Mormon Trail

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was first organized in 1830 in New York State by Joseph Smith. Its headquarters moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, also known as Commerce, Illinois in the late 1830's. Nauvoo, once a swamp, turned into a prosperous community under Smith's leadership. The Mormons (or Saints as they referred to themselves) struggled to create an ideal society where there was temperance, literacy and lack of poverty through communal economic practices.

Their success in this was the beginning of their persecution by non-Mormons or Gentiles. Gentiles were jealous of the prosperity, suspicious of the voting blocs, and outraged by polygamous practices.

Smith further inflamed the community in 1844 when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Presidency. A small group of Mormon dissenters published a newspaper denouncing Smith and his Mormon practices. Smith, as Nauvoo Mayor, ordered the press to be destroyed. The dissenters fled to Carthage, the county seat, and spread the word of the confrontation. Soon petitions were made to the Illinois Governor to disperse the Mormons and arrest Smith.

Faced with threats on his life and possible expulsion, Smith and five other Mormon leaders surrendered to Carthage authorities on Jun 24, 1844. Three days later, a mob attacked the jail and killed Josiah Smith and his brother, Hyrum.

Brigham Young took over as the new prophet at a Saints meeting on August 8, 1844. His first action was to create an escape to a remote area away from the persecution of Gentiles. Studying the reports of John Fremont, the explorer, Young chose the valley of the Great Salt Lake as a Mormon oasis. He hoped to create an area where Mormons could live in freedom, in the manner they chose, with-out further persecution.

It was February of 1846 before the first group of Mormon pioneers left Nauvoo and crossed into Iowa on their way west. As the first group moved out, families halted from time to time to plow fields and sow crops. This way followers were able to harvest the crops and re-plant. Young created a highly disciplined march, recognizing that survival depended on organization. And so it took four months to reach the Missouri River on the Iowa side.

In 1846, the federal government was involved in the Mexican War. Because the Mormons were highly disciplined and organized, the government asked them to supply 500 men to the army. In return, the rest of the Mormon party would be given permission to temporarily camp on Indian land across the river in Nebraska. The Omaha and Oto tribes agreed to lease their land for two years, allowing for the establishment of a "city" and a section of grazing land for their animals. As winter was nearing, it was important to have a communal place to stop, so Young agreed to the arrangement.

The land across the river became known as the Winter Quarters, and later as Florence, Ne.

The townsite was surveyed and settled in September, 1846. Its name indicated its temporary status as a resting place. In a short time, more than 1,000 dwellings were laid out. Some were mere tents and dugouts, but mostly log cabins were built. (A replica of a cabin is currently shown at the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery in Omaha, Ne.) Fireplaces were made of prairie sod. The Mormons erected a council house that doubled as a church and school. They also built a water-powered gristmill, part of which can still be seen today.

The population hovered around 4,000 as more and more pioneer families stopped before continuing west. Because of exhaustion, poor nutrition, cold, and disease, the winter of 1846-47 was very difficult. More than 600 people died, mostly the very young and the very old. Most of these victims' remains lie in the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery in Omaha, Ne.

In early 1847, Young and the first group of 148 pilgrims left the camp to head west to Zion (also known as Salt Lake City). The trail followed the north side of the Platte River through Nebraska. It led across the quicksand of the Loup River, past Lone Tree, the single giant cottonwood in what is now Central City, and on through the rest of Nebraska.

Residents who hadn't migrated by 1848 moved back across the river to Iowa, in order to honor the treaty.

Most of the Mormons traveled with hand-carts, walking the 1300 miles from the Missouri River to Zion (Salt Lake City). the Brigham Young Perpetual Emigration Fund established money for early expeditions fo Mormons to find their promised land of Deseret (Utah). When this fund ran out, Brigham Young created hand cart companies, making the carts in Iowa City. More Mormon expeditions used these carts to cross Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah.

"The carts were generally drawn by one man and three women each, although some carts were drawn by women alone. There were about three women to one man, and two-thirds of the women were single. It was the most motley crew I ever beheld," an observer of the day beheld. (Nebraska by Dorothy Weyer Creigh. Norton and Co., N.Y., 1977.) On July 19,1847, a scouting party of Mormons first glimpsed Salt Lake City. By the time Brigham Young arrived behind the scouting party, he was ill with altitude sickness. All he could say was, "This is the place." The Mormons had found their remote settlement away from the Gentiles, one they could create into a thriving community. Every man was awarded a town lot and a share of farmland. The temple lot was set aside with forty acres. All men joined in to create an irrigation system and later, in 1874, to build the temple out of granite blocks.

Most of the Mormon emigration was finished by 1860. By that time, more than 7000 Saints had crossed the prairies.

The Winter Quarters, having reverted back to the Omaha and Oto Indians, were sold to James Mitchell of Council Bluffs. He named the area Florence, after his daughter and formed a bridge company in 1855. The bridge intended to span the Missouri River from Nebraska to Iowa was not built until 1953. It is still called the Mormon Bridge.

"It has been referred to as the tragedy of Winter Quarters but there was no tragedy here, for tragedy spells defeat and disaster. This was the victory of Winter Quarters. . . "There are times and places in the life of every nation when great spiritual heights are reached, when courage becomes a living thing, when faith in God stands as the granite mountain wall--firm and immovable--while hardships, want, hunger, sickness, sorrow, and death beat down to crush. Winter Quarters was such a time and place for the Mormon people." Heber J. Grant, President The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sept. 20, 1936 Omaha, Ne. The Mormon Expedition was unique in history in that a whole community moved in the Western Hemisphere. Seeking religious freedom, these pioneers endured hardship, conflict and challenges and managed to rise above them. The Winter Quarters was not a time of defeat, it was a point of victory.

[edit] Reference links

http://www.lds.org/placestovisit/location/0,10634,1837-1-1-1,00.html

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