sells his Buckland House hotel, situated on a corner lot in downtown San Francisco, for an estimated $10,000, donating some to the Church and using some to emigrate his extended family and the rest of his hometown back east.

--July 14, 1849--

The wagon company, later known as “The Gold Train,” leaves for Utah, heavily loaded with gold. It is a dangerous journey, as the company dodges would-be thieves on the busy road.

About 1/3 of the Brooklyn saints eventually leave California to resettle in Utah.

--September 28, 1849--

“The Gold Train” arrives in Salt Lake City, and nearly $15,000 is deposited in the Church’s bank account. With this money, Pres. Young establishes the Perpetual Emigration Fund which funds the emigration of an additional 100,000 saints over the following years, mostly from Europe.

-----

60,000-70,000 Mormon pioneers eventually emigrate over land
until 1869 when the transcontinental railroad is completed. 

Most of them are converts from the European Mission.

The death rate among the Mormon pioneers is unknown, but is estimated at less than 10% (including the Martin/Willie handcart disaster, and the deaths at Winter Quarters). This is about 5% lower than other pioneers, despite the fact that Mormon wagon trains consisted of many more inexperienced travelers; old, disabled or ill people; and families with young children.

Sarah Leavitt was right. The Lord did prepare a table in the wilderness.

Bibliography

•Stewart R. Wyatt, Sacrament meeting talk, Boise, Idaho, 22 July 2012

•Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt, personal history

•William G. Hartley, “The Pioneer Trek: Nauvoo to Winter Quarters,” Ensign, June 1997

•Joan S. Hamblin, “Voyage of the Brooklyn,” Ensign, July 1997

•Leonard J. Arrington, “Mississippi Mormons,” Ensign, June 1977

•Mormon Battalion Fact Sheet, MormonNewsroom.org

•Susan Easton Black, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, July 1998

•William G. Hartley, “On the Trail in September," Ensign, September 1997

•"The Excitement and Enthusiasm of Gold Washing Still Continues--Increases," California Star, accessed at  The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco

•Clair L. Wyatt, The True Story of Nancy Laura Aldrich: Ship Brooklyn Pioneer, 2000

•Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846-1848, Deseret Book

•Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray, One More River to Cross, Deseret Book

•Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, Deseret Book

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Doctrine and Covenants 136, part 2: Rescuing the Saints

Rescuing the Nauvoo Saints

We often hear of the rescue of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies (in fact, that is the topic of next week's lesson) but seldom do we hear about the many other rescues among the pioneer companies both before and after that.

Long before the Saints left for the Great Basin, in the October 1839 conference, Brigham Young proposed to the saints that they promise to “stand by and assist each other to the utmost of our abilities in removing from [the state of Missouri], and that we will never desert the poor who are worthy…”  

This “Missouri Covenant” had been signed by 214 saints.  Now they made a similar covenant to help the Saints out of Jackson County, Missouri, which they kept.

In 1845, persecutions in Illinois became so great that President Young (president of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles) proposed a similar covenant, this one called "The Nauvoo Covenant," and it passed unanimously.  Their promise was to remove each other and all their brothers and sisters out of the reach of the exterminating order issued by Governor Boggs.  He then promised, “If you will be faithful to your covenant, I will now prophesy that the great God will shower down means upon this people, to accomplish it to the very letter.” 

Photo from Family Search

More than 11,000 members departed Nauvoo in small groups.  They crossed Iowa and camped along the Missouri River, over 300 miles from their former home.  Remaining in Nauvoo were hundreds who lacked the means to leave, either financially or physically.  Many were new arrivals who had expected Nauvoo to be the end of their journey.  Orville M. Allen was charged with heading up a rescue company to return to Nauvoo.   He took 20 wagons and a few men, collecting more provisions along the way as they could.

While Brother Allen was on his trek across Iowa, armed men entered Nauvoo and forced the remaining poor and sick men, women and children across the Mississippi River into the wilderness of Iowa.  Therefore when the rescue team arrived at these so-called “Poor Camps” (present-day Montrose) that October, they were astonished and overwhelmed by the need.  Poverty-stricken themselves, they found their brothers and sisters in dire circumstances.  How could they follow their commitment and rescue the 300 or more people they found, when they had used all they had to rescue so many others so recently?  They had done their best, and it was not nearly enough.  But the Lord honored these covenant-keeping men and, as Brigham Young had promised, He literally “showered down means to accomplish” the task.  Three days after the arrival of the rescue (the word after is key here—it was after they had kept their covenant, after they had done all they could) a miracle occurred.  All morning and into the afternoon, flocks of quail flew near the camps and simply flopped around on the ground.  They did not run or fly away, but just waited for the starving saints to pick them up in their hands.  Soon they had all the meat they could desire to eat. 

About 3:00 in the afternoon, the quail stopped coming.  Right then, Church trustees who had been working in Nauvoo to sell property arrived with shoes, clothing, molasses, salt pork, and salt as well as $100 they had received from non-Mormon citizens they had solicited up and down the Mississippi River. 

About 4:30, Captain Allen started the return trip, taking 157 people and 28 wagons.  (They used the wagons that had been in the Poor Camp as well as the ones he had brought.)  A second rescue team arrived at the end of October to bring the rest.  About 300 saints from the Poor Camps were rescued by their brothers.  (William G. Hartley, “How Shall I Gather?” Ensign, October 1997, p. 5-9)

The Rescue from Iowa

All of the saints had been rescued, but to what?  To the entirely inadequate camp they called Winter Quarters in Nebraska.  D&C 136 was received in the dead of winter with instructions on how to organize the trek.  The vanguard wagon trains headed for the Great Basin the following spring, but many, many saints were left behind, wondering how they would ever make the trip to Zion.

