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10 “Forward”

At the time of his mission call to Great Britain, Perrigrine was serving as first counselor in the bishopric of the North Canyon Ward, the first ward organized in Sessions Settlement. The diary Perrigrine kept from the time he left Salt Lake City until he returned is filled with interesting information about what he saw, what he did, and what intrigued him most about Great Britain. Although he plodded through his missionary activities, Perrigrine spiced his writing with unusual sights from his travels and insights that had eluded him before because of his humble beginnings and simple faith.

Although Perrigrine gave barely a hint of the purpose of the mission in his diary, William Clayton, who was also called, wrote, “On Saturday the 28th of August, 1852, I received an appointment to take a mission to England to preach the gospel and sustain the Revelation on Celestial Marriage, given by our beloved Prophet July 12 1843.”1 Perrigrine’s mother also reported the mission call in her diary on September 28, 1852, “Special confrence P G caled to go to England to preach Sund 29 Orson Pratt preached on the plurality of wives the first that it has been made public.”2 She also noted the marriage of Emorett and Perrigrine.

Two days before he left, Perrigrine married Fanny Emorett/Emmorett Loveland (1838–1917). She was the eldest of five children of Chester Loveland (1817–86) and Fanny Call. Thus she was a niece of Perrigrine’s two wives Lucina and Mary. Emorett was born December 13, 1838, at Amherst, Lorain County, Ohio. As a small child, she endured the trials of expulsion from Missouri and Nauvoo. She was only eleven years old when she crossed the plains as a member of Perrigrine’s company.

According to family tradition, when Perrigrine received his mission call to England, he told Brigham Young he had a young woman in mind to marry. Brigham reportedly said, “Go get her and marry her before you leave.” They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City on September 13, 1852. Emorett was fourteen. Perrigrine returned from Great Britain in 1854, and although one family record states that Emorett traveled to New York to meet him on his return, Perrigrine himself did not mention it. On his way back to Bountiful, he spent some time in the northeast and in Iowa City, where his sister, Sylvia, and her children joined him for the journey to the Salt Lake Valley.

Sidebar: Emorett Loveland Sessions

Family sources agree that Emorett lived in a large adobe house with Lucina, her aunt and Perrigrine’s senior wife. A three-story building with thirty-six rooms, their house served as the only hotel between Ogden and Salt Lake City. As Carlos wrote, its being post office, dance hall, and Pony Express stop made it an important and outstanding building for its day. It has been described as having an ice house on the northeast side; a large room on the north side for storing clothing and dried and canned foods; and on the southeast side a kitchen with two ovens: one was a large bake oven eight feet long and five and a half feet wide. Another oven for baking pastries and bread had a steel-plated top over which large kettles hung from hooks.a

Emorett Loveland crossed the plains in Perrigrine’s pioneer company and later married him when she was fourteen years old. Courtesy Suzanne Anderson.

Emorett bore eleven children. She was a faithful Relief Society member, and she served in the presidency of what was then the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association, an organization for the teaching and edifying of young women in the Church. She, as well as the other wives, devoted much of her time to canning or drying fruit from the orchards. She was also a relentless weaver, as many women were in those days, and she maintained a special room for weaving in the old adobe house. At her seventieth birthday party, some of Emorett’s children decided she should give up weaving, so they took apart her loom and threw it out an upstairs window. Emorett wept at the sight of her precious loom in smithereens.

Because she had trials in her own life, Emorett could empathize with others who were engaged in compassionate work. One of her sons lost an arm in an explosion, another lost an arm and a leg in an electrical accident, and another was stabbed while performing his duty as sheriff at Downey, Idaho. Five of Perrigrine and Emorett’s children died before she did.

In her later years, her youngest daughter, Samantha, cared for her. When she was afflicted with her final illness, which lasted four years, Eliza Baird cared for her. She died May 12, 1917, of asthma and edema.b

 

Perrigrine began his mission diary the day he left for his mission to England. His account of the journey back across the plains includes observations he could not include earlier about the country, sights that intrigued him and happenings that challenged all the members of this corps of missionaries. In his account, Perrigrine took pains to list each man who was in the group. And he described a rather harrowing sail across the Atlantic.

Perrigrine’s Missionary Diary

SEPTEMBER 1852

Oct ^Sept^ 15- 1852 left my family and friends in the Valey of the Great Salt Lake in company with seventy three elders and some others as passingers to go to the nations of the Earth to Preach the Gospel of the son of God as reveiled by the Prophet Joseph Smith and others this was a trying time with me and mine to part for years yet by the spirit of God I moved forward on my mission in a mess with on the fifteenth hierd brother Moses Daley to cary me acrost the plains paid him fifty dollars and Erick G. M. Hogan - Oct Sept three of us in one wagon left the city of the saints at four Oclock with my family going severil miles with me in a carriage I then took leave of them and left them in the hands of the Lord traviled ten miles and campt for the Night with some of the company as we had not all got together and found my self [on the way] to the State of Missouri 16 Started erly and crosed too mountains and overtook the balance of the company and when we all got togather and Organised for traveling acrost the Plain Daniel Spencer [headed for England] (capt) President3 & John Vancott [VanCott, going to Birmingham, Worcestershire, Cheltenham, and Herdfordshire] & James Brown councilers John Brown Capt Horis S. Eldrig [Horace Sunderland Eldredge]4 marshial & Orson Spenser [destined for Berlin] chaplin & Wm Clayton [to Sheffield and Lincolnshire] Clerk Names of the company Brother/Brethren [Jacob] Houts [Houtz] & Moses [M.] Cluff

