The Garden Grove company of Saints will reach Kanesville, or Council Bluffs, Iowa this week. Kanesville is the last city in Iowa, and 140 miles from Garden Grove. The Missouri River lies in front of them, and on the other side is Winter Quarters.

According to John Crooks, the company at this point consists of "226 people, 59 wagons, 32 horses, 217 oxen, 108 cows, 19 sheep and 33 other head of cattle." They have also brought a "sepporating" threshing machine. The first one to be taken to Utah.

Last Saturday (21 June 1851) the Saints who had remained behind in Garden Grove met together in fasting, and prayed that those who had gone ahead would "reach the Valley of the Mountains in safety." With the exception of two deaths next month, their prayers on behalf of their friends will be realized.

On the 27th of June (this Wednesday for us), Ann Hough Carson will celebrate her 57th birthday. We know little about the details of her life. Of Quaker heritage, born in Pennsylvania in 1794, she was married to George Carson and living just south of Kirtland, Ohio when she and her husband were baptized in 1831 as members of the Church of Christ. They were among the very first members of the newly restored and organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as their Church came to be named in 1838. During the twenty years of their membership, they have faithfully followed the Saints to Missouri, then Illinois, then Iowa, and now they are preparing to take their children and grandchildren to the tops of the Rocky Mountains.

Ann is living at a time when the role of women in the newly created United States is undergoing a major change. As a result of the Revolutionary War, the participation of wives and mothers in the struggle, and the technological and industrial changes taking place, the ideal of the Revolutionary Mother has developed. Since the early 1800's, newspaper articles, books, and sermons have proclaimed mothers to be the chief transmitters of religious and moral values in a child's life. Strange as it seems to us today, these new duties had previously been seen as the sole responsibility of fathers.

From her history, we can surmise that Ann is likely a very modern woman of the time. From her devotion to God and Church, and the values and moral behavior exemplified in the lives of her children, we know that she is also successful in her role as a Revolutionary Mother.

During this week several meetings will be held in Council Bluffs to formally organize the families from Garden Grove into a Company of pioneers.

William Henry Harrison Walton, known as "Harry," will be chosen as Captain. All of the families that have left accounts of the trip note that Walton is not a member of the Church, that he was chosen because he had been to California the year before and is familiar with the trail. Walton is twenty nine. Although no one mentions them by name, traveling with him is his wife, Francis, and three small children, ages four, three and eighteen months. Walton's brother, Dana (age 21), is also with him, along with Dana's young bride, Rebecca Scofield Card. Rebecca is fifteen.

It is customary for the companies leaving Council Bluffs to consist of one hundred wagons, divided into two groups of fifty, and further divided into tens. Each group chooses their captain. Additional families will join the company at this time under the direction of Apostle Orson Hyde.

John Telford will be chosen as one of the captains of fifty. Brother Telford is well equipped for the journey into the wilderness. He has three wagons packed with flour and provisions, seeds for planting, and other necessities. One of his large wagons is loaded with bolts of cloth, fine linen, and etc. which will last the family for years after they reach their destination; all of which they will divide with poorer families after they reach the valley. John's wagons have been built especially for the trip and according to his own specifications so that no space is wasted. Two of his wagons are extra large and he also has a light one-horse wagon for his family to ride in. It is equipped with an especially built and upholstered seat to add some comfort to the long, weary journey across the plains. There are only four of his children left however to make this journey with him, as three died during the persecution.

William Huff Carson will be chosen as captain of the ten wagons comprising the Carson family. William has two yoke of oxen and two yoke of cows. Later in the journey he will trade the cows for oxen. William's brother-in-law, Patison Griffith has two wagons, one drawn by oxen and one by cows. The cows serve the extra purpose of providing fresh milk.

The Zimmermans are close friends of the Carsons, and will remain so in the years to come. The family consists of George Zimmerman, who is 69, the oldest member of the company, his wife and six daughters. Their oldest daughter is a widow with a young child. Since Father Zimmerman's outfit consists of just one wagon, heavily loaded with a year's supplies, it can readily be seen that the older members of the family will have to walk practically all the way. Because of Father Zimmermans age and the fact that he had never been around cattle they had engaged a teamster, Jonathan Starley to drive their wagon. Upset with Starley for being "cruel and profane to the animals" they have discharged him and engaged the seventeen year old son of Widow Clyde. Cynthia Clyde with her five children had lived in Garden Grove. She will leave her son with the Zimmermans and travel to Utah with another company that will set out later in July.

We have two more families to meet in this letter.

The Crooks and the Miller families are travelling together, and are in the Third Ten under Captain John Ellis. They have one wagon, six oxen and four head of loose cattle.

George Crooks will be appointed clerk for the Garden Grove Company, or the Walton Company as it will sometimes be called. His responsibility will be to keep a journal recording the events of the journey. He will do a fine job. But in 1853, the family will take the book to California, and not realizing its value, will allow their children to play with it. Some of the pages of the journal will lost, and others scribbled over. Luckily, a good portion of it will survive and provide us an almost daily account of the journey from this point on.

Next week we will cross the Missouri and begin the long trek.

 

Part 2

Part 3