A committee was sent to Washington to seek government employment for financing the move to the west, headed by Jesse C. Little.  President James Polk finally agreed to enlist 500 Mormon men to march west and fight in the Mexican War.  They were to blaze trails along the way.  Each recruit would receive $42 for his uniform, which each of them immediately turned over to the church and marched in his own clothing.  Altogether, the Mormon Battalion brought over $50,000 to the church for their one-year enlistment; the equivalent in today’s U.S. dollars would be around $1.5 million.  (Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, p. 21)

Another miracle occurred.  Mormon Battalion members, having completed their enlistment, traveled north from San Diego to northern California where a group of L.D.S. members were now living and prospering. In fact, at the end of 1846, most of the white settlers in California were Mormon. How did they get west ahead of the rest of the saints?  Coincidentally on the very same day the Nauvoo saints had crossed the Missouri River, these impoverished saints had set sail from New York Harbor on the chartered Ship Brooklyn, sailed nearly to Africa before they found winds to carry them around Cape Horn, back up to Chile and nearly out to Hawaii, before finally blowing back to a northern California settlement.  It was an experiment in a cheaper way to get west than overland travel, but the trip was fearsome and treacherous and was not attempted again.  The town of Yerba Buena swelled to a small city with their arrival.  Today it is called San Francisco.  (Joan S. Hamblin, "Voyage of 'The Brooklyn'," Ensign, July 1997) 

About 80 members of the Mormon Battalion found work there while waiting for Brigham Young to come west.  Some worked at Sutter’s Mill.  The rest is history:  The California Gold Rush of 1949!  In fact, it was a Mormon, Sam Brannan, who published the news of the gold discovery to the rest of the U.S. in his newspaper, The California Star, as a 2-inch filler on an inside page.  Mormon Battalion members were hired as express riders to deliver the paper to the major cities back east, hoping to promote growth.  (Church video, "A Legacy More Precious Than Gold".)  The Mormons just wanted to get back to their families and were waiting for Brigham Young’s call, but in the meantime, they discovered the fabulous “Mormon Island,” the richest find of the gold rush.  (California Pioneer) 

The Salt Lake economy swelled as prospectors passed through, and the Brooklyn saints got rich in San Francisco, both from gold and from the booming economy.  Alondus D. Buckland built a hotel called “The Buckland House” on the corner of Kearny and Pacific in San Francisco.  When President Young called the Brooklyn Saints back to Salt Lake City, a corner lot was worth $10,000.  Alondus left California with Thomas Rhoads’ company, later nicknamed “The Gold Train,” bringing altogether $30,000-40,000 in gold with them.  (Okay, have to brag:  Alondus is my ancestor and I’m proud of him.)  Over $80,000 came into the church’s accounts between 1848 and 1851 from the California Saints.  (Stewart R Wyatt, “The Life and Times of Alondus de Lafayette Buckland, p. 24-29.  His source on the dollar amount is J. Kenneth Davies, Mormon Gold: The Story of California’s Mormon Argonauts, p. xv.) 

Another great miracle occurred.  The pioneers had now been in Salt Lake City a couple of years, were running out of supplies and their tools were wearing out.  Salt Lake City Fourth Ward Bishop Benjamin Brown published the story of this miracle:

“There we were, completely shut out from the world…the first shop was a thousand miles off…

“Information of the great discovery of gold in California had reached the States, and large companies were formed for the purpose of supplying the gold diggers with food and clothing and implements of every kind for digging, etc…In fact, these persons procured just the things they would have done, had they been forming companies purposely for relieving the Saints, and had they determined to do it as handsomely as unlimited wealth would allow.

“When these companies, after crossing the plains, arrived within a short distance of Salt Lake City, news reached them that ships had been dispatched from many parts of the world, fitted out with goods for California.  This threatened to flood the market.  The companies feared that the sale of their goods would not repay the expense of conveyance.  Here was a ‘fix’—the companies were too far from the States to take their goods back, and they would not pay to carry them through, and when to this was added the fact, that the companies were half crazy to leave trading, and turn gold diggers themselves, it will easily be seen how naturally the difficulty solved itself into the decision which they actually came to—‘Oh here are these Mormons, let us sell the goods to them.’  Accordingly they brought them into the Valley, and disposed of them…at least at half the price for which the goods could have been purchased in the states.”  (Arrington, p. 67)

In addition, the trail from Fort Laramie, Wyoming to Salt Lake City was littered with abandoned items, which Mormon teams collected for nothing.  Howard Standsbury reported collecting:

• 11 broken wagons
• bar-iron and steel
• large blacksmiths’ anvils and bellows
• crowbars
• drills
• augers
• gold-washers
• chisels
• axes
• lead
• trunks
• spades
• ploughs
• large grindstones
• baking-ovens
• cooking-stoves “without number”
• kegs
• barrels
• harness
• clothing
• bacon
• beans

These, he said, “were found along the road in pretty much the order in which they have been here enumerated…In the course of this one day [July 27, 1849] the relics of 17 wagons and the carcasses of 27 dead oxen have been seen.”  (Arrington, p. 70)

The needs of the 49er’s traveling through Salt Lake greatly inflated the prices of goods the Mormons could offer them, as well.

The infusion of money to the church economy allowed the First Presidency to implement a wonderful new plan:  The Perpetual Emigration Fund.  Once again, it was October Conference 1849, when this new rescue plan was approved as the leaders asked, “Shall we fulfill the covenant, or shall we not?”  The announcement was issued by the First Presidency on October 12^th, 1849:  “Ye poor and meek of the earth, lift up your heads and rejoice in the Holy One of Israel, for your redemption draweth nigh…but in your rejoicings be patient, for though your turn to emigrate may not be the first year, or even the second, it will come, and its tarrying will be short, if all the Saints who have, will be as liberal as those in the valley.”

The first PEF wagon train was organized in 1850.  The first year’s funds of $5,000 were taken to Iowa, and used to purchase livestock for the journey back to Salt Lake City.  The livestock was then sold, and that money was taken back to Iowa and the process repeated.  After just one year of operation, the PEF had nearly $20,000.

