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The following article was written in 1975
by Charlene Hixon, a charter member of the Iowa City Genealogical Society.
THE HANDCART EXPEDITIONS OF 1856 The Saints who had been gathered from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden. Iowa City was the beginning and the end. It was the end of their trip from home to Liverpool, across the Atlantic to Boston, then by train to New York, on to Chicago and Rock Island, across the Mississippi River, and by rail once more to Iowa City; this was the end. It was also the beginning; the start of a walk of 1300 miles to Zion, located at the City of the Great Salt Lake. The start of a search for the exact location of the campgrounds of the 1856 Mormon expedition would probably begin at the most obvious spot – the DAR marker in Coralville. The big rock stands on the south side of the old U. S. Highway 6, now Fifth Street, in Coralville. It’s at the northwest corner of the Pine Edge Motel; the nearest house number (west) is 1106 Fifth Street. The marker reads: “South of this boulder on the banks of Clear Creek is the site of the ‘Mormon Handcart Brigade Camp.’ In 1856 some thirteen hundred European immigrants, converts 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.” Standing at the edge of the highway looking south isn’t a very satisfactory view. It’s mostly buildings. Even driving around to the new Highway 6, on the Coralville Strip, doesn’t help much, because you can still see mostly buildings. But you know that somewhere on “south” is the place where a Mormon campground was located a hundred twenty years ago. Where did they come? Where were the campgrounds located? Benjamin Shambaugh’s address dedicating the marker for the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1936 stated that Iowa City “was then the terminus of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad.” He said that the Mormons “detrained at the depot, which was located southeast of the original townsite of Iowa City.”1 Where was the depot in 1856? The tracks haven’t moved. Charles Ray Aurner wrote in his Leading Events in Johnson County Iowa History, Volume 1, “It was decided that New Year’s Day, 1855, should see the track completed to the depot grounds in Iowa City. This meant the grounds now (1912) occupied by the Rock Island freight depot.”2 The freight depot was torn down within the past few years. The ground follow the tracks, coming in from the east, and extending through Johnson, Van Buren and Gilbert streets – southeast of the original townsite of Iowa City. These statements were made by Immigrant John D. T. McAllister in his Journal. On 12 May 1856 the emigrants “arrived in Iowa (City) at 10 o’clock. We were all housed in the depot and remained there until the 14th.” And on the 14th, they “commenced hauling our luggage to camp by wagons and handcarts. All was safely lodged in camp by 11 o’clock.”3 It appears that the later groups also were housed temporarily in the railroad depot. The Guthrie (Iowa) Sentinel4 of 21 June 1856 and the Iowa City Republican5 of 23 June 1856 both state: “The company which arrived in New York some months ago are temporarily lodged in the railroad buildings in Iowa City, and an encampment of tents has been formed about two miles from town.” Many of these people were city people who had never pitched a tent, slept on the ground, cooked outdoors or built a campfire.6 The Mormons probably crossed the Iowa River by fording it rather than by using a ferry or toll bridge. The pioneers at times utilized a ford of the Iowa River, which ran from Harrison Street on the east bank to approximately where Myrtle Avenue is today on the west bank.7 This ford, which had a rock bottom, could not be used when the river was high. Another ford across the river was located at Coralville, about the site of the old power plant.8 This seems to have been too far from the railroad station to have been used by the Mormons. It, too, had a rock bottom. There are many references to the location of the camp grounds, most of them stating that it was two or three miles across the river west of Iowa City. Archer Walters said, after arriving on the train: “They dragged our luggage about two miles to the camp ground.” Later, during his stay at the camp, he went to town looking for work. He finally built hand carts every day until time to leave. He was allowed to take his tools on the trip, so that he could “do repairs on the road.”9 In the McAllister Journal,10 during the last two Sundays in May, he notes “very many visitors in camp” and “very many strangers present,” indicating that they were close enough to town for the townspeople to drive or walk out to see the “sights.” The McArthur Journal says they were “engaged in bringing up the handcarts from the city” on 30 May.11 The first two groups left on the 9th and 11th of June. There are several descriptions of the actual camp site to be found. John McAllister says “camp was located on a beautiful hill about three miles from the center of the city. Plenty of wood and water.”12 A description by an Iowa Citian in 1939 says, “….they searched from town across the river, and encamped west of town, on the south bank of Clear Creek. Before summer, there