Thomas W. Treat/ Thom. W. Treat [Manchester Conference under the Presidency of Elder Perrigrine Sessions]

Wm Glover Wm Pitt5 [both to the Sheffield Conference]

Moses Thirstin [Moses Thurston, England]

Daniel. Mc Arthur6 [Daniel Duncan McArthur, Scotland]

A. D. L. Buckland [DeAlondas Lafayette Buckland, Nova Scotia and British North American provinces]

John Porter

David Grant [Liverpool Conference]

Osmon Duel [Osman Merrit Deuel, England]

John Parey [John Parry, the son of Patty Sessions’s second husband, England]

James [P.] Parks7

Wm Tailor/Wm Taylor [Germany]

Canute Petrson/ Canute Peterson [Norway]

Alfred Lampson [Alfred B. Lambson, West Indies]

Darwin Richerson [Darwin Charles Richardson, West Indies]

Aaron Fear Farr/Aaron Farr [Aaron Freeman Farr, West Indies]

Joseph Melet/Joseph Milet [Joseph Millet, Nova Scotia and British N.A. provinces]

Edwin Martin8 [Edward Martin, England]

Andrew L Lameraux [Andrew Losey Lamoreaux, France]

Dan Jones9 [president of the Wales mission, 1852–55]

Samuel Bergis [William J. Burgess Jr., England]

Chancy G. Webb [Chauncey Gilbert Webb, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Hull, and Carlisle]

Charles A. Harper [Charles Alfred Harper, England]

Isaac Alred [Isaac Allred, Warwickshire Conference]

Melin Atwood [Millen/Mellen Atwood, Scotland]

Charles Smith [Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire]

Sylvester H Erl [Sylvester Henry Earl, Staffordshire and Shropshire]

John A Hunt [John Alexander Hunt, Leicestershire Conference]

James Pace [Bedfordshire Conference]

Levi L. Riter [Levi Evans Riter, Derbyshire Conference]

John S. Fulmer [John Solomon Fullmer, England]

Richard Coock/Richerd Cook [Richard Cook, Warwickshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norwich]

John Okley/John Oakey [John Degroot Oakley, Norwich Conference]

John . C. Hall [John Charles Hall, England]

Wm Woodert/Wm Woodard [William Woodard/Woodward, London Conference]

James G Wiley [James Grey Wiley/Willie, Southhampton and Dorsetshire]10

Wm Empy/Wm Empey [William Adam Empey, Preston Conference]

John Mayor [George Mayer, Germany]

Elias Gardner [Newcastle-upon-Tyne Conference]

Noah T. Guyman [Noah Thomas Guymon, Cheltenham Conference]

Daniel Toner [Ireland]

John Mc Donal/John Mc Donald [Belfast and Londonderry]

Daniel Daniels [South Wales]

Thomas Jerimee/Thomas Jerime [Thomas Evans Jeremy, Wales]

George C. Riser11 [George Christian Riser, Europe]

Erick G. M. Hogan [Erik Goudason Midbeen Hogan, Norway]

George Percy/Gorge Percy [Denmark]

Samuel A. Woley [Samuel Amos Woolley, Hindustan]

Jessa Haven/Jessa Havan [Jesse Haven, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa]

Lenard I Smith [Leonard Ishmael Smith, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa]

Wm Walker [William Walker, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa]

John Robinson [Cheltenham Conference]

Jessa Turpin/Jessey Turpin12 [Jesse Turpin, West Indies]

Eligah Thomas [Elijah Thomas, British Guiana]

Wiliams Camp/Williams Camp [William Camp, Texas]

Washington Joley [Washington Lafayette Jolley Sr., Texas]

Daniel Miler/Daniel Miller [Daniel Morgan Miller, Iowa]

Echo Canyon, located near Evanston, Wyoming, was a major transportation corridor for the pioneer companies journeying to the Salt Lake Valley. Courtesy Church Archives.