In 1852, 10,000 saints came to Utah from the Missouri River area, and “all the exiles from Nauvoo who wished to come had been removed to Zion,” and “the obligations of the Nauvoo pledge of 1846 had been faithfully discharged.”  (Hartley, p. 9-10)

Why so hard?

It was less than 20 years later that the transcontinental railroad was completed, making overland travel so much easier.  Why did the Lord not inspire and implement the faster and easier transportation of trains at the time of the Mormon Exodus, when it was so desperately needed?

The Lord was not simply interested in getting the pioneers out west.  He was interested in making saints of the pioneers.  The difficult process of gathering to Zion provided a refining process.  Not all made the cut:  Scattered along the Mormon Trail are not only the graves of those who died getting to the earthly Zion, but many casualties of spiritual infirmities.  Some saints gave up and stayed behind or turned back along the way.  Those who pushed through the challenges of conversion, persecution and migration could weather any storm.  Part of this refining process was brought about by the great effort required of the saints to rescue each other and bring all to Zion while in poverty themselves.

The Rescue Today

It is not enough for us today to be converted ourselves, or to reach financial prosperity ourselves.  After his terrible ordeal on the Brooklyn, his building role in San Francisco, his gathering with the saints in Salt Lake City, and his contributions to the Church funds, Alondus Buckland returned overland with a great deal of his money, fulfilled a mission in the east, and then returned as captain of a wagon train of 200 people, including his friends, converts and family members who had not been able to afford passage on the Brooklyn, financing much of their supplies himself.  On the return journey, he died of cholera and was wrapped in a sheet and buried in a trunk as a makeshift coffin.  He gave his all for the cause of Zion, leaving a great example for us.  (Wyatt, p. 34-37)

Alondus deLafayette Buckland

Even in our weaknesses, even in our poverty, we must turn around and rescue our brothers.  We cannot sit in our church and ignore the spiritually or physically needy.  We may not  know how their rescue will be accomplished, but if we heed the call and start along the trail, the Lord will “shower down blessings from heaven” and means will appear.  All we must do is our wholly inadequate best.

(At this point, you may be able to tell that I'm a little bit of a pioneer nerd...and I still have more to post...)

Doctrine and Covenants 136, Part 1: Black Saints; Choosing Joy in Hard Times

 MOVING ON FROM TRAGEDY

When the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed, most of the apostles were on missions to the eastern United States, including Parley P. Pratt. The only two in Illinois were Willard Richards and John Taylor, both of whom had been with Joseph and Hyrum at Carthage. Parley was the first to return, having been “constrained by the Spirit” to head back to Nauvoo from New York before he had planned to. While on a canal boat, enroute,

“…a strange and solemn awe came over me, as if the powers of hell were let loose. I was so overwhelmed with sorrow I could hardly speak; and after pacing the deck for some time in silence, I turned to my brother William and exclaimed—'Brother William, this is a dark hour; the powers of darkness seem to triumph, and the spirit of murder is abroad in the land, and it controls the hearts of the American people, and a vast majority of them sanction the killing of the innocent.' ……This was June 27^th, 1844, in the afternoon, and as near as I can judge, it was the same hour that the Carthage mob were shedding the blood of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and John Taylor, near one thousand miles distant.”

All of the other members of the quorum reported feeling a terrible sadness on that day. In Wisconsin, passengers boarded the boat Parley was on, gloating over the news that Joseph and Hyrum had been killed. When Parley got off in Chicago, he found a great hubbub as the press was issuing extras “announcing the triumph of the murderous mob in killing the Smiths.”

“I felt so weighed down with sorrow and the powers of darkness that it was painful for me to…speak to any one, or even to try to eat or sleep. I really felt that if it had been my own family who had died, and our beloved Prophet been spared alive, I could have borne it…I had loved Joseph with a warmth of affection indescribable for about 14 years. I had associated with him in private and in public, in travels and at home, in joy and sorrow, in honor and dishonor, in adversity of every kind…But now he was gone to the invisible world, and we and the Church of the Saints were left to mourn in sorrow and without the presence of our beloved founder and Prophet.

“As I walked along over the plains of Illinois, lonely and solitary, I reflected as follows: …in a day or two I shall be there. How shall I meet the sorrowing widows and orphans? How shall I meet the aged and widowed mother…? How shall I console and advise 25,000 people who will throng about me in tears, and in the absence of my President and the older members of the now-presiding council, will ask counsel at my hands? …When I could endure it no longer, I cried aloud, saying: O Lord! In the name of Jesus Christ I pray Thee, show me what these things mean, and what I shall say to Thy people? On a sudden the Spirit of God came upon me, and filled my heart with joy and gladness indescribable, and while the spirit of revelation glowed in my bosom with as visible a warmth and gladness as if it were fire, the Spirit said unto me: ‘Lift up your head and rejoice; for behold! It is well with my servants Joseph and Hyrum…Go and say unto my people in Nauvoo, that they shall continue to pursue their daily duties and take care of themselves, and make no movement in Church government to reorganize or alter anything until the return of the remainder of the Quorum of the Twelve. But exhort them that they continue to build the House of the Lord…’

“This information caused my bosom to burn with joy and gladness and I was comforted above measure; all my sorrow seemed in a moment to be lifted as a burden from my back.” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 292-294) (A timeline of Parley's life with brief and interesting notes is available at Jared Pratt Family Website.)

At a time of great trial, the commandment to Parley was to “lift up your head and rejoice,” and the comforting presence of the Spirit made it possible to obey that commandment. “Lift” is a verb, requiring action. To lift your head would imply that you would be looking upward, towards heaven, or seeing with an eternal perspective. It would also imply that you would be looking forward at what to do next, rather than backward in regret. When you lift up your head symbolically, rejoicing then will naturally follow.

