History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

THE CAMP AT MOUNT PISGAH. 247
families were entirely out of provisions, and their des-
titute neighbors were sorely taxed. 22 A fatal sickness
swept through the camp, and soon there were
not sufficient persons to nurse the sick; frequently
burials were hastened with little ceremony. In the
spring of 1847, Lorenzo Snow was made president of
the camp. The men were put to work wherever they
could get it. Seed was planted, and the result was
enough not only for themselves, but they were enabled
to send supplies to the camp at Council Bluffs. 23
Snow instituted religious ceremonies and amusements
to brighten and encourage them. He describes a dance
in his log cabin, where clean straw was spread over
the ground floor, and the walls draped with sheets.
Turnips were scooped out and in them were placed
lighted candles, which, suspended from the ceiling of
earth and cane, or fastened on the walls, imparted a
picturesque effect. Dancing, speeches, songs, and
recitations varied the exercises, which opened and
closed with prayer.
On each side of the hills where now stands Council
Bluffs could be seen the white canvas tents of a Mormon
encampment, from which arose at sunrise the
smoke of hundreds of fires. After the morning meal,
the men employed themselves in tending herds, in
planting grain and vegetables, or in building houses
for winter. Many of them were excellent craftsmen,
and could fell a tree, and split its trunk into boards,
scantling, rails, posts, or whatever were needed, as
22
It cannot be said that any considerable number died of starvation.
'Only those died of it outright,' says Kane in The Mormons, ' who fell in outof-the-way
places that the hand of brotherhood could not reach ... If but part
of a group were supplied with provisions, the whole went on half or quarter
ration.' 'Articles of diet, such as tea, coffee, sugar, with every species of
clothing, were eagerly stored up, as possibly the last we should ever see.
' Brown's Testimonies, MS. , 24. When starting from Nauvoo, a gentile neighbor
gave me a pound of tea, which through sickness and great suffering was
about all the sustenance I had for some time.' Mrs Richards' Bern., MS., 20.
23
'Parties were sent to the gentile settlements to look for work, food, and
clothing, and elders Dana and Campbell collected about $600 from the rich
gentiles in Ohio and elsewhere.' Snow's Biography, 91.
'