A
bronze tablet on a boulder on the south side of old
US Highway 6, now 5th
Street in Coralville, Iowa, has these words inscribed:
“South
of this Boulder on the Banks of Clear Creek is the Site of the Mormon
Brigade
Camp. In 1856 some
Thirteen Hundred
European Immigrants, Converted to the Mormon Faith, Detrained at Iowa
City, the
End of the Railroad. Encamped
here they made handcarts and Equipment for their
Journey on Foot to Salt Lake City.”
During
the hot, early summer days of May, June and July, 1856, some 1300
converts of
the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints arrived in Iowa City, the
end of
the railroad. They
had come across
the Atlantic chiefly from England and Wales and were joined by a few
emigrants
from the eastern United States. These
tired and bewildered people found that their equipment was not ready,
so they
encamped along the banks of Clear Creek.
One
handcart was built in Iowa City for every five persons to carry the
seventeen
pounds of baggage allowed, including food, bedding and clothing for the
long
march. Each cart
had two wooden
wheels each three or four feet in diameter, with thin iron tires.
These were connected with a wooden axle and a small
box was attached to
carry the belongings. Attached
were
wooden shafts about five feet long, connected with a cross-piece at the
end.
These rickety carts were pushed and pulled along.
A
wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen was provided for every hundred
persons in
addition to the carts. In
these were extra provisions and five tents allotted to the
group. A few of the
very old and
crippled were allowed to ride in the wagons, but most of the company,
- men, women and children alike, pulled the loaded
handcarts, weighing
about one hundred pounds each, over the rough trails.
Finally,
after weeks of waiting in the camp at Iowa City, the handcart brigade
got under
way, leaving in five detachments.
The
first, including 226 persons, left on 9 June; the second started two
days later
and a third, mostly Welsh converts began the march on 23 June.
These companies were small, had started relatively
early in the season
and so arrived in Salt Lake before cold weather began.
The
last two companies were not so fortunate.
The
fourth did not leave Iowa City until the middle of July, while the
fifth company
began the long trek 28 July. Both
these companies reached the mountains so late that they were caught in
the early
snows and many perished. Finally,
the Mormon leaders sent out a rescue party.
With their aid the remnants of the last two
detachments reached the city
of their dreams some four months after their start from Iowa City.
Ten
handcart companies made the trip from Iowa City to Salt Lake City
between 1856
and 1860. A book by
LeRoy and Ann
Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, published
by
Arthur H. Clark Co. in Glendale California in 1960 lists the names of
almost
3,000 who took part in this overland trek.
For more information see the book "Handcarts to
Zion"
by LeRoy and Ann Hafen |