WE ARE COMMANDED TO CHOOSE JOY

Candy Jars Guessing Game:  Prepare small jars with the following numbers of candies such as M&Ms in them: 13, 195, 117, 197, 351, 410. Write the words below on the chalkboard (without the corresponding numbers). Ask class members to write on their paper scraps how many times they think each word is found in the scriptures. Then tell them the jars of M&Ms correspond to each word. The closest guess to each word count wins the jar with that number of M&Ms.  For extra insight into latter-day church history, I have included in parentheses how many of those are found in the D&C.

Sad/Sadness --13 (1 in D&C)

Sorrow--195 (8 in D&C*)

Weep--117 (9 in D&C**)

Glad/Gladness—197 (21 in D&C)

Joy—351 (34 in D&C)

Rejoice—410 (42 in D&C)

*Half of these refer to the wicked. The others counsel saints regarding sorrow, promise no sorrow, or are prayers offered in behalf of the sorrowing saints.

**One of these 9 refers to weeping for joy. 7 of them refer to the wicked.

The message is clear: The gospel is a message of gladness.

2 Nephi 2:25 – “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy.” Ours is a doctrine of rejoicing.

D&C 133:42-44 – “O Lord, thou shalt come down to make thy name known to thine adversaries, and all nations shall tremble at thy presence— When thou doest terrible things, things they look not for; Yea, when thou comest down, and the mountains flow down at thy presence, thou shalt meet him who rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, who remembereth thee in thy ways.” This scripture gives a definition of saints caught up to meet Christ in the last days:  They are 1) rejoicing, 2) working righteousness, 3) remembering Christ and his ways.

D&C 112:4 – “Let thy heart be of good cheer before my face; and thou shalt bear record of my name, not only unto the Gentiles, but also unto the Jews; and thou shalt send forth my word unto the ends of the earth.” This scripture implies that you must be of good cheer to be a missionary.

D&C 107:22-24 – “Of the Melchizedek Priesthood, three Presiding High Priests, chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church, form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church. The twelve traveling councilors are called to be the Twelve Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world—thus differing from other officers in the church in the duties of their calling. And they form a quorum, equal in authority and power to the three presidents previously mentioned.”  This revelation told the saints that the Quorum of Twelve Apostles had all the authority needed to run the Church in Joseph's absence.

THE MISSISSIPPI PIONEERS

And so Brigham Young led the saints west. Although he fully intended to make the trek in 1846, they actually began April 8, 1847, for reasons noted below.

Brigham Young started out from Winter Quarters with 143 men, 3 women and 2 children, but he ended up in the Salt Lake Valley with more than that, and it has to do with some amazing converts from a largely unproductive mission to the Southern States. This is their very little-known (although well-documented) story and it’s very interesting to hear.

 Picture from Orson Pratt Brown Family website

In 1843, John Brown, a convert from Tennessee who had gathered to Nauvoo, was called on a mission to the South. Generally speaking, the South was very infertile ground for missionary work, but in one place, he and the other missionaries found a motherlode: Monroe County, Mississippi. 150-200 people were converted, most of them related to each other. John married one of them.

He was called back to Nauvoo after the martyrdom to work on the Temple. When the 1846 exodus began, John was sent back to Mississippi to gather the saints there into the fold and help them cross the plains. He left for Mississippi (a 1,000-mile trip) in January in snow and storm. He collected 43 people and 19 wagons and they left their homes on April 8^th. His father-in-law, William Crosby, led the train.

In Independence, they heard wild rumors about Mormons committing atrocities on the Oregon Trail, so they assumed the saints had gone west. They joined with a six-wagon party of Oregon Trailers at Independence and picked up a few other Latter-day Saints and headed out across the plains to meet  Brigham Young. They got to the Platte River and there was no Brigham Young. They stopped for one day to think it over, and decided he must have gone on and they pressed full speed ahead to catch up. They suffered all kinds of difficulties, but made it nearly halfway to the Great Basin before they found out that there were no Mormons ahead of them on the trail (Leonard J. Arrington, “Mississippi Mormons,” Ensign, June 1977; also Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place, p. 172-173).

Now, of course, Brigham Young had fully intended to go west that year, 1846, in an advance wagon train, but the saints didn't want him to leave them; they tried to keep up with him, and by doing so, they slowed him greatly.

 “Our president don’t stick [hesitate] at anything that tends to advance the gathering of Israel, or promote the cause of Zion in these last days,” wrote Thomas Bullock, clerk to the twelve. “He sleeps with one eye open and one foot out of bed, and when anything is wanted, he is on hand and his counselors are all of one heart with him in all things” (quoted in Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place, p. 59). 

Brigham and the other leaders—Heber C. Kimball, etc.—had a year’s supply of food in their wagons, but it was quickly depleted since many others had not taken that counsel in their zeal. In addition, the terribly muddy weather slowed their travel unbelievably. The Mormon Battalion had been called up for a year’s duty, and the use of the funds they would be paid for their service would be very beneficial to the trek.  So they had camped at Winter Quarters, with groups of saints strung out in encampments all along the trail in Iowa.

So when John Brown and his company were beyond Chimney Rock, they met John Richards (pronounce REE-shaw), a French trapper who told them there were no Mormons on the trail ahead. They decided to winter on the trail rather than go back. John Richards invited them to stay at Fort Pueblo, Colorado with him. Fort Pueblo was occupied by 6-8 mountain men and their Spanish and Indian wives. The Mormons built a little community of log homes outside the church/school. With their Southern gentility, they hosted dances there and invited the mountain men, but they didn’t forget to be missionaries: When the mountain men arrived to dance with the fair Southern belles, they found they had to listen to a gospel sermon first! 

John Brown headed back east to meet with President Young and reached Winter Quarters in October. That same month, 154 Mormon Battalion members, discharged because of illness, arrived from the southwest to winter at Fort Pueblo. Their captain was none other than another of the missionaries who had converted many of the Mississippi saints, James Brown. They built 18 more cabins for the Battalion.

