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| Brigham Young |
While serving as a missionary in
England in the latter part of May 1855, Elder Edmund Ellsworth had a dream. He
told Andrew Galloway, president of the Herefordshire Conference, of it. “I
dreamed that I was at home and went to … President [Brigham Young]’s office. …
He said, ‘Why, Edmund, we have just been talking about you. We are thinking of
having a company of the Saints to cross the plains with handcarts next year. We
would like you to take charge of the company. Will you do it?’ I said, ‘If you
say, I will.’”
Elder Ellsworth asked President Galloway what he thought of the
dream, to which President Galloway replied, “Well, I think it is more than a
common dream. I would write it in your journal and see what will become of it.”
Weeks later, Elder Ellsworth received a letter from
President Young (his father in law): “We are very anxious to have a company
[gathered] up in England to cross the plains. I do believe that I could bring a
company across. … Would you like to try it? … I pray for you
continually—Brigham Young.”
After Elder Ellsworth read the letter, he handed
his journal to Brother Galloway to compare with the letter. They were very
similar.
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| The Enoch Train |
With his night visions confirmed by a Prophet, in
March of 1856 Elder Ellsworth led a group of 534 Mormon converts who sailed from
Liverpool to Boston aboard the ship Enoch Train. The ship’s crew numbered thirty.
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| Richard Goodworth |
Also aboard the Enoch train were my
Great, Great, Great Grandmother Hannah Chapman Goodworth and three of her sons
Frederick, Joseph and Richard (my Great, Great Grandfather). The boys’ father
had died in England, three years earlier in 1853.
A small
child on the voyage recalled his experience later, “I grew to love the ocean.
Each afternoon I watched the sun sink like a ball of fire beneath the waves.
Next morning it rose again out of the water. One day I stood looking over the
banister on deck, a sailor came and grabbed me saying, "Why are you leaning
out so far?" "I want to see the ship plowing the waves and cutting
the water," said I. He held me over the banister and I took a good look.”
The crew remarked
to one sister, “Your religion must go very deep to undertake an ocean voyage
with so young a babe."
Three weeks
into the voyage, Sister Deveroe died. Her body was sewn up in a sheet and
buried in the sea. With perhaps a premonition of her fate, at the commencement
of the voyage, she had remarked to a sister, "I'll go on board the ship
and start my husband to Utah. If I should die, he will journey on. If we do not
commence the journey, perhaps my husband and children will not reach Utah."
Such was her desire for her family to gather with the saints.
Ship-board
there was singing and laughter and loud jesting among the crew. Sunday meetings
were conducted on deck after which a band would gather and play the hymns of
Zion
After a 39 day passage across the Atlantic Ocean the ship
docked on May 1st. The
passengers were not permitted to go ashore for two days as they had to be
examined first. Not one of the company was rejected. The physicians declared
that they had never seen a healthier company of immigrants.
From Boston the emigrants traveled by rail and steamer to
Rock Island, Illinois, crossed the
Mississippi in a boat and boarded a train of boxcars with no seats, sitting on
their trunks and baggage with no room to lie down at night, arriving in Iowa
City on May 12th.
Once in Iowa City, all the men began hastily making
handcarts, as this was the first company of emigrants who would traverse the
plains to the valley of the mountains pulling their supplies by hand.
One of the brethren described the handcarts: “The
open handcart was made of Iowa hickory or oak. … In length the side pieces and
shafts were about six or seven feet. … The carts were the usual width of the
wide track wagon … were often loaded with 400 or 500 pounds of flour, bedding,
extra clothing, cooking utensils, and a tent. … The covered or family cart was
similar in size. … It was made stronger, with an iron axle. … Two persons were
assigned to the pulling of each open cart. … In many instances the father had
to pull the covered cart alone.”
However, as mentioned previously
the Goodworth family was traveling without their father. Great, Great
Grandfather Richard, ten years, would push the handcart while his mother pulled
it. As a result he developed broken
blood vessels in his legs which plagued him the remainder of his days. Joseph
and Frederick Goodworth, only six and seven years old, walked the entire
distance across the plains.
Mary Ann Jones, a member of the company, wrote: “The
handcarts were flimsy and were continually breaking down. … We were allotted
one tent and four handcarts to twenty persons. We traveled from ten to
twenty-eight miles each day. We were allowed 17 pounds of baggage for each
person. This included clothing, bedding, and cooking utensils. Some people who
wanted to take more than allowed placed on their bodies more clothing than
usual while being checked. Thus some thin people became stout all at once.
After weighing in, these same people placed their extra items on the carts.
After a few days all members were checked again, unannounced. One old sister
carried … a colander on her apron string all the way to the Salt Lake Valley. …
The Lord was with us and guided us by His spirit, for although tired and
footsore, we could sing the songs of Zion as we traveled.”
The girl
remembered, “It became necessary for Mother to dispose of some of our things.
She sold a little flat iron that I had taken care to carry with me. How I cried
when it was sold. I think this was the only time I cried on the whole long
journey. I felt worried and said "Whatever will we do for something with
which to smooth our clothes when we get to Salt Lake City?"
Another described the daily fare along the way, “Some
stomachs may reject a supper cooked with water taken from a buffalo wallow and
on a fire of buffalo chips, but to us the food was good.”
When the company was about eight miles distant from
Salt Lake City, they were met by President Young, the Nauvoo Brass Band, and
many others. President Young rose to make a speech, but when he saw how hungry the
little ones were, he said, “Come, let’s serve the food; speeches can wait.”
Observers described their arrival after walking
1300 miles: “It was a day never to be forgotten. Faces were much sunburnt and lips
parched; but cheerfulness reigned in every heart, and joy seemed to beam on
every countenance. One would not think that they had come from Iowa City, a
long and rough journey of from 275 to 300 miles, except by their dust-stained
garments and sunburned faces.”
Of the 274 people who embarked upon the arduous journey
in the Ellsworth company, 13 persons died - from consumption, diarrhea, and
whooping cough, one brother was struck by lightning and one disappeared and was
not seen again.
A participant expressed the emotions of many upon
completion of the trek, “We had reached our goal, traveling on foot all of the
way. … We had left comfortable homes, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and
friends all for our testimony of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and for
the privilege of hearing a prophet’s voice and to live with the Saints of God.
I have never regretted the trip.”
