35: A Mission of Saving. Martin & Willie Companies Rescue Remind Us of Our Own Stewardship

Reading Assignment for Sunday, September 29, 2013 Class Member Study Guide:  Lesson 35

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: 

 “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).

The Perpetuating Immigration Fund

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 

Rescue through temple work--D & C 138: 58

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.

34: Faith in Every Footstep: Brigham Young Leads Saints to SL Valley

Reading Assignment for Sunday, September 22, 2013

Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 34

Doctrine & Covenants 136

Our Heritage:  Pages 71-77

See the link to The Class Member Study Guide guide for additional scriptures

33: President Brigham Young Leads the Saints

Reading Assignment for Sunday, September 8, 2013

Class Member Study Guide:  Lesson 33

Doctrine and Covenants 107: 22-24

Our Heritage: Pages 66-71

LAST SUNDAY

Last Sunday we discussed the death of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, Illinois.  It was rather poignant to find ourselves reading Doctrine and Covenants 135.  It is the first time we as gospel students' find ourselves listening to words from another's pen--John Taylor's personal account of the Martydom--rather than revelations received by Joseph Smith from Jesus Christ and God the Father in the Doctrine and Covenants. The writer's style and voice are clearly different. The occasion is one of great mourning among the Saints then and now.  John Taylor's first hand account is moving and reminds us that Joseph the Prophet is gone.

 


This year in gospel doctrine we have met the boy Joseph who was schooled to be a prophet by God the Father, Jesus Christ, and his angels.  Moroni schooled Joseph before he received the plates.  After the Book of Mormon was published in 1830 and the church was organized, we followed the prophet as he learned from God the Father and His Son through revelation and study how the church should be ordered--The Quorum of the Twelve, Bishops, Temples, Wards (Nauvoo), Sabbath Worship, Sacrament Prayers, what the priesthood is, how it should be restored, and later in Nauvoo we received the restoration of the saving ordinances of exaltation--the endowment and eternal sealings. Our understanding and connection with Joseph the Prophet of the Restoration has been rather moving this year.

On a side note:  An article on the physical evidence of the shooting can be found in BYU Studies.  I mention the article because it was written by my uncle--Lynn Lyon and my father who were trained as historians at the feet of my grandfather--T. Edgar Lyon--who was the historian for Nauvoo Restoration for many years.  Lynn is a trained physician and gun expert.  Here is the link to the PDF of that article: Physical Evidence at Carthage Jail and What It Reveals about the Assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith

The article is more scholarly in nature, but may be of interest to those who want more details surrounding the Martyrdom.



BRIGHAM YOUNG AS PRESIDENT OF THE QUORUM OF THE TWELVE BEGAN TO LEAD THE PEOPLE PREPARING THEM TO JOURNEY WEST

The Prophet Joseph Prepared the Quorum of the Twelve to Assume Church Leadership 

"Following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Brigham Young became the leader of the Church through an inspired process of succession that continues in the Church today."

As early as the 14 of April 1832 in Kirtland, Ohio, the Prophet Joseph told other church leaders that Brigham Young would preside over the church.

He said:

". . . 'the time will come when brother Brigham Young will preside over this Church.’ The latter part of this conversation was in my absence” (Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801–1844, comp. Elden Jay Watson [1968], 4–5).  

In the Winter of 1843-44 the Prophet Joseph spent several days giving the Quorum of the Twelve their temple endowments and reviewing their responsibilities because he was concerned that he would die without bestowing upon them the keys of the kingdom.

Wilford Woodruff reports the prophet's concerns:

“Now, brethren, I thank God I have lived to see the day that I have been enabled to give you your endowments, and I have now sealed upon your heads all the powers of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods and Apostleship, with all the keys and powers thereof, which God has sealed upon me; and I now roll off all the labor, burden and care of this Church and Kingdom of God upon your shoulders, and I now command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to round up your shoulders, and bear off this Church and Kingdom of God before heaven and earth, and before God, angels and men” (in James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [1965–75], 3:134). 

After Joseph Smith's Martyrdom, The Twelve Presided Over the Church until Brigham Young was Sustained as the Prophet Three Years Later in December 1847.

This succession has its scriptural roots in Section 107 which was revealed as part of the organization of the Quorum of the Twelve in 1835 in Kirtland, Ohio.

 Doctrine and Covenants 107: 22-24 

 
Brigham Young about 1846 when he was 45.  This is the year the Saints leave Nauvoo, wintering across the state of Iowa and into Nebraska until the spring of 1847

 

Brigham Young Circa 1850. He Is about 49

Many members of the Quorum of the Twelve were not in Nauvoo at the time of Joseph's death.  It wasn't until August of 1844 that the issue of who would lead the church was resolved.