Arriving back at Winter Quarters, John Brown received word from Brigham Young not to bring the rest of the converts still in Mississippi west that year. Instead he was to handpick a few strong men to join Brigham’s vanguard company which would be traveling west that spring. So John headed south, in January again, where he picked 4 white men and 4 Black men who were enslaved to them. Two of the Black men died along the way (Arrington). The two remaining were brothers Oscar Crosby, 32, and Hark Lay, 22. They had different last names because they had different masters. Oscar “belonged” to John’s father-in-law, William Crosby, and had been converted through James Brown’s missionary efforts (the Battalion Leader). William Crosby had shared the gospel with the Lays, Hark’s masters. (Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray, One More River to Cross, p. 257. Note: I highly recommend this trilogy of books about early Black Latter-day Saints: Standing on the Promises.. Darius Gray is a past president of the Church's Genesis group for Black members, started in 1973 before the removal of the priesthood ban.)

At Winter Quarters, the two were joined by another Black slave, 19-year-old Green Flake, who was a friend of theirs, and had gone to Nauvoo with his master, James Flake. Green had been baptized at the age of 16 by John Brown. 

“It may strike you as funny that a Brown baptized a black named Green, but that’s how it was—colorful.” (Young/Gray,  p. 249)

 

Green Flake remained a faithful Latter-day Saint

all his life 

At this point I need to interject that some of the early saints felt that slave-owning was acceptable if the slaves (or what they euphemistically called “colored servants”) were treated kindly, since there was counsel in the Bible on how slaves and masters should treat each other. Slavery had been an institution in every civilization since the beginning of the world. It was a confusing time in the pre-Emancipation Proclamation United States in that respect. Utah was not a state and was neither "slave" nor "free." 

Actually, it was quite remarkable for that time that the missionaries even taught the gospel to Black slaves (with the permission of their masters); it was remarkable that they considered them children of God. Sadly they generally were not considered as quite the same class, though, even after they joined the Church. For instance, while white saints were called by their last names (Sister Smith), Black saints were called by their first (Sister Jane), following the manner of address given to slaves and servants. Still, many Church members loved their “servants” almost as dearly as family members.

When Green Flake’s master left the south for Nauvoo upon his baptism, he offered freedom to all of his slaves, but Green chose to remain with him as a slave, along with two of his friends. Later in life, Green Flake became a (free) servant of Brigham Young’s (Young/Gray, p. 256).

Hark, true to his name, had a beautiful singing voice, and he and Green would often sing together. The Negro Spirituals floated across the plains, along with “Come, Come, Ye Saints?” Hark would also dance a mean jig to the music of the fiddle playing in the evenings (Young/Gray).  

The names of Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby are immortalized as members of the first Mormon pioneer company on the Brigham Young monument which was first displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair (Wikipedia), then was installed in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah at the intersection of Main and South Temple Streets, and now sits at the entrance to This Is The Place State Park.

Brigham Young's wagon train left Winter Quarters on April 8, 1847, and reached Fort Laramie on June 3. Seventeen of the Pueblo Saints had been there waiting and watching for them for 2 weeks and were ecstatic to recognize from a distance the apostles leading the wagon train. Apostle Amasa Lyman was sent to gather up the rest of the members still in Pueblo and bring them to the Great Basin. The body of Mississippi Saints arrived in Salt Lake 5 days after Brigham Young’s vanguard group, but the three Black men were in Brigham Young's party.  The main group arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, and Brigham (since he was in the sick group that went a little slower) on July 24 (now celebrated as a state holiday, Pioneer Day). Black men were actually in Salt Lake Valley before President Young.

After helping plant and build and settle, John Brown and his party headed back east on August 26 to get the rest of the Mississippi Saints, traveling with Brigham Young as far as Winter Quarters. Once again, John Brown arrived in Mississippi in the dead of winter--December this time--and immediately made preparations to cross the plains for the fifth time in less than two years. He and his converts left Mississippi on March 10, 1848. There were 13 families, including 56 white saints and 34 Black. They arrived in Salt Lake City in October, bringing the total population of the Valley to about 200 white and 37 Black Mississippi saints.

The first Mormon community in Utah outside of Salt Lake City was settled by these Saints. It was called Cottonwood and is presently called Holladay after one of the Mississippians who was bishop there. In March of 1851, the Mississippi Saints were sent to colonize Southern California with Charles Rich. They founded the city of San Bernardino. Later, many of them helped colonize Southern Utah and Arizona as well.

The Mississippi Saints were classy, as well as being hard workers. They raised the level of frontier society with their Southern drawl, hospitality, and etiquette. They were also excellent record keepers and even recorded funny incidents. 

“One of the children at the school in San Bernardino asked the teacher how to spell rat. The teacher replied ‘R-A-T.’ The child said, ‘I don’t mean mousy rat. Anybody knows how to spell that! What I mean is like in “do it rat now!”’”

Very likely the first Black teacher of white children in the United States was Latter-day Saint Alice Rowan Johnson, who taught in Riverside, California, and was the daughter of two of the enslaved people who had come west with John Brown (Arrington).

CHOOSING JOY

The road west was rough for the Latter-day Saint pioneers, no doubt. But “while many wept at the inexplicable tragedy of it all, others chose deliberately to wear a happier face.  ‘How can I go without you?’ inquired Irene Hascall of her non-supportive parents in New England. “Or how can you stay behind?...Do not worry anything about it, there will be some way.  I suppose father would not like to travel across the Rocky Mountains but I should think he might like it real well for he can hunt all the way. I think probably [we] will cross the Rocky Mountains to a healthier climate. What good times we will have journeying and pitching our tents like the Israelites” (Bennett, p. 23). Irene was a happy camper.

