History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

430
MISSIONS AND IMMIGRATION.
the example by sending several of his best teams
laden with provisions and clothing, other large supplies
being forwarded by Heber C. Kimball and the
more wealthy of the elders. Each one contributed
according to his means, those who had no teams furnishing
apparel, bedding, and food, and this at a time
when, as will presently appear, the territory was
almost in a state of famine, on account of a second
plague of grasshoppers.
The catastrophe was due mainly to the error in
starting so late in the season from Iowa City, and
to the fact that the companies did not contain a
sufficient number of able-bodied men in proportion
to the infirm, the women, and children. 65 Moreover,
the winter was one of the earliest and most severe
that has ever been known in Utah. The hand-cart
scheme was perfectly feasible, if carried out under
proper management, as was proved by the success of
the first companies, and, in the spring of 1857, by a
party of seventy-four missionaries, who accomplished
the trip to the Missouri in forty-eight days, or less
than half the time needed when the journey was
made by wagon. 66
After the hand-cart disaster, and perhaps partly on
account of the reports sent home by the survivors,
there was a gradual diminution in the rate of emigration,
though with many fluctuations. In 1876 only
1,184 proselytes were despatched from Liverpool, this
being one of the smallest movements recorded. In
1877 the number increased to 1,479, and in 1878 to
1,86*4, but in 1879 fell off to 1,456, about 55 per cent
of the emigrants for the last of these years being of
e5 It was from Iowa City that the late start was made. Stenhouse and
others delight in making out something horrible in the hand-cart business,
and the leaders no better than the vilest criminals. It was an unfortunate
affair, in which the leaders suffered with the rest, but nothing further than
this can be justly charged to any one. Rocky Mountain Saints, 341-2. A biographical
notice of Spencer and his funeral sermon, delivered by Brigham,
will be found iu 8. Lake Tel., Dec. 9, 10, 1868.
^Sloan's Utah Gazetteer, 18S4, 26. In the Deseret News, Apr. 29, 1857, it
is stated that they hoped to make the trip in 40 days.