"In Boston rumors of Joseph Smith’s death began on 9 July. During the week before confirmation came from family letters and more complete newspaper accounts, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and Orson Pratt struggled within themselves about what the terrible news meant. Brigham recorded in his journal, “The first thing which I thought of was, whether Joseph had taken the keys of the kingdom with him from the earth; brother Orson Pratt sat on my left; we were both leaning back on our chairs. Bringing my hand down on my knee, I said the keys of the kingdom are right here with the Church.”

The miraculous meeting on August 8, 1844 in which other church leaders see and hear the Prophet Joseph in Brigham Young's personage reinforces the passing of the mantel of leadership to the President of the Quorum of the Twelve and is reminiscent of ancient prophets who passed the mantel of leadership in the following scripture.

2 Kings 2:8–15 

George Q. Cannon remembered hearing Brigham Young speak on August 8, 1844. As the mantle of the prophet fell on Brigham Young this is what many saw and heard:

"it was the voice of Joseph himself." and "it seemed in the eyes of the people as if it were the very person of Joseph which stood before them"

In the absence of a literal prophetic mantel similar to the one passed between Elijah and Elisah in the Old Testament, instead Brigham Young appeared as Joseph as a symbol of the transition of keys and powers.

To find greater insight to Brigham Young as a Man and as a Prophet of God, you can read about him in the President's of Church Manual.

The Saints Complete the Temple and Seek Their Endowments Before Leaving Nauvoo

 In this 1846 daguerreotype of Nauvoo, frame and brick buildings dominate. Nauvoo grew and changed rapidly in the few years the Saints were there. When they first arrived they lived in tents, wagons, dugouts, lean-tos, or simple log structures. As they struggled to improve their economic, social, and cultural conditions, these were gradually replaced by traditional frame homes. In the late Nauvoo period, brick homes became popular. Meanwhile, many public buildings and businesses were also constructed. 

So great were the Saints desire to receive their endowments, that they flocked to the newly completed temple.  The church leaders had planned for an April of 1846 departure, but threats against church leaders and rumors that the militia might prevent the Saints from leaving Nauvoo hastened the urgency of departure from the city.  Brigham Young tried to close the temple to hasten the departure, but the Saints continued to line up for their endowments, and so Brigham allowed the temple to remain open almost a week past its closing on February 3, 1846 even while Saints began evacuating the city on the 4th of February 1846.

“Looking upon the multitude and knowing their anxiety, as they were thirsting and hungering for the word, we continued at work diligently in the House of the Lord. Two hundred and ninety-five persons received ordinances” (History of the Church, 7:579).

Some 6,000 received their endowments even with Brigham Young counseling the Saints to leave, that temples would be built in other location in a future time.

1846 Becomes the Year of Exodus with Three Distinct Waves of Departure--The Winter Departure (Persecuted Leaders & Others 3,000), The Spring Departure (10,000 in 3 Groups), and The Fall Departure (700).

Despite the Saints attempt to prepare for a spring 1846 departure, actual persecution intensified so that many Saints left during a harsh winter earlier than planned and before they were prepared in the way that Brigham Young had organized and envisioned.  The Saints found themselves in encampments strung across Iowa starving and enduring harsh conditions with little if any shelter. 

On the first night of encampment at Sugar Creek (7 miles from Nauvoo on the Iowa side) nine infants were born. 

Eliza R. Snow recorded: 

“Mothers gave birth to offspring under almost every variety of circumstances imaginable, except those to which they had been accustomed; some in tents, others in wagons—in rain-storms and in snow-storms. I heard of one birth which occurred under the rude shelter of a hut, the sides of which were formed of blankets fastened to poles stuck in the ground, with a bark roof through which the rain was dripping. Kind sisters stood holding dishes to catch the water as it fell, thus protecting the new-comer and its mother from a shower-bath. …

“Let it be remembered that the mothers of these wilderness-born babes were not … accustomed to roam the forest and brave the storm and tempest. … Most of them were born and educated in the Eastern States—had there embraced the gospel as taught by Jesus and his apostles, and, for the sake of their religion, had gathered with the saints, and under trying circumstances had assisted, by their faith, patience and energies, in making Nauvoo what its name indicates, ‘the beautiful.’ There they had lovely homes, decorated with flowers and enriched with choice fruit trees, just beginning to yield plentifully.

“To these homes … they had just bade a final adieu, and with what little of their substance could be packed into one, two, and in some instances, three wagons, had started out, desertward” (in Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom [1877], 307–8). 

Excellent Ensign article about the 1846 Exodus from Nauvoo