was a veritable city of tents…..The scene of the camp was a pretty spot of green and tall swaying trees, on the south side of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac V. Dennis, Coralville pioneers….”13 The 1870 atlas of Johnson county shows the Isaac Dennis farm west of Coralville.14 Stella McCord, in an interview with Mrs. Abraham Adamson in 1926 when Mrs. Adamson was 82 years old, stated that Mrs. Adamson remembered the scenes of the journey. She was twelve years old at the time. Mrs. Adamson told that “there were 1,300 emigrants camped on the prairie west of Iowa City at the fork of the river.”15 Apparently when Mrs. Adamson said they camped at the “fork of the river” she meant at a fork of Clear Creek. Checking with the 1870 map, there is a fork of Clear Creek between two and three miles from the railroad depot in Iowa City. This fork is located on the Isaac Dennis farm, south of the Dennis home, west of Coralville. A newspaper clipping was located which stated that Andrew Jenson, assistant historian for the Mormon church, had just completed mapping the route of the Mormons across the state with the assistance of Edgar R. Harlan. The article went on to say that “Mr. Jenson and Mr. Harlan found the exact site of the camping ground from which they started” in 1856.16 Andrew Jenson’s field notes recite, “When Iowa City was selected as the out-fitting place for the Latter-day Saints crossing the Plains in 1856, a camping place, out in the prairie was selected about three-fourths of a mile west of the Iowa River, or about two miles west from the railway station in Iowa City.”17 Another piece of evidence is provided by Mr. Rush Dennis, a native of the Coralville area. He is a grandson of Isaac V. and Elizabeth Fellows Dennis.18 According to the 1856 census of Iowa City township, Johnson county, Iowa, Elizabeth Dennis was 27 years old in 1856.19 Elizabeth died at the age of 94 years in 1921 when her grandson Rush was 14 years old.20 He knew his grandmother well, and listened and remembered her stories about the Indians, the Mormons and life in general during the pioneer period. He knows the place where the graves were located, and he told me that the camping grounds had been near by. This was confirmed in the McAllister Journal, where on May 16, he stated that the “camp grave yard (was located) about a quarter of a mile from camp.”21 The Coralville Centennial book, Lest We Forget, showed the following description of the grave sites:22 “When the Mormons came to Coralville in 1856 and 1857 to build their handcarts for the journey to Utah, several of their number sickened and died and were buried near the camp site. It is located on a steep bluff along Clear Creek, almost directly south of Tenth Avenue. It is probably more accessible from University land, entering the area north of the Hawkeye Court Apartments. No mention has been found of the number of graves as wooden markers have long been lost.” Mr. Dennis and Mr. Virgil Bowers took me to see the burial place. Mr. Bowers is a Coralville real estate man and history buff who knew many of the old pioneers. After our hike across the fields to the site, I wrote up the following description of the place: The Mormon burial place lies on the south side of a small creek called Lilly’s Run, which flows into Clear Creek. This is south of Coralville proper, on the south side of Clear Creek. Lilly’s Run flows along the bottom of a very steep bank (about 40 feet high). The bank is on the south side of the Run, and the Mormon Burial place is on top of that bluff. It is a comparatively small area. As recent as the 1930s, it was a grassy place and small mounds could be seen where the burials had been made. At that time the field south of it was a pasture, and it belonged to the Dennis family. In 1974 it was a bean field, but the cultivation curved away as it reached the burial place, and it was covered with very thick blue grass and quite a lot of brush and small trees. It now belongs to the state; it is University property. There are no markers. If there were ever any markers, they were probably made of wood and have been gone for maybe a hundred years. There were two or three large trees on the edges of the burial place forty years ago. Today there were still large trees on the east, and there is a very large trunk of a dead tree standing, marking the west edge of the place. Again, the burial place lies on the south edge of a very small creek. South of it are two fields; then a section of University married student housing and on farther south, West high school. Very early spring or late fall – when there are no crops in the fields – would probably be the only times the place would be accessible, and then only by foot. The burial site was never very large. When reading about the expedition, many deaths and burials are mentioned, particularly from the last two companies that were caught in the mountains by the winter weather. Apparently most of those who made it as far as Iowa City lived through the time they camped here. McAllister lists the following deaths and burials:23 16 May – Elizabeth, stillborn daughter of Catherine and Walter Grainger. 16 May – Adopted daughter of Jay Taylor, aged 5 months. 