05. { /{ r-orr Fort Casper and • Mormon Ferry I D A H ----------- :·... .. .:·· Canyon 0 M I N Trail's J..· , End ... • .:. --- ----,--- Salt Lak; ~ Big Mountain Pass c 0 L 0 Valley J E~igration Canyon Donner U T A H Hill the Trail in Januar Above left: Willard Richards­ shown with his wife, ]enetta, and son, Heber John, in an 1845 family portrait-lived in an unusually shaped house and office (shown above) while at Winter Quarters. he following representation appearance of a log town some Doctor Willard Richards has a of events that took place in dirt ruffs & a number of caves or house with 8 sides and covered TJanuary 1847 is provided as 'dug outs' made in the bankes with dirt, & forms an oval and is part of the sesquicentennial cele­ sometimes called 'Dens.' ... The called by the names of the Octa­ bration of the arrival of Latter-day town would be hard to set on fire gon, potato heap, apple heap, Saint pioneers to the Salt Lake and burnt down for there are so coal pit [etc .] .... Our herds and Valley in July 1847. many dirt toped & dirt houses. flocks are wintering well on the In January 1847 some 12,000 "The city is divided into 22 rushes" (On the Mormon Frontier: Saints were waiting out the win­ wards & has a Bishop over each The Diary of Hosea Stout, ter in hundreds of camps along ward .. The poor are uncom­ 1844- 1861, ed . Juanita Brooks, the Missouri River 40 miles north monly well seen & attended to .... 2 vols. [1964]. 1:222- 23). and south of present-day Council The Seventies Quorum have es­ the emigration of the Sa ints and Bluffs, Iowa. Unable to reach the tablished a factory [for] manufac­ those who journey with them " THE "WORD AND WILL OF THE LORD" Rocky Mountains as planned in turing willow baskets and are (Manuscript History of Brigham 1846, they intended to head west now employing some 20 or 30 On 11 January, President Young, 1846- 1847, ed . Elden J. as soon as spring returned. Presi­ hands ... This gives employment Young met with several leading Watson [1971]. 502). !:! z dent Brigham Young, the Quorum to those who have no other means elders and told them of a dream That revelation, known as the ~ of the Twelve, and up to 5,000 of supporting themselves .... he had wherein the Prophet "Word and Will of the Lord" (now ~ .... Joseph Smith visited with him D&C instructed those going 0 Saints were at the headquarters 136). '!i"' camp called Winter Quarters, and "conversed freely about the west to organize into companies, < ;:; north of today's Omaha, best manner of organizing com­ "with a covenant and promise to w "' Nebraska, living in log cabins, panies for emigration ." Three keep all the Commandments & 5::> dugouts, wagons, and tents . days later, on 14 January, Presi­ Statutes of the Lord our God" (On ii dent Young met at Heber C. the Mormon Frontier, 227; cf. D&C z~ Kimball's home with Elders 136:2) . Companies needed a presi ­ ~ DESCRIPTION OF WINTER fiUARTERS :Q Kimball, Willard Richards, Orson dent and two counselors at the ~ :§"' In a diary entry dated Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, George A. head and then captains of hun­ "' 2 January 1847, police captain Smith, Ezra T. Benson, and Hosea dreds, fifties, and tens, with the ~ i: Hosea Stout described Winter Stout, who acted as clerk. He Twelve exerting overall leader­ 0,_ Quarters and its more than 700 then "commenced to give the ship. Hosea Stout, after record­ El Cl homes: "The place has the Word and Will of God concerning ing the revelation in his diary, ...;:; '< 12 l ' ' I ' ~---- - - -- - -- ~ ~ > ~ ~ ~ ~ Ci ~ set fire to the prairie in Decem - William G. Hartley, an associate pro­ ~ ber, a dry and warm month , the fessor of history and a research pro­ 8 fires threatened Ponca Camp 's fessor at the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute at BYU, teaches Sunday g 110 hewn-log cabins. Everyone School in the Riverside Third Ward, iE fought off the fires and saved the Murray Utah North Stake. ~ Above: Ponca Camp M emorial fort, but the Saints lost stacks of ~ in Nebraska honors those who hay and some wagons. Afterthe MIDWESTERN U.S. LDS POPULATION, 0 died here during the winter of fire danger passed, Newel, ex­ 31 DECEMBER 1846 . j 1846-47. Left: Between fall hausted by the labor, became the end of 1846, many members ~ ~ 1846 and spring 1848, Winter very ill. In his final diary entry, - ~~ Quarters, N ebraska, served as of the Church were scattered over ;,!;~ • dated 4 January 1847, Newel a vast terrain stretching from :b~ a place for Latter-day Samts to A ~ S regroup and prepare for the trek expressed hope that "the Lord's Nauvoo westward