We've Got to Move!

Brigham Young was a shrewd Yankee pragmatist, had a genius for organization and was a competent handyman.  Born in Vermont in 1801, Young had only two months of schooling, but became a carpenter, glazier, and farmer, as well as a canny businessman.  Known for his tongue lashings, many a Mormon was fearful of his sarcasm as punishment for wrong doing.  In his private life, he was a kind, genial man who was fond of dancing, music and theater. 

In 1845, Young knew he had to relocate his people.  He had read Fremont's report referring to a place in the West - Great Salt Lake valley some 1600 miles west of Nauvoo, Illinois.  In February 1846, the first Mormon wagons left Nauvoo and crossed the Mississippi into Iowa in the dead of winter.  By September more than 250 families had left Illinois.

Strict discipline accompanied all the wagon trains going west because Young believed that survival depended on organization and discipline - a semi-military type of order.  Each small group of wagons reported to a "centurion" who was responsible for several detachments.  Bugle calls woke you in the morning and prayers, breakfast, even dressing had strict timetables. 

The plan was to winter on the west bank of the Mississippi River near where Omaha is today.  The first wagons would stop periodically to plow the fields and sow crops.  (in February???)  The wagons that followed behind would harvest those crops and then replant more crops.  16,000 Mormons thus worked their way across Missouri to the west bank of the river.   Despite their well thought out plans, that winter saw hunger, cold and disease.  By Spring, 700 were dead.

Next time...Onward to the West
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Today in Pioneer History: "On June 12 1876, Marcus Kellogg, a journalist traveling with Custer's 7th Calvary, files one of his last dispatches before being killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  The New York Herald later erected a monument to him over the supposed site of his grave on the battlefield.