Sept 17 Traviled 12 miles 18 camped in Echo Canion13 and met brother/Elder Hide [Hyde] and severil companies going to the Valie/ on their way to Salt Lake14 the wether cold and some snow 19 staid in Camp Orson Pratt gave us a lecture/lecter that was good it was on the subject of the Organisation of matter15 20 Campt/Camped on yellow crick 21 camped to the soda springs [on Muddy Creek, fifteen miles west of Ft. Bridger] continued cold 22 pased Ft Briger and campt on blacks fork16 rained and snoed all nite 23 campt on hams fork [near the present town of Granger, Wyoming] met the maile going to salt lake/from the States 24 campt on big sandy [near the confluence of the Big Sandy with the Green River] 25 met jc Little and his company and severil companies17 campt on the same streame all well 26 sunday laid by in the fore part of the day and Daniel and Orson spencer preacht to the company/Camp, started about noon and campt on pacific crick - 27 pased through the sout[h] pass [Wyoming]18 and met the sugar mill company with some fifty wagons19 and campt on sweet water 28 went through the South pass camped on Sweet watter below the rockey ridg[e] [Wyoming, which was a critical obstacle for the handcart companies] pased the last companies/emigrants of Saints going to Salt Lake/the Valey - 29 pased the Ice springs20 and see a the first buffalow/saw abig herd of Buffalo campt at the three crossings of sweet water the stream being low - cool wether 30 campt near what is caled the devils gate.21

Perrigrine met up with Orson Hyde in 1852. Hyde, a member of the Twelve, had been living in Kanesville, Iowa, where he was responsible for sending the Saints on to the Salt Lake Valley. Courtesy Church Archives.

