Our Heritage: Pages 77-80
WE MUST KEEP THE STORIES OF PIONEER RESCUE PRESENT: THEY SPEAK OF THE ESSENCE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
President Gordon B. Hinckley said:
The Perpetuating Immigration Fund“Stories of the beleaguered Saints and of their suffering and death will be repeated again and again. … Stories of their rescue need to be repeated again and again. They speak of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 118; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).
In the fall of 1849 the Perpetuating Emigration Fund (PEF) was established.
"Its purpose was to solicit contributions in Deseret and use those funds to outfit the poor Saints who had gathered to the camps in Iowa" Six thousand dollars was raised the first fall.
When the Saints arrived in the valley they were expected to work to repay the back debt or repay the debt with money earned thus "perpetuating" the fund.
The fund expanded to bring waves of European immigrants to the Salt Lake Valley over several years--1849 through 1860s. The migration shifted from wagons to railroad when the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.
The Vast Wave of Immigrants
In 1850 there were over 30,000 Saints in the British Isles and 11,000 in Utah.
Saints move from eastern states to Utah
1850: 2,500
1851: 2,500
1852: 8,000 --First presidency asks all in Iowa and eastern states to come to SLC. There were 21 companies averaging 60 wagons a piece.
1853 European Gathering Begins--Donations are converted to cash and funneled to agents in Liverpool, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Council Bluffs to outfit waves of European Immigrants.
1853-1856: More than 11,000 immigrate to Utah
Most immigrants used a combinations of their own funds and PEF funds.
Gather All My Saints: Even the Least of These
Severe financial reversals due to a insect scourge in Utah causesd the PEF funds to dwindle in 1855.
Brigham Young wrote
to Franklin D. Richards, the European mission president, in September 1855:
"We cannot afford to purchase wagons and teams as in times past, I am consequently thrown back upon my old plan--to make hand-carts, and let the emigration foot it, and draw upon them the necessary supplies, having a cow or two or even ten. They can come just as quick, if not quicker, and much cheaper--can start earlier and escape the prevailing sickness which annually lays so many of our brethren in the dust."
Handcart Companies/Leaders & Dates
1. Edmund L. Ellsworth 1856
2. Daniel D. McArthur 1856
3. Edward Bunker 1856
4. James G. Willie 1856
5. Edward Martin 1856
6. Israel Evans 1857
7. Christian Christiansen 1857
8. George Rowley 1859
9. Daniel Robinson 1860
10. Oscar O. Stoddard 1860
Rescue My People
From general conference in the Old Tabernacle on the site of the current Assembly Hall on Sunday Oct 5, 1856 Brigham Young told the Utah Saints to rescue the Willie and Martin Companies:
“‘I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains’ (in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120–21).
Prior to the construction of the domed Tabernacle known to most
Latter-day Saints today, Church members gathered in the “Old” Tabernacle
shown here. To the right of it was the North Bowery, which accommodated
larger crowds in good weather. Construction on the first Tabernacle
began 21 May 1851. The building was completed and dedicated 6 April 1852
by President Willard Richards. It was torn down in 1870 and replaced by
the Assembly Hall.
The Martin and Willie Handcart Companies Bear Testimony to Their Faith
"One day [a Martin Company survivor] was in a
group of people who began sharply criticizing the Church leaders for ever
allowing the Saints to cross the plains
with no more supplies or protection than a handcart company provided. The old
man listened until he could stand no more; then he arose and said with great
emotion:
'I was in that company and my wife was in it. … We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? … [We] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.'"The Savior's Message is a Message of Rescue
The gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its facets is a gospel of rescue--the atonement and the plan of salvation as well as all the temporal and spiritual programs within the church.
“Our mission in life, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley, “must be a mission of saving” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1991, 78; or Ensign, Nov. 1991, 59).
Qualities to help rescuers--D & C 4:3–7
Opportunities for leadership--D& C 18:10–16
Qualities of disciple--D & C 52:4
Injunction to serve physically and spiritually--D & C 81:5–6
Rescuing those who are lost--3 Nephi 18:31-33
Flashback to Joseph Smith
Sister Honaker shared this article about Elder Dallin Oaks in Nauvoo speaking about Joseph Smith recently: Elder Dallin H. Oaks said "that regardless of one’s views of Smith as a religious leader, most can agree that he was 'a remarkable man, a great American and one whom I and millions of our current countrymen honor as a prophet of God.'"
Here is a link to the Article: Mormon Apostle Speaks on Joseph Smith at Illinois Law Event.
