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I Never Had Less Trouble

When we speak of the rescue of the handcart people of 1856, it was not just those brave boys who went out on the trail, it was the unified effort by the saints as a people that brought this heroic effort.

It was October 5, 1856, when President Brigham Young initially called for volunteers to go out and bring the handcart emigrants in off the plains. He continued the call for volunteers and help well into December until all the emigrants were delivered safely. He even sent out requests to the different Bishops in the settlements.  John Lowe Butler, the Bishop in Spanish Fork, Utah, was one of those. He recorded the following in his journal:

“Brother Brigham gave orders in all the settlements to rig up teams to go back and bring the sufferers in. Now the snow was from six to fifteen feet deep and there was no road broke across the mountains at all. Well, the word came down to me to rig up six teams and send two men to every team for teamsters, and there were to be four mules or horses to each wagon, and the wagons were to be loaded with horse feed, provisions, clothing and every comfort of life that could be sent. Now this all was to be done by donation.

“So, I called the people together and told them the situation of their brethren and sisters, and then we had to rig up teams and send men out for them. This was in December, and it was bitter cold. The snow in the Valley here was eighteen inches deep on the level and it was snowing in the mountains all the time. Well, we got them all rigged up, and I never had less trouble getting up such an expedition, for the Saints were willing and on hand to do almost anything. 

“My son, Taylor, I sent out with them to superintend the expedition. He drove a wagon as well, and he told me how he found the Saints, and how the road was. He said that there were teams reached nearly from the City to Fort Bridger. They had to have men shoveling out snow and breaking the road, and in some places the snow was up above the wagon bows on each side. And they found the Saints in an awful condition, some with their feet froze, and some with their fingers froze, and they had no food to eat, and he said that he never saw such a sight before, it was dreadful. And he said that they [the rescued] were so overjoyed they did not know what to do hardly. 

“Well, they were all picked up and fed and clothes given to them. When they camped at night there were a whole lot of the boys would break a road to a tree and cut it down for firewood. And when they were coming back, they never saw the sun for six days and it snowed all the time, and they had to break the road over again. And in coming down the big Mountain they never locked a wheel but gee’d off and let the hub of the off wheel drag in the snow and so they came down. They brought some of the folks down to Spanish Fork and I never saw such objects in my life as they were.”

Imagine if the call to minister was answered in such a fashion today. 

Source: https://archive.org/stream/goldtreas00dalt/goldtreas00dalt_djvu.txt 

http://www.tellmystorytoo.com/member_pdfs/kenion-taylor-butler_238_218.pdf