OCTOBER 1852

Oct 1/1852 pased a trading post22 and also Independance rock23 and the salaratus lake24 and campt on greaswood crick rained and snoed all night see some buffalo I stood gard and nearly chiled to Death wet as a rag 2 killed one [buffalo] and campt on the platt[e] [River]25 and laid by on Sunday 3 preaching by Orson Pratt and others on the Organisation of man or the Spirit of man before this World was26 Oct 4 crossed the Plat river and met some of the Oficers going to fill their apointments at salt Lake27 in the evening held a sosial meting all well 5 fine wether and all well campt on the Boxelder [Box Elder] crick in the black hills [today’s Laramie Mountains, the first mountains seen by travelers moving westward] cold and stormy wether pased some Indians but verry friendly too us 6 campt on the Labont 7 campt on Dead timber crick 8 campt on the platt near a large band of Indians caled the Shians [Cheyennes] 9 arived to Ft Larime [Laramie]28 wrote a letter home to my family Done some trading and went on our journey down the plat river on the south side 10 pased a large band/Body of Indians caled the Oalallies/Ogalalies [Oglalas] traidid off a number/some of our worn out horses with them and got fresh ones all friendly 11 Sunday made a long drive campt near scot[t]s blufs [Bluff] snoed and rained all day/nite Cold winter Wether one foot of snow 12 campt near chimney rock after pasing the bluffs that look like some old Ancient ruins29 chimney rock rock is a great curiosity as it is a stone monument that can bee seen too a long distance/this is about 100 feet high Stands in a plain and looks like an Old Chimney this can bee seen for many miles - 13 all well 14 pased severil/many Goverment teams/traines of wagons going to Ft/fort Larime Campt at the mouth of ash hollor [Hollow]30 killed a buffalo 15 pased over to the south fork of the platt through snow three feet deep Camped on South Fork met another traine of wagons at the croseing crosed in ice and watter up to the botom of our wagons and went down the stream on the south side31 Buffalo by the thousan 16 Determined to lay in camp the day and kill some buffalo the company killed twelve dried some/laid over killed a number and dried the meet got plenty of tallow killed 12 at elevin Oclock at night there was a strange horse came into the herd of horses/to our horses and mules that was garded by six men with sadle and bridle too Blanke blankets gun acutriments/uquipage and a large tin cup tied to the horn of the sadle that made a clatter and the horses took afrite/scared the herd and away they went/they run the sound of their feet was like the rore of distant thunder and the gard could not stop them nor tell what had scared them they run by a man that camped near to us a gentile his horses came by him he caught one that had a rope on and jumped on his back and away they went without hat or coat or Boots the horse with him and kept up with the band large droves of Buffalo were alarmed and the nois of hoofs on the frosen ground was anoughf to terify the stoutest hart and we all believed that Indians had got our horses and killed vanderhoof the missing man we were th[e]re left too hundred miles from any place or house the gard could tell nething only they herd the tin cup rattle but so dark they could see nething we watcht all nite not a horse in camp passable reader you can imagin our fearing the rest of this Cold nite no wood or fuel but the Buffalo Chips and dare not make a fier about day lite the Man came with all the horses they run some seven miles/about ten miles before they could bee stopt/he could stop them this left us with fealings that would be hard to discribe the traine left with out teames to persue our journey but as the providence of God would direct it one of our company caught a horse as they pased him mounted in a moment and went with the band but could not stop them as the tin cup was ratling all the time and the blankets flying at the time the company suposed that the Indians had got the horses and killed the abcent man but about four Oclock in the morning he came into camp with all safe yet a mistry about the horse that caused the frite the horses being a state of excitement so that it was with much trouble that they could bee kept in camp untill morning. I think we were a Glad set of men and all most forgot the seans of the past nite this stray horse w[e] caught and took along with us and know not whare she came from But no doubt belonged to Robers this hurt our teams and cripled severil lost their shoes and made them wild as it did us in that dark nite the clatter of the horses and the Buffalo Soundid like distant thunder 17 Sunday traviled until about twelve some fifeen miles campt and held a meting Orson pratt spoke on the prexistance of man before he came here which was verry interesting to the ming [mind] of man32 the horses took severil frites and with much trouble we kept them dureing the night the strey horse was kept in camp and no information yet Obtained yet many Opinions about it but a prevaileing opinion was that it was the horse of some thief that came to steal our horses and lost his and it is plaine that the hand of God was over us for good and with much trouble we kept them 18 continued our journey met a large drove of sheep [on the way to Fort Laramie to winter] see thousans of buffalo campt near the sand hills [Sand Hill Ruts campsite] 19 Campt near the junction of the too rivers Plats [the North and South Platte Rivers] on what is caled cot[t]onwood springs here lays thirteen men out of seventeen died with the Colery [cholera] in too days33 here the mail pased us going to the states 20 persued our journey fine roades and wether 21 camp all in good health 22 met severil traines of merchants going to salt Lake and the maile pased us going to the states and severil merchants frome the Valey going to St Louis 23 and arived in Ft Carney34 - sunday made a long drive campt for the [night] wrote a letter to my family some Indians about our camp but all friendly to us 24 campt on the bank of the platt and a bout dark their was a hevy fier discovered at a short distance burning the grass drove with a firse wind the fier came from five too six miles an hour here the grass was verry hevy and before we had time hardly to do any thing the horses & the fier was on to us/came the blaze at least ten feet high and seamed as tho nothing could save our horses and wagons but as the Lord did direct it we sucseedid and got the horses into the river and as the fier came up when with in a few feet the wind changed and blew directly from our wagons and caused it to slack its speed and by the greatest exertion we kept it from us and our wagons/and we back fiered and with the greatest exertion we kept it from our wagons and it pased on here I could see the hand of the Lord that had bin most visible over us thus far on our mission it the fier pased on in a few moments and left the plaines/cuntry black and no grass for our horses yet the heavens lited by the fier as it was dark and gloomy and before morning it began to rain hard -35 25 in the morning a dark kirtin hung in the heavens over the earth/the burnt Prarie the prarie being black as far as you could see/as far as the eye could extend untill about twelve/noon when it seamed to slack raineing when we started traviled about three miles and it comenced to raine again and continued untill dark campt on an island in the river to get grass 26 good wether continued our journied campt on a slew too Oficers on their way to Fort carney campt with us and a hevy fier pased us on the oposite sid of the river that lited the heavens so that we could se[e] to read by the lite there off and the Earth trembled by the power there off it soundid like a earth quake in the distance 27 continued our journey, and erly in the morning we comenced to meet the Paunee Nation of Indians which we counted about nineteen hundred with a large amount/drove of horses and Mules that they had packed and holeing [hauling] their log poles/they had many packed with their log poles all seamed quite friendly and tried to beg br[e]ad and tobaco powder and lead/But Beged for Powder and lead and saw about as many More on the oposite side of the river pased through their old Village36 whare they had previously raised corn and had a large town campt near the river the/and our horses took an other run but not far some Indians came along that started them 28 snoed all day and was cold got our horses on an Island and cut some coton wood trees for them to eat the bark/for the horses to eat the Bark here was seventy five yoke of Oxen Burned to death in the yoke they belonged to Goverment here it was thought Best to apart of the Company to go ahead with strong teams as our provisions were gone men and teams getting week 29 left the river and campt in the bluffs here the camp thought best to divide and those that had good teams to get through as soon as possable as horse feed was scarse and provision too here the teams of many became week and the men were obliged to walk with poor/wornout shoes and blistered feet and not a nough to eat this was taken with out a murmer here we had to divide the provision all we had in camp and make our best way too the Missouri river acording as the teams could stand it left one wagon 30 continued our journey 31/30 crosed salt crick/river on Sunday left one wagon all well 31 left camp camp at four oclock in the morning and came to the forks of the roade one leading to platt ville and the other to Old Ft Carney [Kearny] here we/I parted with brother Orson Pratt and many others of the Elders campt on a small crick twelve miles from Platt vill the wind blowing a gale hard and cold[.]