Helen Mar Whitney was buoyed by the beauties of nature as she trekked.  “This day the sky was cloudless and beautiful, and I was happy…Our tent was pitched on a gentle slope, and below, some distance away, was a crystal stream of water babbling over the rocks down through a little grove of trees and willows, where I accompanied [my husband] Horace the next day, Sunday, to fish, taking along our books to read.  This was his favorite pastime, and in which he indulged every opportunity.  This was the most delightful spot we had seen, the whole landscape around us was lovely, they called it rolling prairie, and it had such a variety of hills and dales, all dressed anew in their bright velvety robes of spring.

“The first morning I took an early stroll to enjoy the scene, and I was almost enchanted as I stood there alone gazing at the glorious sight as the sun was peeping over the hills—and to lend more to the scene of enchantment here came a beautiful fawn and also an antelope, skipping fearlessly over hill and dale and out of sight, with naught to disturb them nor the peace and tranquility of my thoughts…” (Helen Mar Whitney, A Woman’s View,p. 363-364).

Once Irene Hascall arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, she wrote to her parents again, “This is our place of residence.  It is in the midst of the rocky mountains surrounded on every side by impassable mountains and just one passage in and another on the west side which will not take much labor to stop an army of ten thousand.  Now let the mobbers rage.  The Lord has provided this place for us and if we are faithful the trouble and calamities of the Gentile nation will not harm.” [Truer words were never spoken, as the expulsion from Missouri completely removed the saints, both black and white, from the one of the greatest hotbeds of destruction in the Civil War.  For a fascinating tangent, see The Civil War in Missouri and Illinois.]  “When all is past we will step forth from our hiding place…I wish you would come and stay with us.  You would if you could see the future” (Bennett, p. 351).

Parley P. Pratt chose joy and the presence of the Spirit at the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, when he was “weighed down as it were unto death.”

Hark Lee and Green Flake sang and danced their way across the plains, though they were slaves.

Helen Mar Whitney chose to rejoice in nature, rather than whine about sore feet.

We would do well to carry the optimism after tragedy that these saints possessed.  Paraphrasing the words of Irene Hascall, “[We] would if [we] could see the future.”

Doctrine and Covenants 135

PARALLELS IN THE LIVES OF JESUS CHRIST AND JOSEPH SMITH

I suggest you read the list below without the title and ask your class who is being described.  If you want more participation, print out and cut up the items and pass them among class members to read aloud.

• He was foreordained and his mission was prophecied of thousands of years before his birth. 
• He was born of goodly parents and raised in a righteous home.
• He was born into poverty and stayed poor all of his life.
• He had many siblings.
• As a young teen, his spiritual vision confounded and surpassed that of religious leaders of the day.
• He traveled through the country preaching the new truths of the gospel.
• He depended upon others for room and board.
• He trained twelve apostles to help in the ministry.
• His actions directly affected our salvation
• He called those who followed him "brothers" and "friends."
• He treated children, women, and minorities with unusual kindness (for the culture in which he lived).
• He revolutionized religion and by so doing alienated himself from religious leaders.
• He was subject to temptation but was not overcome.
• He was never allowed much privacy because of his fame.
• He performed many miracles: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, casting out devils.
• He was visited by angels.
• He was betrayed by friends.
• He was tried illegally and unjustly, convicted of crimes he did not commit.
• He prophesied of his own death repeatedly, yet it was still a shock to his followers.
• He went of his own free will to his death.
• He was comforted by friends and the singing of hymns in his last hours.
• He was martyred in the prime of his life, leaving his widowed mother to the care of others.
• The church was in turmoil at his death.
• At the time of his death, his vision for the church was only in its infancy.
• After his death, he appeared to church leaders to give them added counsel and direction.
• No one who met him had a neutral opinion of him: they either loved him or despised him, or sometimes they did both--one after the other.
• Some who testified passionately of his divine calling later denied the testimony.
• He forgave even those who turned against him or persecuted him even unto death.

EYE-WITNESS DESCRIPTIONS OF JOSEPH SMITH

Parley P. Pratt described Joseph Smith thus:

"President Joseph Smith was in person tall and well built, strong and active, of light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, very little beard, and of an expression peculiar to himself, on which the eye naturally rested with interest, and was never weary of beholding.  His countenance was ever mild, affable, beaming with intelligence and benevolence; mingled with a look of interest and an unconscious smile, or cheerfulness, and entirely free from all restraint or affectation of gravity; and there was something connected with this serene and steady penetrating glance of his eye, as if he would penetrate the deepest abyss of the human heart, gaze into eternity, penetrate the heavens, and comprehend all worlds.

"He possessed a noble boldness and independence of character; his manner was easy and familiar; his rebuke terrible as the lion; his benevolence unbounded as the ocean; his intelligence universal, and his language abounding in original eloquence peculiar to himself--not polished--not studied--not smoothed and softened by education and refined by art; but flowing forth in its own native simplicity, and profusely abounding in variety of subject and manner.  He interested and edified, while, at the same time, he amused and entertained his audience; and none listened to him that were ever weary with his discourse.  I have even known him to retain a congregation of willing and anxious listeners for many hours together, in the midst of cold or sunshine, rain or wind, while they were laughing at one moment and weeping the next.  Even his most bitter enemies were generally overcome, if he could once get their ears" (Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 31-32).

A former mayor of Boston, Josiah Quincy, who visited Joseph Smith just a few months before Joseph was killed wrote:

"It is by no means improbable that some future textbook for the use of generations yet unborn will contain a question like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?  And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written:  Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.  And the reply, as absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants...Fanatic, imposter, charlatan, he may have been; but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents to us.

"Born in the lowest ranks of poverty, without book-learning, and with the homeliest of all human names, he had made himself at the age of 39 a power upon earth, His influence, whether for good or for evil, is potent today, and the end is not yet.  If the reader does not known just what to make of Joseph Smith, I cannot help him out of the difficulty.  I myself stand helpless before the puzzle"  (B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 2:349-50, also quoted in Kelly, Latter-day History..., p. 271).