to Winter Quarters. ~ ~ to the Salt Lake Valley. presence" would go before mod ­ Research suggests the following distri­ ::J)-<:­ bution of midwestern U.S. membership 01~ ern Israel as with anc ient Israel "while we are journeying in the at that time : -""Yl.ai.l "'c~~ :<o wilderness " (D iary of Newel Winter Quarters 4.000 commented that it "was to me a NEWEL KNIGHT AND THE PONCA CAMP Knight, 4 Jan. 1847, LOS Church East Bank Missouri River 2,500 ,e,L) I source of much joy and gratifica­ IN NEBRASKA Archives). He died on 11 January, Miller's Ponca Settlement 400 tion to be present on such an oc­ probably of pneumonia , one of 23 Lathrop Settlement 50 cas ion and my feeling can be Three wagon companies of Saints who died and were buried Total at the Missouri River 6,950 better felt than described" (On some 500 Sa ints were encamped in the camp's burying ground two St. Louis 1,500 the Mormon Frontier, 229). 120 miles up the Missouri River miles west of the fort. Between the Mississippi River Two days later, on the 16th, from Winter Quarters among the Widow Lydia, who trusted in and Garden Grove 500 (est.) the revelation was laid before a Ponca Indians. Ponca Camp, as he r life motto that "God Rules," Between the Nishnabotona River and council of Church leaders who, it was called , was led by Bishop gave birth to their seventh child East Fork Mosquito Creek 500 (est.) Stout said, "received it as a reve­ George Miller and a 12-man high seven months after Newel died . Mormon Battalion 500 lation with joy and gladness " council, all of whom were in con­ She brought the family west in Mount Pisgah 700 (On the Mormon Frontier, 229). stant contact with President 1850. In 1908, son Jesse Knight Garden Grove 600 In the days that followed, Young and the rest of the Twelve erected a stately monument at the Nauvoo 50 (est.) leaders gathered their com­ at Winter Quarters . Newel Knight, Ponca Camp site just west of pre­ Burlington, Galena, Alton, etc . 300 (est.) St. Joseph, Savannah, and other panies together. By vote, the longtime friend of the Prophet sent Niobrara, Nebraska, to honor northwest Missouri towns 200 (est.) people covenanted to obey the Joseph Smith since their resi ­ Newel and others buried there that revelation 's stipulations and to dence in New York in the 1820s, winter of 1846- 47. (See William G. Total in Iowa and Missouri 4,850 assist the needy (see Journal of was a high counc ilor at Ponca . Hartley, "They Are My Friends ": Grand total 11,800 HoraceK. Whitney, Jan. 1847, With Newel were his wife, Lyd ia, A History of the Joseph Knight (R ic hard E. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, LOS Church Archives). and six children . When Indians Family, 1825-1850, pp. 169-180.) D 1841HB52 [1981). 90 .) THE ENSIGN/jANUARY 1997 13 Fort Hall Fort Casper and • Mormon Ferry I D A H .. ____ .:·· .. 0 M I N d -·-.., Ash HolloV\ ·· ._. ____________ j_ ___________ _ J·-,·---A-- C- 0 - L-- 6-- R D 0 / Donner Hill u T A H ·...... _______ ,.._; On the Trai] in Februar The following representation of the Twelve Apostles: "At an ~ ~ of events that took place in early hour the band of music > Above: Log cabins were a z February 1847 is provided as entered my carriage and rode :> luxury during the cold, wet (.jz :> part of the sesquicentennial cele- through the streets of Winter winter of 1846-47 at Winter I? ::; bration of the arrival of Latter- Quarters playing so sweetly that Quarters. Below: President < :t day Saint pioneers in the Salt it rent the air .... At 2 o'clock Brigham Young. ~ Lake Valley in July 1847. p.m. the Silver Greys met at the z· council house, the company of Bishops having called upon their ~ nearly February at Winter Silver Grays consisting of all the several wards for to furnish a sup­ ~ I u Quarters, in present-day men in the camp of Israel over . per for the poor, each individual "'z ;:! Omaha, Nebraska, with winter 50 years of age."l took according to their liberality .J lingering and the Saints still un- President Brigham Young and it was reported that after en­ ~ 0 able to trek west, Church leaders told the crowd of attenders that joying themselves in the dance, i' 1'; recognized the need to brighten "there is no harm in dancing. The spirits. February 5 set the tone Lord said he wanted His saints to ~:> 0 for the month, according to Elder praise him in all things."2 With u :Q Wilford Woodruff of the Quorum this invitation, "the center ofthe s floor was then cleared for the ~ Plat of Winter Quarters, C1 dance when the 'Silver Greys' Nebraska, located on the west ~ and spectacled dames enjoyed side of the Missouri River.