NOVEMBER 1852

Nov 1 Started at too in the morning before lite came the snow began to fall hard eat our last provision lost the road severil times in the Blinding snow that fell about one foot came to the Missouri river and all got acrost [by ferry] here we overtook some of the brethren that went ahead whare we left the plat river got to Platvill we campt all togather and held a meting in the evening that cheared our souls and lit up the candle of inteligence in the Elders and it seamed as though we could not part yet in the morning we had it to do the Gifts of the Gospel was manifest among us the spirit of provesy [prophesy] rested upon many of us this was a time that will long bee remembered by me 2 bid each other good by and I went as far as canesvill [Kanesville, or Council Bluffs, Nebraska] staid to Joseph Lanes and slept with Wm Walker 3 in the morning visited her that was Rosiley [Rosilla] Cowin she has marid a man by the name of Baley/She had bin maried to my Father [a plural wife] but had apostitised and Maried a man by the name of Baley37 saw many of my Old aquintancies but cold in their spirit 3 and it seamed as tho a cloud of Darknes hung over those that once were saints staid to brother Robert Richey and found him a faithful saint and wiling to receive instruction Brother Wm Glover slept with me it [is] still raineing and cool/cold 4 met with some of the Elders that had crost the plaines with me and brother George P[arker]. Dikes [Dykes] met with us and gave us some instruction and information/a history of his mision in England38 the storm cleared off but very cold/cool wether 6 Sunday morning met with a small congragation and was cal[le]d to speak to them in connection with those/with Severil that had crosed the plaines the meting pased off and a good spirit manifest in the evening held a meting to brother Richeyes and the spirit of the Lord was with us/had a good time staid all nite 7 went to the Stage office whare I had paid my fare to Ft Desm Desmoins [Des Moines]39 but they said they could not go that day brothers Clayton Glover and Fulmer and I hiered a man by the name of Stevens to take us through I took passage to Iowa City some three hundred miles staid to the tavern 8 startid again in a wagon on my journey staid/stoped to brother Hendersons at Omans grove 9 I staid/stopt to Hamblins snoed all day 10 the wind blew and the snow flew and was very cold found brother Osman Duel left ^by the stage^ about the midle of a thirty mile prarie with brother Coock tiered out and given up that they could never could get through we took them in and took terns in faceing the storm and cold and all got through at a late hour Staid to a tavern/ Mores 11 continued our journey stade to Millers/Stoped to a tevern 12 staid to the stage stand/Stoped to the stage house all well 13 took dinner to Ft Desmoine and brother Glover Fulmer Cook Wm Clayton and Coock took the stage and brother Duel and I continued our journey staid to Tavern/Harises whare we had some/the Bigest dish of fun with our teamster [I] ever injoyed as he was drunk and anew pare of Pants on and could not unbuten them in the case of extreme immergency and of all the times ever had in a Tavern this hedid [headed] all 14 Sunday made a long travil/drive and put up to a Tavern/the stage tavern went to a Methodist meting whare I was some/much amused to see them try to convert poor sinners by telling them how some poor yong man had died and gone to hell with out being converted 15 started erly and put up/stoped to/at the stage Tavern/stand all well but cold and stormy and falbout six inches of snow on the ground 16 sai staide to the old trading house/stand made a long drive stormy and cold wether/intence Cold 17 arived in Iow[a] city found my sister Sylvia and family all well here I was left a lone as Brother O M Duel continued his journey/went on 18 found many old friends that was glad to see me and I was glad to see them as some of them had crosed the plaines with me three years before going to the Gold mines in California 19 went and made a viset/visited with her that was Margaret Dote she had maried with Wm Mikel/Mikiel had a good visit wrote a letter to Daniel/D M. Repshire 20 copied a part of my journal and got out an apointment to preach in the baptist church 21 atendid the baptist church and herd (mr) beldin preach met my apointment the bell was [rung] and house well filled/litue [lighted] and quite a congragation asembled and three priests altho a tremenduous storm of snow good atention paid but a hard place to preach I gave liberty for remarks but nun made by them all seamed friendly/satisfied and tretid me with respect and gentility and many came and shock hands the Priests with the rest and bid me Gods speed on my Mission 22 wrote a letter to Daniel D. MArthur and done some other writing cloudy wether and some storm 23 wrote a letter to my family and copied some songs40

“Resurrection Song” by Wm C^l^ayton

When first the glorious light of ^truth^
Burst forth in this last age
How few there were with heart so bold
Tobey [sic] it did engage
Yet of those few how many
Have passed away
Have passed from Earth away
And in their graves are sleeping
Till the Resurection Day

How many in Missouris plains
Were left in deaths embrace
Pure honest hearts to good to live
In such a wicked place
And are they left in sorrow
And in doubt to pine away
Oh no in peace theyer sleeping
Till the Resurection [Day]

And in Nauvoo the city where
The Temple cheered the brave
Hundreds of faithful saints have found
A cold but pieceful grave
And there they now are sleeping
Beneath the silent clay
But soon theyl share the glories
Of a resurection day

Our Patriarch and Prophet too
Were massacreed they bled
To seal their testimony
They were numbered with the dead
Ah tell me are they sleeping
Me thinks I hear them say
Deaths icy chanes are bursting
Tis the Resurection Day

And here in this sweet pieceful valey
The shafts of death are hurled
And many faithful saints are [caled]
Toenjoy a better world
And friends are often weeping
For their friends whove pased away
And in their graves are sleeping
Till the resurection day

Why should we mourn because [in life]
These seanes of toil and paine
Oh hapy chang the faithful [go]
Celestial joys to gaine
And soon we all shall follow
To the relms of endless day
And taste the joyous Glories
Of a resurection day