19 May – Sister Maria, wife of James Shinn, died of consumption, aged 60 years.” From McArthur:24 7 June – Jane, daughter of Ralph and Elizabeth Ramsay, aged 7 days.” From Archer Walters:25 4 June – Made a coffin for a child dead in camp. 6 June – Made another child’s coffin.” There apparently were about six burials, all but one of them children. Other vital records I have found include the following, in addition to the deaths listed previously: Archer Walters:26 30 May – A child born in our tent ½ past one A.M.” McAllister:27 “27 May – In the evening, Sister Jane, wife of John Frew, was delivered of a son, about 10 ½ o’clock. They named him William McAllister Frew. Sister Hardie waited on her. “30 May – A. M. at 2 ½ o’clock Sister Elizabeth, wife of John Lloyd, was delivered of a daughter named Martha. Waited upon by Sister Hardie. “31 May – Sister Elizabeth, wife of Ralph Ramsay was delivered of a daughter named Jane at 4 o’clock in the morning. “1 June – Elizabeth, daughter of Constant and Ann H. Strode and wife of Elias White, born 26th of March 1832, Kentucky, U.S.A., baptized by Elder James Holey, confirmed Elder John Cooper. “Alice Ellenor, daughter of Elias and Elizabeth White, born August 2nd, 1855, blessed by James Holley and John Cooper. “Caleb Crouch, son of -----, born in Birkshire, England, baptized by Elder Edward Frost, confirmed by Elder John A. Hunt. “George Muir and Ellen Bowring were rebaptized by Elder William Heaton. “By order of President Spencer, I married Arthur Maxwell and Elizabeth McAustin.” The births of 27 and 31 May were repeated by McArthur.28 Mention is also made of “Ellenor Roberts, a Welsh girl, (who) was married to Elias Lewis under a shade tree at the Iowa outfitting camp.”29 It spears that this might also have occurred at Iowa City, but I have found no other verification of it. Of course, the handcarts are one of the most interesting aspects of the entire adventure. Upon being requested for suggestions relative to the construction of handcarts, C. R. Dana wrote to F. D. Richards from Manchester, England, on 7 February 1856:30 “Supposing that a suitable person should be sent to the Iowa for that purpose, he should in the first place seek out some good timber adjacent to a saw mill, and near the outfitting point. He should select hickory for axle-trees, red or slippery elm for hubbs, white oak for spokes and rims to the wheels, white ash for fills or shafts, and for making cribs or beds. I am of the opinion that the axle-trees should be sawed two and a half by three and a half inches. “The oak for the rims should be sawed into boards about three-quarters of an inch thick, and ripped into strips three inches wide, or two and a half might possibly do. The timber for them should grow on low ground, as that kind is much easier to bend, and very tough. The axle-trees, hubbs and spokes should be first prepared, so that they could have time to season. “When the hubbs are prepared, the spokes driven and tenoned, the rims should then be mortised, or bored, to receive the spokes. The inside corners of the rims should also be rounded off to prevent the same from gathering and remaining on them. . . . .I am confident that carts would be built that would be substantial, light, and easy to draw; and I will venture to say that they need not cost more than four or five dollars each; for there would be no necessity for any planning, or any polishing, only the arms or spindles at the axle-trees, and a very little about the shafts.” The carts of the Fourth and Fifth companies were made in great haste, due to the lateness of the season.31 John Chislett, who traveled with one of these later companies, says of their construction:32 “They had to be made on the camp-ground. They were made in a hurry, some of them of very insufficiently seasoned timber, and strength was sacrificed to weight until the production was a fragile structure, with nothing to recommend it but lightness. They were generally made of two parallel hickory or oak sticks, about five feet long, and two by one and a half inches thick. These were connected by one cross-piece at one end to serve as a handle, and three or four similar pieces nearly a foot apart, commencing at the other end, to serve as the bed of the cart, under the centre of which was fastened a wooden axle-tree, without iron skeins. A pair of light wheels, devoid of iron, except a very light iron tire, completed the “divine” handcart. Its weight was somewhere near sixty pound.” Josiah Roberson described how the handcart was made.33 “The open hand-cart was made of Iowa hickory or oak, the shafts and side pieces of the same material, but the axle generally of hickory. In length the side pieces and shafts were about six or seven feet, with three or four binding crossbars from the back part to the fore part of the body of the cart; then two or three feet space from the latter bar to the front bar or singletree for the lead horse or lead man, woman or boy of the team. “The carts were the usual width of the wide-tree track wagon, so as to fit the wagon tracks across the meadows of Iowa and the buffalo pastures of Nebraska and Wyoming. Across the bars of the bed of the cart we generally sewed a strip of bed-ticking or a counterpane. On this wooden cart of a thimbleless axle, with