Description
What Defines Us?
I wonder sometimes if we are too quick to let a single weakness or mistake in someone define them forever. Let me illustrate.
Go back to August 13, 1856, at Florence, Nebraska. The Willie Handcart Company faced a crucial decision—should they push on to the Salt Lake Valley, another 1031 miles beyond them, or should they stay and winter over along the Missouri River. It was a high-drama meeting because there was so much at stake. Levi Savage, one of the sub-captains of the company recorded the following:
“Brother [Millen] Atwood said to me last night that since he had been a member of this Church, with all of his experience, he had never been placed in a position where things appear so dark to him, as it does to undertake to take this Company through at this late season of the year.”
In his diary for the evening of August 13, 1856, Levi said that certain of the leaders “exhorted the Saints to go forward regardless of suffering even to death.” Levi was then invited to speak.
“I said to him that if I spoke, I must speak my mind, let it cut where it would.
“He said, ‘Certainly, do so.’
“I then related to the Saints, the hardships that we should have to endure. I said that we were liable to have to wade in snow up to our knees and should at night wrap ourselves in a thin blanket and lie on the frozen ground without a bed…. I spoke warmly upon the subject, but spoke truth, and the people, judging from appearance and after expressions, felt the force of it.”
George Cunningham was in that meeting and recorded that as Levi spoke,
“The tears commenced to flow down his cheeks and he prophesied that if such undertook the journey at that late season of the year, that their bones would strew the way.”
This counsel from Levi was in direct opposition to what other leaders were counseling. One of them went on the offensive against Levi and questioned not only Levi’s loyalty, but also his faith. In the end, some of the Company did stay, but the majority of them voted to go on.
Fast forward to October 19, 1856, the Willie Company had reached the Fifth Crossing of the Sweetwater River, west of Devils Gate in present-day Wyoming. The last ration of flour was issued to the Company. There was nothing left to sustain the Camp but some hard crackers, and they still had another 56 miles to reach a reported resupply station at South Pass. As the Company stopped at noon to rest, it started to snow.
Could their situation have been any more bleak? They were out of food, malnourished to the point of death, without adequate clothing or shelter, on one of the most exposed portions of the entire trail, and still more than 250 miles from civilization—and it was snowing—hard, cold, and wind-driven.
Just then, four riders came into camp with the news that rescue wagons from the Salt Lake Valley were only a day or two ahead. ‘Get up and keep going,’ the express riders urged. While the Willie Company, indeed, got up and struggled on, the rescue riders continued east in search of the Martin Company.
The Willie Company camped that night at the Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater. It took until nearly 10:00 PM to get everyone to camp. That night it snowed another foot. The next morning, October 20, 1856, the weather was bitterly cold and the Camp was out of food. Where were those rescue wagons? The decision was made that Captain James G. Willie would take Joseph B. Elder and go in search of the rescue wagons.
They rode 10-12 miles to the base of Rocky Ridge. The wagons were not there. They continued on over Rocky Ridge, another 14 miles, and all of this in the face of snow and an “awful cold wind.” Finally, just at nightfall, by the miracle of a well-placed sign, they found the rescue wagons.
The next morning, the rescuers hitched up and went hard for the Sweetwater, reaching the Willie Company just at sunset. Mary Hurren said it best, “They came just in time to save our lives.”
Of Captain Willie, George Cunningham said: “Our captain did his duty. He was badly frozen and came very close to dying. He showed us all a noble example.”
“We all loved Captain Willie,” wrote Mary Hurren. “He was kind and considerate and did all that he could do for the comfort of those in his company.”
In the end, 74 people in the Willie Company perished and many more would have, if not for the heroic ride of Captain Willie—and yet, Captain Willie is the same leader, who urged the saints to have faith and push on from Florence, the same one who challenged and insulted Levi Savage. He was in large part the reason the handcart people were there in the first place.
I am grateful that history has deservedly judged this man a hero, for surely he was, notwithstanding what may be deemed his mistakes. After all, with faith in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, our mistakes need not and should not define us—nor should we allow them to define others—living or dead!
Source:
All information for this story was drawn from Andrew Olsen, The Price We Paid, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2006) p. 80-82, 131-141.