24 rainey and bad wether 25 cloudy and cold done some writing 26 left the city on the ^4 PM^ stage for Muscatene [Muscatine, Iowa] arived there at too A. M - roads verry bad in deed coldd wether ro^a^de on a slead staid to the American house in good health 27 went to Wapaloo [Wapello, Iowa] to Enoch B. Tripps my cousin found them all well 28 preacht in the cort house to a large congragation with good atention and a good spirit manifest with them wether more pleasant 29 took stage for burlington [Iowa] from thence to montrose/Mont Rose crost the Mississippi river to Nauvoo put up/staid to [t]he Mansion House 30 saw the Mother of the Prophet Joseph she was quite feble but recollected me and apered quite glad to see me saw Emma/Emmy the Prophets Wife and his Mother she was glad to hear my voice but could not see me Emma seamed verry cool and indifferent and though so well well aquainted in days gone by seamed to bee a stranger to me and to that spirit [that] caracturized her and the Prophet when he lived41 and she has four children but looked as though of atruth they were without a Father they once had evry thing looked gloomy about the mansion the Spirit of God has departed Nauvoo and the home of the Prophet[.]

DECEMBER 1852

Dec. 1 afte[r] Breckfast I visited the place whare I had lived and hardley one thing to mark the place [t]he house moved away and the Orchard distroyed from thence to the Temple of God found the west end of it standing some fifty/fifteen feet high the maine body thrown down levil with the ground the stones that once looked bright and cheared the spirits of the beholder when now it is a mass/heep of ruins crumbling to ruin and decay42 nething but ruin and decay and desolation atracks the eye in the City of the Prophet where the Angels of God have/had visited the Saints and now the power of evil Spirits haunt and have controle over the few inhabitance of the City visited some old friends found them cold/cool and indifferent in regard the things of the kingdom of God crosed the river and again took the stage for Keakuk/keokuk found a steamer/Steam Boat the Cate Kerny left the City/levy at elevin in the evening stopt to the severil ports on the river Dec 2 landid in Quincy at nine in the morning in good health fine wether the snow all gone stoped to hanibal [Hannibal] Mo and went into a slaughter house whare they killed too hundred head of hogs and one hundred head of cattle this looked like murder indeed43 stopt to many little towns along the river 3 landid in St Louis about nine in the morning found Brother H. S. Eldridg and other Elders/ some of the Salt Lake brethren atendid a conference/with the saints in this City/of Elders and herd a report from the St Louis branch which seamed good 4 bought some goods and sent home to my family returned/went to the Boat staid on board all nite and in port 5 Sunday morning one boat blew up at Alton [Illinois] and killed the captin and some others the corps of the captin was brought on board of our boat to carry to Pitsburg44 left port at noon/twelve in the day warm wether and a fine day stopt to the fort and discharged freight had a fine dinner and topt off with ra[i]sons Almonds and aples with other fine things to eat and fine/splendid singing from some ladies the day past off fine nite came on our bote glideing along the river 6 morning came all rite entered the mouth of the Ohio river pased some small towns dark came on and a hevy shower of raine came on and the boat could not runn laid up to a wood yard until morning - 7 pased on up the river and at too oclock in the after noon I preacht on board of the boat to the passengers with good atention and this opened a field for many questions and had the opportunity to talk much one man by the name of Gus Believed and after imbraced the Gospel and family and came to the Valey 8 fine wether pased many fine and flourishing towns and landid at Luisville/Lewisvill [Louisville] in the evening went and see Mr Porter the Giant45 his hith [height] is seven feet and eight inches and and w[e]ighs too hundred and fifty lbs and very lean in flesh 9 from thence to Cincinnati landid 10 at four in the morning and in the evening at seven took the cars for N. Y. took dinner in collumbus Ohio the Capital of the State and took super in Cleaveland [Cleveland] 11 thence to Dunkirk [New York] here we mised our roade took the rong cars and rode ten miles and had to walk back/and went ten miles got off in a dark nite and had to walk back on the track this tiered me verry much left againe at/took the cars at ten in the morning with brother Riser and 12 landid in New York/N. Y. at ten in the morning on the train found some twenty of the Elders from the valey held a meting with a/the few saints here and the Spirit of the Lord was pored out upon us all had a refreshing time staid to a tavern and rote a leter to my family 13 paid my Passage to Europe on the Ship caled the American Union Capt Done bought provesions for the voige and got on board in company with Elders T. W Treat James Ben Brown James Wiley/Willey Daniel McArthur Charles Smith George Piercy Sylvestr H Erle Edward Stevenson Nathan .T. Porter George Moor Melin Atwood John Okeley David Grant Moses Cluff Jacob Houts Jacob Secres Mc Donal George Riser P G. Sessions Edmond Bunker Samuel Glasco46 14 wrote a letter to my Family one to Iowa City one to Wapeloo [Wapello, Iowa] 15 traveled through the City [New York] went in to the Museum and Theater and see/saw a seedog/seadog [Clayton called it a “living Sea Tiger.”] this was a day of Amusement saw/to see six Naked Women or nearly so and to see the Activity of the Actors and the strongest man in the World47 16 left the docks and Ancred/Ankored in the river 17 was toed out of the harber/to see out of the harbor by a stemer found a fair wind and a hevy gale blowing/but in a few minits blowing a Gale this made some/many of the company sick in a few minits the sea roleing mountain high I was sick for a short time 18 big wind Made the See role Mountainy high this made me so sick that I hardly went on deck for the day it storming hard runing before the Wind but a fare wind here we Organized Benjamine Brown President/Pres. my self & Sylvester H. Erl councilers John Okely/Oakley clerk Charles Smith chaplin 19 - wind continue to blow hard but in fornons [forenoon] 20 fare day and wind the wether warm as sumer and the pasingers laying a bout the decks like pigs while the vessel roling and pitching over waves mountains high 21 warm/faire wether and wind as spring/summer saw one Whale at a distance the brethren a little better 22 held a meting and the spirit of the Lord was with us/laid hands on those sick and they wer healed this cheared is [us] up all well (faire wind 23 all well held our meting and the wind faire and fine 24) 25 crismas morning a hevy gale the see looking like mountains covered with snow and the wind blowing the snow there we spent the day with some Catholicks and all kinds of men and wimin hores and Masters cursing and swareing & drinking here the night was spent in this way with severil fites to make it interesting to me some sick and groneing Vomiting and so thick that the room smelt like a pig pen more then the home of human beings I can not discribe my fealings but siffise it to say that if Jonah was in the belly of hell so was ^am^ I with my brethren here I lay in my birth/berth & see the lise/lice cralling on persons that made the scene more interesting while I am holding my self in my birth or else I should have been throne out in the slush by the roleing of the vessel the night pased of in this way48 25 fare wether and warm but a hevy sea untill evening the sea became calm and I preacht to the Pasengers with good atention one or too of the Brethren sick but were healed by the laying on of hands wind Blowing 26 a perfect gale blowing and the sea roleing mountains high and some times it would go/role over the/our Ship here we caled upon the Lord/the Elders togather and Preyed and the Lord herd our Prayers and the Gale ceased Altho we were in the bowels of hell we were herd 27 held our meting and the blessing of the lord was with us and thanked the Lord for his Protecting care for us the wether cold and stormy 28 cool wether and a man died and in a few minits was soed up in a blanket and throne/throwed over board by the sailors with no other serimonies then God dam him except he has gone to the shark Land this scene is a novil one to me to see the spirit in mankind/man when at sea not a friend to drop a tear 29 fine wether and Meting as usual 30 held meting and the Gifts of the Gospel were injoyed by us 31 fare wind and has been since we left port/have not changed Sail since we left New York[.]