about a two-and-a-half-inch shoulder and one-inch point, were often loaded 400 to 500 pounds of flour, bedding, extra clothing, cooking utensils and a tent. “…..The covered or family cart was similar in size and construction, with the exception that it was made stronger, with an iron axle about an inch in thickness at the shoulders and three-quarters of an inch at the point. It was surmounted by a small wagon-box, three to four feet long, with side and end boards about eight inches high. This cart was made for the carrying of children than the open cart. “Two persons were assigned to the pulling of each open cart, and where a father and son of an age and strength were found in one family, with smaller children, they were allotted a covered cart, but in many instances the father had to pull the covered cart alone. “Our six provision wagons were loaded to the bows, with two and three yoke of oxen to the wagon. One four-mule team was utilized for carrying the tents and poles, picking up the feeble, the aged and the children as they became tired on the way. One light spring wagon, with two mules and one riding pony, formed the advance part of our train.” Ann Eliza Webb Young wrote, “My father, being a practical wagonmaker, was to oversee the building of the carts…..He arrived in Iowa City 10th of April, 1856.”34 In Iowa City, Daniel Spencer had found prices high, labor scarce, seasoned lumber difficult to get. So the sisters who had improved the long sea voyage by sewing into tents and cart covers the heavy drilling issued them in Liverpool found immediate use for the tents, but none for the cart covers.35 A Muscatine newspaper noted that “Several dozen of Mormon carts or wheelbarrows have been brought down the river and landed on the levee, destined for the Mormon encampment near Iowa City. The wheels of these vehicles are of the size of the ordinary carriage wheels, and the bed is constructed much like that of a common hand-cart with bows and canvas for covers.”36 On 30 May 1856, Daniel D. McArthur was “engaged in bringing up the handcarts from the city.”37 This was just prior to the departure of the first two companies from the Coralville area.38 Later in the summer, Daniel Spencer wrote from the “L. D. S. Camp, near Iowa City, Iowa, 22 June 1856” to President F. D. Richards:39 “Since we have taken the making of the hand-carts into our own hands, it is getting along beyond our best calculations.” Going along with this is a statement by Stenhouse that: “Elder Chauncey G. Webb bought the wagons – the first of the Chicago make that subsequently became to popular in Utah – and also the material for making hand-carts, and shipped them to Iowa City, to which point the railroad had just been completed. The artisans were selected from among the emigrants, and were required to work without wages, and this they did faithfully if not cheerfully.”40 The Associated Press story from Des Moines said that: “Mr. Andrew Jenson and Mr. Edgar R. Harlan found the name of the blacksmith and the carpenter in Iowa City who made these carts, and the very location of their shops was located.”41 My query to Salt Lake City brought the response that “Unfortunately, we do not have any information on the names and locations of the blacksmith and carpenter.” The Iowa City Press-Citizen carried a feature for several years called “A Fact A Day About Iowa City” which was written by JER (Jacob E. Reizenstein). In an article about the Mormon Handcarts,42 (on 15 September 1948) he stated: “Their handcarts were inadequate for the terrible strain put upon them, but that was not the fault of workmanship, but of the men who ordered them. “They, of course, ought to have ordered sturdy vehicles, covered wagons, or kindred creations, for the trans-continental service demanded. They were built of two wooden wheels, with thin iron tires, and were connected by a wooden axle, on which was mounted a small box, in which they carry the limited worldly possessions of the travelers. These carts were well-manufactured, according to specifications, by a master craftsman, Jared Dondore.” There is a J Dondore, wagon maker, listed in the Directory of Iowa City for 1857, compiled by John Kennedy in 1857.42 It is interesting to me that there was not very much published in the Iowa City newspapers of the day – or at least in the copies of the Iowa City papers of 1856 which have survived. That there was some interest in other areas seems to be evidenced by the fact that the few stories that were printed locally were picked up and reprinted by other papers in the state. Five handcart companies left Iowa City in 1856, and two more went west from here in 1857. In 1858, no handcart companies went to Utah. The last two years of the project, 1859 and 1860, the handcart companies left from Florence, Nebraska, instead of Iowa City. Those people went up the Missouri River to Florence, omitting the overland trek across Iowa. In the Millenial Star, we see: “Let all the Saints who can, gather up for Zion, and come while the way is open for them; let the poor also come, whether they receive aid or not from the Fund; let them come on foot, with hand carts, or wheel barrows; let them gird up their loins and walk through and nothing shall hinder or stay them.”44 |