Location:
Iowa City: 1856

The Handcart Pioneers

Thousands of immigrants from England and Wales who joined the Church and the trek west took on a new form of transportation to Salt Lake City. They couldn't afford wagons after leaving their homeland, so they pulled handcarts. The human-powered handcarts, which were envisioned by Brigham Young, proved to be one of the most brilliant—and tragic—experiments in all western migration.

Iowa City was the end for the west-bound railroad in 1856. It was here that the convert emigrants were outfitted with handcarts to begin their trek. With nearly empty carts they made good time across Iowa to Council Bluffs. Here they acquired the remaining provisions for their long march.

The Handcart

This was a human-powered wagon, really a wooden wheelbarrow of sorts. Although modifications in design were adapted as experience tutored, the standard handcart "box" measured three-feet by four-feet, with eight-inch walls, centered over a single axle with wagon-style wheels. From the front box of the handcart extended a cross bar against which the person pulling could lean into the load and pull. Some handcarts were covered with a bow-frame canvas assembly. Fully loaded, a handcart could hold around 500 pounds of provisions and possessions, within which adults were allowed 17 pounds of clothing and bedding, children 10 pounds. Frequently even this amount became onerous, and belongings were abandoned all along the trail.

Perpetual Emigrating Fund

The Church inaugurated the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) in 1849. The PEF used Church assets and private contributions to assist poor emigrants from the eastern U.S. and Europe on their journey to the Salt Lake Valley. The funds were extended as a loan rather than as a gift, and sponsored emigrants signed a note obligating themselves to repay the PEF after they arrived in Utah. This obligation could be met through cash, commodities, or labor. It is estimated that prior to its dismantling in 1887, the PEF assisted more than 30,000 people to travel to Utah by wagon, by pulling a handcart or (after 1869) by rail.

Ten Handcart Companies

Ten companies of handcart pioneers walked the 1,300 miles from Iowa City (the end of the rail line) to Salt Lake City between 1856 and 1860, pulling and pushing all that they owned. Of the total of 2,962 handcart immigrants, about 250 died along the way, 220 of them in companies four and five, the Willie and Martin companies of 1856.

"Many a father pulled his cart, with his little children on it, until the day preceding his death" (LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration 1856–1860, [1960], 102).

"This heroic episode of Mormon history exemplifies many of the enduring qualities of nascent Mormonism itself: thorough organization, iron discipline, unswerving devotion to a cause, and limitless self-sacrifice. . . . The true Mormon Trail was not on the prairie but in the spirit" (Arthur King Peters, Seven Trails West [1996], 145).

Tragedy of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies of 1856

Two handcart companies of poor European emigrants—980 people and 233 handcarts—started on the journey across the plains late in the year due to a series of mishaps. Eventually, nearly 220 members of the two companies died on the high plains, the majority freezing to death in early snowstorms near the Continental Divide in central Wyoming. Many others suffered trail-side amputations of fingers, toes, and legs due to frostbite. Rescue parties from Salt Lake City averted further tragedy.

"Perhaps their suffering seems less dramatic because the handcart pioneers bore it meekly, praising God, instead of fighting for life with the ferocity of animals and eating their dead to keep their own life beating, as both the Fremont and Donner parties did. . . . But if courage and endurance make a story, if humankindness and helpfulness and brotherly love in the midst of raw horror are worth recording, this half-forgotten episode of the Mormon migration is one of the great tales of the West and of America" (Wallace Stegner, "Ordeal by Handcart," Collier's, 6 July 1956, 85).

C.C.A. Christensen

"At the campground we encountered our first trials, in that we had to give up books. . . . We were only allowed to take fifteen pounds in weight for each person who was to travel with the handcarts, and that included our tinware for eating, bedding, and any clothing we did not wish to carry ourselves. . . .

Our train consisted of between thirty and forty handcarts. Each of these had an average of five person. . . . It was usually necessary for small children to ride in the handcart which the father, mother, and older brothers and sisters of the family pulled. . . .

The sick and the blind women [in the group] were allowed to ride in one of our freight wagons, for we had three wagons drawn by mules, which carried our tents" ("By Handcart to Utah: The Account of C.C.A. Christensen," Richard L. Jensen, trans., Nebraska History, winter 1985, 337–339).

Emma James

July 1856

Concerning the council meeting that was called after the companies had been a Camp Iowa for six weeks, Emma James recalled: "It was now six weeks since the companies had arrived at Camp Iowa, Emma James remembers. [Concerning the council meeting which was called, she says,] We were called together in a meeting one evening and there was quite a bit of guessing as to the reason for it. It was a large group that gathered, circling the leader. The meeting was called to order, one of the brethren offered prayer, then we were told for the reason for the counseling. We were told it was 300 miles to Council Bluff which was the actual place for starting the trek and that was just a mile to what we had to go to reach the valley. We would have carts, such as they were, but the season was late and bad weather could prove dangerous to us if we were in the mountains. Even if we had no trouble, we would be late getting to Utah. There had been much talk of these dangers by experienced men in camp, but I think that the thing which I will remember for the rest of my life and wish that we had heeded was said by a Brother Savage. With tears streaming down his cheeks he pleaded with the people, "Brothers and sisters, wait until Spring to make this journey. Some of the strong may get through in case of bad weather, but the bones of the weak and old will strew the way." I can remember that when he finished there was a long time of silence I was frightened. Father looked pale and sick. I turned to mother to see what she was thinking, and all that I saw was her old determined look. She was ready to go on tomorrow. There were many others like her. We really didn't have much choice. There was no work here for us to keep ourselves through the winter, and our family had to live. "We must always put our trust in the Lord", said Mother, and that was that.

"'There was nearly one hundred people of the companies who decided to winter over and come in the spring. The majority voted to go on as soon as everything was ready. July 15th, under the direction of Captain Willy, with 500 people, 120 carts and four or five wagons we left Camp Iowa for an outfitting station at Council Bluffs. It was great fun pulling empty carts and imitating the wagon drivers with their 'eeh' and 'hah''" (Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark, ed., Journal of the Trail [1997], 30–31).

J.D.T. McAllister

The Handcart Song

Verse 1:
Ye saints who dwell on Europe's shore
Prepare yourselves for many more,
To leave behind your native land,
For sure God's judgments are at hand.
For you must cross the raging main
Before the promised land you gain,
And with the faithful make a start,
To cross the plains with your handcart

Chorus
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.

Verse 2:
As on the roads the carts are pulled
'Twould very much surprise the world
To see the old and feeble dame
Thus lend a hand to pull the same.
And maidens fair will dance and sing—
Young men more happy than a king,
And children too, will laugh and play
Their strength increasing day by day.

Verse 5:
And long before the Valley's gained,
We will be met upon the plains
With music sweet and friends so dear,
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we'll march along,
And thank the day we made a start,
To cross the plains with our handcart.

Chorus
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.

["The Handcart Song," Pioneer Songs (1940), 21]

Levi Savage

July 1856

"Brothers and sisters, wait until spring to make this journey. Some of the strong may get through in case of bad weather, but the bones of the weak and old will strew the way. . . . 

"What I have said I know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you, and, if necessary, I will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us" (Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark, ed., Journal of the Trail [1997], 30–31).

Journal photographs courtesy of Infobases, Inc.