A correspondent to the New York Herald stopped by Nauvoo, a place he called the nucleus of a Western Empire, and wrote the following description of the prophet:

"Joseph Smith, the president of the Church, prophet, seer and revelator, is 36 years of age, six feet high in [heels], weighing 212 pounds.  He is a man of the highest order of talent and great independence of character--firm in integrity, and devoted to his religion; in fact, he is a per-se, as President Tyler would say.  As a public speaker he is bold, powerful and convincing...as a leader, wise and prudent, yet fearless as a military commander; brave and determined as a citizen, worthy, affable and kind; bland in his manners, and of noble bearing.  His amiable lady, too, the electa cyria, is a woman of superior intellect and exemplary piety--in every respect suited to her situation in society, as the wife of one of the most accomplished and powerful chiefs of the age.

"Hyrum Smith, the patriarch of the Church and brother of Joseph, is 42 years of age, five feet, eleven and a half inches high, weighing 193 pounds.  He, too, is a prophet, seer and revelator, and is one of the most pious and devout Christians in the world.  He is a man of great wisdom and superior excellence, possessing great energy of character and originality of thought"  (Holzapfel, A Woman's View: Helen Mary Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History, p. 147-148).

There is an excellent church video that coordinates with this lesson that could be played at this point:  "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" from the video collection "Teachings from the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History."  (This is not the hour-long movie the church made, but a 13-minute clip.  Please see Lanise's comment at the end of this post for directions on downloading it from the Church's website. Thanks, Lanise!)

DISCUSSION

What impresses you the most about Joseph Smith?

THE PROPHET'S HYMN

In conclusion, you may want to sing, or have performed, the hymn "Praise to the Man."  The lyricist of this hymn was William W. Phelps.  Brother Phelps had been a stalwart member of the church, helping to print The Book of Commandments, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the first hymnbook, contributing $500 to the building of the Kirtland Temple, and writing "The Spirit of God" for its dedication, but when questions arose regarding his mismanagement of the purchase of lands in Missouri for the Saints, he was excommunicated.  For two years, he was one of the Prophet's bitterest enemies, inflicting great harm upon the church and contributing substantially to a sentence to prison.  But Brother Phelps fast realized his error and sought forgiveness in a letter to Joseph Smith.  President Smith read the letter to the congregation of the church and then sent this reply to him:

"It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior--the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us...'Had it been an enemy, we could have borne it'...'Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first, are friends again at last..."  (quoted in Gordon B. Hinckley, April 2006 General Conference; also see Susan E. Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, p. 224-225).

Elder Phelps once again began publishing for the prophet, served as his spokesman, and rode with the prophet to Carthage, also visiting him in the Carthage Jail on the morning of his death.  Shortly after the martyrdom, he wrote this hymn.

Praise to the Man is Hymn no. 27 available at this link.  Many lovely recordings of the hymn can be found on YouTube, including one by the MTC Choir (5 minutes long).

FURTHER RESOURCE

Wikipedia has an article which contains a lot of historical details about the martyrdom at this link.

Doctrine and Covenants 133-134

THE ELEPHANT IN THE SECTION

Rather than providing lesson material for all of Sections 133-134, this post will focus solely on the verse in Section 134 that "Come, Follow Me" did not mention: 

"...we do not believe it right to interfere with ^bbond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in ^cservitude" (D&C 134:12).

I'm sure you all know that "bond-servants" is a euphamism for "slaves." 

Wow. 

I don't feel competent to address this topic. I'm Danish and English. I don't have the perspective of Black or Native American Saints. None of my ancestors were enslaved. I recently discovered one was a slaveholder, which appalls me! But despite my lack of experience, I feel it would be worse to ignore this verse than to write something with flaws. So if you are Black or Native American, please give me your grace as you read my bumbling efforts, and please feel free to share any helpful insights or perspectives in the comments (if you are on a computer--phones don't have the option).

THE CRIME OF SLAVERY

Today when we discover someone has been held captive and forced to labor for another (a case of which was just discovered today by police in my home state of Utah), we are aghast, appalled, incensed, and our stomachs literally turn. And rightly so! It's insane for "civilized," "cultured," rich, educated people to think that it is okay to enslave others to do their bidding.

And yet, in 1835, not only tradition but scientific evidence supported the "fact" that there was a natural human hierarchy: that whites, Blacks, and Native Americans were all completely different "races," and one of those was fit to be the master (even master/benefactor!) of the others, one was fit for hard labor, and one was simply savage. And since the Bible advised slaves to obey their masters, religion could back it up as well. (For example, see Ephesians 6:5.)

The truth is that the economy of the cotton plantations and a few other industries absolutely depended on free labor to flourish. The truth is that the white colonists needed free land upon which to expand their farms and cities. The truth is that when a civilization thinks it needs something morally reprehensible, it finds justification for it. And the truth is that when an ethnic group is oppressed, they behave in a way that justifies the belief that they are inferior. For example, it was illegal in almost every state of the Union to teach an enslaved person to read, for fear that they would be able to use words as tools and weapons to rise above their "station." (See, for example: North Carolina law.) White people knew in their hearts that their slaves had reason to be deadly angry with them. If Latter-day Saint missionaries shared the gospel with slaves, they would teach them to read the Book of Mormon, they would give them potential tools of rebellion. The economy absolutely required Blacks to remain illiterate. And since enslaved Blacks remained illiterate, they seemed less intelligent.