Notes


1. George D. Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995), 415.

2. Donna T. Smart, Mormon Midwife: The 1846–1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997), 179.

a. Ada Sessions Eddins, “Perrigrine and Emorette Loveland Sessions,” typescript, [5]. Copy in possession of editor.

b. Lucille Hansen, “History of Fanny Emorette Loveland Sessions,” Daughters of Utah Pioneers history, 1957, 5. See also Ada Sessions Eddins, “Perrigrine and Emorette Loveland Sessions.”

3. Information on missionary assignments came mostly from the Millennial Star, January 1853 and a supplement for 1853. Some assignments, of course, changed as different needs arose. Biographical information came from Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History, 1901–36); Susan Easton Black, Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1848, 50 vols. (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), and other miscellaneous sources. Information on the captains of handcart companies came from LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856–1860 (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1960).

4. In 1852, Horace S. Eldredge was appointed to preside over the St. Louis, Missouri, conference as well as any emigration parties leaving from there.

5. Pitt was the leader of Pitt’s Brass Band, which performed in Nauvoo and along the Mormon Trail.

6. McArthur became the captain of the second handcart company, which left June 11, 1856, and arrived safely in Salt Lake City.

7. Parks became captain of the seventh handcart company, which left Iowa City on or about June 12, 1857. It comprised all the Scandinavian Saints, but since Parks did not speak Danish, he resigned in favor of Christian Christiansen.

8. Martin was captain of the fifth handcart company, which left Winter Quarters, Nebraska, on August 25, 1856, and in which Sarah Crossley, who later married Perrigrine, traveled. “Sarah Crossley Sessions: Member Martin Handcart Company,” typescript, 1, copy in possession of editor. Also, a list is provided in Journal History, November 30, 1856.

9. This was Jones’s second mission to Wales. His first was in 1845. Dan Jones was jailed with Joseph Smith at Carthage in 1844. In 1849 he, Parley P. Pratt, and others went on a southern exploring expedition, scouting out the territory three hundred miles south of Salt Lake City.

10. Willie later became captain of the fourth handcart company, which left Winter Quarters, Nebraska, on August 18, 1856. He placed the number of deaths at sixty-seven in his company of five hundred. LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1960), 92, 193.

