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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that blazes a trail through history, one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're looking

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Speaker 1: at one of the most grueling mass migrations in US history,

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Speaker 1: the time when hundreds of Mormon pioneers traveled westward on

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Speaker 1: foot in search of a better life. The day was

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Speaker 1: June nine, eighteen fifty six. Nearly five hundred members of

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Speaker 1: the Latter day Saints set out for Salt Lake City,

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Speaker 1: carrying all their supplies in two wheeled hand carts. Many

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Speaker 1: of these religious settlers, commonly known as Mormons, were European

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Speaker 1: members of the Church who had immigrated to the US

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Speaker 1: from England, Wales, Scotland, and Scandinavia. Although they had come

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Speaker 1: from different backgrounds and spoke different languages, they all left

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Speaker 1: Iowa City together with the common goal of reaching the

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Speaker 1: Church's American members in present day Utah. In the nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people headed west along the Oregon

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Speaker 1: Trail and its offshoots, but few had a more difficult

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Speaker 1: journey than the so called handcart pioneers. Nine years earlier,

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Speaker 1: In eighteen forty seven, the first Mormon settlers made the

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Speaker 1: trek to Utah from Illinois, Missouri, New York, and Ohio.

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Speaker 1: They founded Salt Lake City as a kind of sanctuary,

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Speaker 1: a place where members of the church could find refuge

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Speaker 1: from the religious persecution they frequently faced back east. Within

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Speaker 1: a few years, most Mormons in the United States moved

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Speaker 1: west to Utah, at which point the church turned its

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Speaker 1: attention to welcoming converts from Europe. At the time, Iowa

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Speaker 1: City was about as far away best as you could

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Speaker 1: get by railroad. The rest of the journey, whether you

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Speaker 1: were headed for Oregon, Utah, or beyond, had to be

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Speaker 1: made with wagons and oxen. The church generally paid the

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Speaker 1: way for members who sought to reach Utah, but in

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six a string of bad harvests had all

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Speaker 1: but wiped out the travel fund. There were four hundred

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Speaker 1: and ninety seven Mormon settlers hoping to make the trek

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Speaker 1: that year, but the church couldn't afford to provide ox

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Speaker 1: drawn wagons for all of them. The solution came from

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Speaker 1: church leader Brigham Young, who suggested quote let them come

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Speaker 1: on foot with hand carts or wheelbarrows. Let them gird

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Speaker 1: up their loins and walk through, and nothing shall hinder

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Speaker 1: or stay them. It was sound advice financially speaking, as

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Speaker 1: the carts were much cheaper than wagons and oxen, but

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Speaker 1: the idea that nothing would hinder them along the way

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Speaker 1: was a bit too optimistic. None the lefts. On June nine,

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty six, several hand cart companies left Iowa City

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Speaker 1: and began the more than one thousand mile journey to

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Speaker 1: Salt Lake City. There were about one hundred two wheeled

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Speaker 1: hand carts used in that year's crossing. They were three

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Speaker 1: ft wide, five ft long, and fairly shallow. They resembled

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Speaker 1: the luggage carts used in big cities at the time,

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Speaker 1: but if you've ever seen a rickshaw, that might be

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Speaker 1: a more familiar comparison. Basically, though, you would grip the

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Speaker 1: long poles at the front of the cart and pull

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Speaker 1: it along behind you as you faced forward. Each family

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Speaker 1: had its own cart, which was pulled by one or

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Speaker 1: two people, while other family members pushed from behind or

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Speaker 1: else just walked alongside it. The space inside the carts

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Speaker 1: wagon bed was reserved for the families provisions, supplies, and

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Speaker 1: personal belongings. Each cart could carry a maximum load of

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Speaker 1: four hundred to five hundred pounds, and most families used

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Speaker 1: every ounce of that capacity. There were a few ox

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Speaker 1: drawn wagons in each company as well, say one for

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Speaker 1: every twenty carts, but those were only used to carry tents,

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Speaker 1: emergency food, and anyone too young, old, or sick to

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Speaker 1: make the trip on foot. As you might imagine, hauling

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Speaker 1: of five hundred pound hand card across rugged plains and

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Speaker 1: over rocky mountains was an incredibly arduous task. One Mormon

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Speaker 1: pioneer even referred to the carts as quote two wheeled

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Speaker 1: torture devices. Part of the problem was how the carts

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Speaker 1: had been constructed with only meager funds provided by the Church.

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Speaker 1: Most of the hand card immigrants had built their rigs

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Speaker 1: themselves right there in Iowa City, and to stretch that

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Speaker 1: money as far as it would go, the craftsmen had

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Speaker 1: decided to use axles made of hickory wood instead of iron.

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Speaker 1: This worked well enough at first, but over time water

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Speaker 1: and heat caused the wooden axles to swell, splinter, and crack,

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Speaker 1: forcing some of the travelers to abandon their carts altogether

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Speaker 1: and move on with only what they could carry. Some

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Speaker 1: of the pioneers gave up along the way, but the

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Speaker 1: majority struggled on and eventually made it a Salt Lake City.

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Speaker 1: Their experience proved the handcart venture could work, and over

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Speaker 1: the next four years, roughly twenty hundred more Mormon converts

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Speaker 1: made the journey with overloaded hand carts. Lessons from the

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Speaker 1: first groups, like the need for iron axles, made the

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Speaker 1: trips somewhat easier for later pioneers. In fact, some actually

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Speaker 1: reached Salt Lake City faster than if they had traveled

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Speaker 1: by ox strawn wagons. That said, some groups had a

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Speaker 1: much harder time than others. For example, the Willie and

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Speaker 1: Martin handcart companies lost at least a quarter of their

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Speaker 1: one thousand members after being caught in a blizzard in

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Speaker 1: present day Wyoming. It's no surprise, then, that once the

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Speaker 1: church was back on its feet, Mormon converts returned to

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Speaker 1: using ox strawn wagons. All told, about sixty thousand Latter

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Speaker 1: day Saint emigrants travel to Utah before the completion of

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Speaker 1: the Union Pacific Railroad in eighteen sixty nine. Of that number,

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Speaker 1: only about five percent made the trek using hand carts. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: the image of a pioneer family pushing and pulling a

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Speaker 1: heavy wooden cart has become an important symbol in Mormon

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Speaker 1: culture two members. It represents the power of faithfulness and

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Speaker 1: how it can enable believers to endure and ultimately overcome

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Speaker 1: life's challenges. But even for those outside the church, the

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Speaker 1: hand cart pioneers are still a testament to the strength

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Speaker 1: and perseverance of the human spirit. If we believe that

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Speaker 1: somewhere out there a better life is waiting for ourselves

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Speaker 1: and our families, then most of us are going to

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Speaker 1: take that trip, even if we have to walk over

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Speaker 1: a millions steps to get there. I'm Gabe Bluesier and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about

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Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: p d I HC Show, and if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my way

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Speaker 1: at this Day at I heart Media dot com. Special

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Speaker 1: thanks to guest producers Joey Patt and Casey Pegrum, and

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Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another Day in History Class