The Reminiscences of James Holt a Narrative of the Emmett Company
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THE REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT A NARRATIVE OF THE EMMETT COMPANY EDITED BY DALE L. MORGAN PART II INTRODUCTION N PART I of James Holt's reminiscences the focus of interest I was the period 1844-46, during which he was a member of the company James Emmett led into the Iowa wilderness. This party made its way up the Iowa River and across country to the Mis souri River, which was reached at last near the mouth of the Vermillion, in what is now South Dakota. Emmett's company was never entirely out of contact with the church back in Nauvoo, and it got back into the main stream of Mormon history when, in the spring of 1846, it came down die Missouri to rendezvous at Council Bluffs with the migration Brigham Young was con ducting across Iowa. With its absorption into Bishop George Miller's detachment of the Mormon immigration, Emmett's company largely lost its identity. But it was the fate of its members to share at once in the experiences of another remarkably interesting party, and before we pick up the thread of James Holt's narrative again, it is desirable to review briefly the history of Bishop Miller and his company. George Miller joined the Mormon Church in the spring of 1839. Born in Virginia in 1794, he removed with his family to Kentucky in 1806, and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner.1 He was living in McDonough County, Illinois, when the Mormons aSee a fragmentary autobiography by Miller published from the manuscript in 1917 by H. W. Mills, under the title, "De Tal Palo Tal Astilla," in Annual Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California, X, Part III, 86- 172 (printed separately under the title, A Mormon Bishop and His Son). The autobiography breaks off in 1819, but continues as an actual diary for the period October 13, 1842-February 2, 1843. Though most of the manuscript was unfortunately destroyed, much of the information it contained was pre served in the form of a series of seven letters Miller contributed to the St. 152 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY were expelled from Missouri in the winter of 1838-39. He be friended the family of Joseph Smith, and, soon afterwards baptized into the church, became an important figure in its councils, being named bishop by a revelation of 1841. Miller was never quite reconciled to what was done in working out the problem of succession after Joseph Smith's death. Never theless, he was still prominent in the councils of the church when the evacuation of Nauvoo began in February, 1846. Despite some friction between himself and Brigham Young, Miller with his "pioneer" company led the way for the Saints across most of Iowa, reaching the Missouri River nearly opposite Bellevue on June 13, 1846. Here it was necessary to pause and build a ferry, a labor not completed until June 29. While the work was in progress, on June 18, the Mormons were advised that the American Fur Company "wanted 40 waggons & teams to go 250 miles after fur." Miller was asked to see the company's agent, Peter A. Sarpy, who "of fered about $1000 to [have] about 90,000 lbs peltry brought from the head of grand Island & 15 or 20 barrels of Provisions also a horse Bishop Miller took the job." John D. Lee adds that the Twelve "wrote to . John L Butler & the Mormons with him [Emmett's company] to come to the Ferry Point immediately to go after the fur."2 According to William C. Staines, just as the wagons were ready to start, a messenger arrived from Sarpy's traders, advising that they were bringing their robes and furs down to his post by water and had no use for teams. Sarpy told the Bishop to send his wagons to the trading post and he would pay a forfeit. "The Bishop protested that under the circumstances he had no claim, James, Mich., Northern Islander in the summer of 1855, which take up his story in the fall of 1838. The draft versions of these letters were preserved among Miller's papers and were printed by Dr. Mills in the article cited above, though not in altogether correct order. Almost simultaneously with their publication in California, the letters were reprinted by Wingfield Watson from the pages of the Northern Islander as Correspondence of Bishop George Miller (Burlington, Wis.? 1916?), a pamphlet of 50 pages. The latter text is cited hereafter when reference is made to the letters. 2John D. Lee, MS. diary, June 18, 19, 1846, typed transcription in the library of the Utah State Historical Society. REMINISCENCES OF JAMES HOLT 153 but [Sarpy] insisted and the wagons were sent and returned loaded with corn."3 The episode got Emmett's company into motion again. Mean while an entry in the diary of Hosea Stout has an important bear ing on the history of this company. Stout was en route to the Bluffs, when, on June 20, 1846, a few miles west of Mount Pisgah, he fell in with James W. Cummings, then returning to Nauvoo for his family. Cummings, it will be remembered, on March 27 had been sent with John L. Butler with instructions for Emmett's company about meeting the main body of the Saints, and he had reported back to Brigham Young on June 11 near the Bluffs. Cummings now told Stout that when he got to the Vermillion he found "that Emmett was absent having gone to some of the neighbouring Indians to trade off some horses and consequently he had no trouble with him. But some of his company were yet strong advocates for him & some as hard against him among the latter was his wife who was tired of his oppression & tyranny. "The two parties were about equally divided. Some of the party however having gone before to the settlements near or above Fort Leavenworth.4 They managed to get all of those who were yet there to move down to where we were to cross the Missouri at the Bluffs not however without considerable opposition from Emmetts adherents. Suffice it to say that they all left and came off and brought every thing with them and left Emmett to guess at what had happened & follow on or do whatever else he thought best. They had come to the Council Bluffs & Emmett followed an [on] and was here strip [p]ed of his kingdom and him & all his followers put under Bishop Miller and sent on to Grand Island."5 3This part of Staines's narrative is quoted in a biographical sketch printed in Orson F. Whitney, History of Utah (4 vols., Salt Lake City, 1892-1904), IV, 118. 4Lyman Hinman apparently was one of these, having separated from Emmett as early as February 19, but he does not say that he went down the river as far as Fort Leavenworth. See the January issue of the Quarterly, p. 33, note 66. 6Hosea Stout, MS. diary, typed transcription in the WPA Collection of the Utah State Historical Society. William Clayton, on June 10, 1846, also talked with Cummings. "Soon after we passed the bridge we were met by Jas. W. Cummings and the brethren from Shariton Ford (i.e., the brother sent from Chariton Ford] with John L. Butler to bring Emmet's company to 154 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY It so happened that on June 27, 1846, a party of Presbyterian missionaries and government employees who had been laboring among the Pawnees at a station on the Loup Fork of the Platte arrived at Bellevue to report that the Sioux had attacked their establishment; they had had to abandon their crops and most of their possessions, and were anxious to salvage them.6 A working arrangement with these refugees exactly suited the convenience of the Saints. "I made a bargain to haul them and their effects down," Miller says, "and forthwith started (the distance 120 miles) with thirty-two wagons, and the families thereto belonging, intending to unload the families and camp, and let the teams return with the missionaries to the Bluffs. "We started on the expedition on the 9th July, and on the 18th we arrived at the mission station, and on the 22nd July we sent them to Council Bluffs. We received in payment for hauling the effects of the missionaries their standing crop of wheat, oats and garden vegetables, together with a lot of old corn, which was all better for us than money. While the teams were gone with the missionaries' goods, we harvested and threshed our grain, shelled the corn and sacked all ready for a move on return of our teams."7 Although the mustering of the Mormon Battalion chiefly preoccupied Brigham Young during the first three weeks of July, 1846, he did not immediately give up his project of sending an advance company across the mountains, or of getting a considera ble part of the Camp of Israel to the head of Grand Island for meet us. The cattle have been with Emmet's company from the time they left Nauvoo .... From Cummings we learned that Emmet had left his things belonging to the company with him. Part of the company has crossed at St. Louis [Fort Leavenworth?] and are now on the line here. The agent of the U. S. refuses to let them pass. The other part of the company are thirty miles below the bluffs expecting us to cross there." William Clayton's Journal (Salt Lake City, 1921), 45.