In many ways, the world has become more evil as time goes on. But in many ways, it has become much, much better. The fact that a scripture like this would never, ever be found among the writings of the leaders of any but the most extreme religions today is reason to rejoice. The fact that a religion in most countries of the world, certainly in the western world, would never need to consider how to deal with converts who had not the legal freedom to choose anything but their own thoughts is reason to rejoice. Although I would love to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith, I would never want to live in the society of Joseph Smith's day. Joseph Smith became more and more opposed to slavery as his life progressed, making manumission (the gradual freeing of enslaved people--considered by many a safer and more manageable solution for both Blacks and whites than abolition) part of his platform as a candidate for United States President, but the membership of the Church was still mostly European. He had a pretty homogenous population to work with. 

SLAVERY IN UTAH

When Brigham Young led the Church, the issue of racism became more pronounced because there was a large group of Southern families from Mississippi who joined the Church. Naturally, they had slaves. Slavery was the biggest political issue in the United States--so big that it would later cause the deadliest war in the United States. Although the body of the Church moved west and completely escaped the horrors of the Civil War, they took some racist ideas with them. In fact, they took some actual slaveholders with them: those Mississippi Saints. Some of these Church members did not free their slaves. They had never known life without servants; perhaps they did not know how to live without them. Definitely they were wrong in keeping slaves--all of us know this today--but even Brigham Young thought slavery had Biblical precedence and went with the prevailing opinion that slavery was okay with God, as long as masters treated their slaves kindly.

Crazy, right?

Blacks were not the only enslaved people in Utah. 

"The arrival of the pioneers in 1847 disrupted a thriving trade in Native American slaves. Utah-based Indians, particularly Chief Walkar’s band of Utes, served as procurers and middlemen in a slave-trading network that extended from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, and involved Spanish, Mexican, American, and Native American traders" (History To Go).

 Brigham Young advised the Saints to buy Native children who were offered for sale in order to give them a better life and raise them in the gospel. They were going to be sold anyway, and this way they would be in a safer, kindlier place. One chief brutally murdered an infant in front of settlers when they refused to purchase the child, then blamed them for its death. No one wanted that to happen again! But by buying the children--into either adoption or temporary servitude--the white Utahns unwittingly increased the slave trade.

THE PRIESTHOOD BAN

The policy that evolved into banning Blacks from priesthood ordination, including temple familial priesthood, was based on racist traditions and interracial conflict. It was unfair. It was hurtful to many. It took place within a society that was poorly informed and ill-equipped to be fair.

We know that Church leaders have made mistakes because they are imperfect humans, but we beg to ask, "Why would God not intervene and give a revelation on it?" My best answer is that He did intervene, but in His timeframe, which seems really, really slow in our timeframe because His intervention will not supercede agency, even the agency of an entire culture. (Read my thoughts on the priesthood ban here.)

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

It is absolutely impossible to understand the past without living in it. And yet we must learn from the past in order to improve the future. We Saints are sorely flawed and will continue to make mistakes as did the Saints of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Let's just make sure they are not the same ones. Look around your ward, neighborhood, school, workplace! Make sure everyone is valued, everyone is included, everyone is heard. Sometimes the best thing we can do is consider that our assumptions or traditions might be wrong, and then listen without our defenses up.  

One thing is sure: The gospel is the way to lasting joy for everyone. We are more alike than we are different, and in 2021, with global travel and instant communication, we are more alike than we have ever been throughout history. We must avoid polarization. There is only one race of humans. There is only one family of God. We are all on the same team. Let's embrace everyone equally and celebrate the uniqueness of each child of God. In the heavens, all will be made more than fair--all will be made glorious through Christ.

(Picture from Church Media collection)

Doctrine and Covenants 129-132

Section 130 contains one of my favorite scriptures of all time:

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (D&C 130:20-21).

I love how this scripture teaches that God rewards those who keep His laws, even if they do not know they are keeping God's laws. Many people consider they are being rewarded by "the universe" or by the "Law of Attraction," but they are merely receiving the fruits of obeying the laws set in motion by God. He loves all His children and provides means for them to learn His laws and obtain as much happiness as they are willing to receive. His children in all cultures and times learn a measure of these laws as they see the results. I love knowing that we are not the only people who are blessed by keeping God's laws.

God rewards those who keep His laws even if those laws are temporary, as in the case of plural marriage. This was an extremely difficult commandment to obey, and many people obeyed it even though doing so demanded that they give up some of their dearest hopes and dreams.

For Section 132 and the practice of plural marriage in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I point to contributions by three women scholars--one in a written essay, one in an audio podcast, and one in a YouTube video. All three have come to the same conclusion after their studies on the subject--that polygamy was a temporary exception to the Lord's law of monogamy, an "Abrahamic sacrifice"--and I invite you to choose any one of the three to read, hear, or watch. 

Valerie Hudson Cassler, "Polygamy," Square Two Journal: Volume 3, Number 10, Spring 2010

Kate Holbrook, "Follow Him" podcast, with Hank Smith & John Bytheway, November 6, 2021

Lynne Hilton Wilson, "Hard Questions in Church History, Episode 46b: The Law of Plural Marriage," Doctrine & Covenants Central, October 28, 2021

I have great-grandmothers in my family tree who were second or third wives in polygamous families. Their lives were very difficult, but they still experienced the blessings of the gospel and the joy of the Saints. Their children were great blessings to them and grew to live righteous and faithful lives. These women lived as they believed and were blessed by the Lord for their sacrifices. I honor their lives. I wouldn't trade places with them, however I'm not sure they would trade places with me. Each of us has our own challenges in this life, but one thing is sure: the Lord blesses us as we seek to obey his commandments.

I'm grateful that today the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage has reverted to the standard of one man and one woman, and I'm grateful for the sealing power of the temple in making those marriages eternal. I recently discovered this darling photograph in my mother-in-law's photo album, depicting my husband (the oldest child) and his family just after they were sealed in the Logan Temple. I am also grateful that there are so many more temples today that a struggling young family living in Delaware is no longer in the Logan Temple district, and I'm so happy that 134 more temples are being built or planned in the world today.