11. George Riser became president of the German Mission, 1854–1855.

12. Jesse Turpin died on the frontier on the way home from this mission.

13. A narrow, sixteen-mile canyon west of present-day Evanston, Wyoming, Echo Canyon was the site of breastworks the Saints built in 1857 when threatened with an invasion of troops to quell a rumored Mormon rebellion. From pioneer times it has been a major transportation corridor, which included the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express, the first transcontinental railroad, and now Interstate Highway 80.

14. Orson Hyde, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, was disfellowshipped for about six months in 1835 but previously had been a successful and dedicated missionary. At the time of the journal entry, he was returning from Kanesville (Council Bluffs), Iowa, where he had been presiding officer of the Church. As president of the Quorum of the Twelve, he was charged with sending the Saints, many of them destitute, on to Salt Lake City. In fact, it was in Hyde’s home on December 5, 1847, that Brigham Young was unanimously voted by the Twelve to be President of the Church. He and his counselors were sustained in a conference on December 27, 1847, at the newly constructed log tabernacle at Kanesville. Hyde published the Frontier Guardian in Kanesville. In 1851 a letter from Brigham Young instructed Hyde to urge the gathering and evacuation of the Saints to Utah by 1852. One of the last to leave, Orson Hyde sold his press and moved his family back to the Salt Lake Valley. See Howard H. Barron, Orson Hyde: Missionary—Apostle—Colonizer (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon, 1977).

15. On the same day, William Clayton wrote, “At 11 o’clock the brethren were called together, and, after singing and prayer Elder Orson Pratt read the new translation of the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis, and also the Revelation on Celestial Marriage, given to the Prophet Joseph July 12, 1843, giving many explanations and much instruction on various passages and points of doctrine contained therein, all of which will be highly beneficial to the Elders during the present mission.” George D. Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1991), 422.

16. Blacks Fork, a tributary of the Green River, runs north out of the Uinta Mountains in Utah.

17. These were among the twenty-three Mormon pioneer companies containing approximately five thousand people that crossed the plains during 1852. However, Stanley B. Kimball’s comprehensive listing of pioneer companies does not list J. C. Little as one of the company leaders. See Kimball, Historic Resource Study, 136–50.

18. South Pass over the Continental Divide, where rivers begin to flow west instead of east, is the gateway to and the easiest exit from the Rocky Mountains.

19. In its entry for December 31, 1852, Journal History quoted the Millennial Star of April 1, 1852: “One of the most important moves which have been made for the temporal prosperity of the Church . . . is the organization by Apostle John Taylor of the “Deseret Manufacturing Company” with a capital of fifty thousands pounds sterling; and having for its object the establishment of manufactories in Deseret. The first important operation . . . has been to take out to Utah the entire machinery and apparatus for making and refining of three hundred tons of sugar from beets each season. . . . at a cost of two thousand five hundred pounds sterling and . . . it will require about fifty teams and wagons to convey it from Council Bluffs to Great Salt Lake City.”

Journal History further reported that President Brigham Young had written Elder John Taylor, who was in Europe, suggesting he investigate purchasing machinery to build up the industry in Deseret. Elder Taylor sent 1,200 pounds of sugar beet seed with a returning missionary.

In the spring of 1852, Taylor visited Arras, France, noted for its sugar industries. A convert, Philip De La Mare, who had assisted in translating the Book of Mormon into French, accompanied him. They incorporated and raised about sixty thousand dollars. The machinery, in the charge of three Elders and thirty mechanics, left Liverpool on March 6, 1852. Elder Taylor met the ship in New Orleans and transferred the brethren and machinery to a steamboat on the Mississippi River bound for St. Louis. There it was loaded on wagons that could not carry the heavy machinery. De La Mare went east to secure more wagons. A man named Charles H. Perry sold him forty large schooners on credit. On July 4, 1852, they left Leavenworth with six or eight yoke of oxen, each transporting 5,000 to 9,000 pounds of iron machinery. They traveled into fall, dealt with snowstorms, lost cattle, and risked starvation. On October 7, 1852, Salt Lake City heard that the company had lost eighty head of cattle during a storm, and Joseph Horne was sent with provisions. At the Bear River they had to leave several large boilers behind. By the time they reached Provo, fifty miles south of Salt Lake City, it had taken them five months to make the 1,200-mile journey.

Efforts to make sugar in Provo failed. In 1853 the equipment was moved to the Salt Lake City temple block, where the first molasses was made. In 1854 the factory was moved to Canyon Creek, now Sugar House, where good molasses was made, but sugar-making was never successful. Everything was done right, but one critical piece of equipment, the retorts, was never ordered. The retorts were needed to burn the bones to make charcoal that purified the molasses.

By 1860 the factory was instead used to make paper. But Brigham did not give up. In the 1890s, sugar-making began in earnest and in some areas lasted for more than a hundred years. Mary F. K. Pye, “Sugar Industry in Utah,” in Journal History, December 31, 1852.

Perrigrine may have been unaware of the dramatic circumstances surrounding his casual allusion to the sugar mill company—and the transport of the first sugar-making equipment west, as well as to the United States as a whole. See Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, 2d ed. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993), 116–20.

20. The original pioneer company of Brigham Young discovered an ice spring buried under the prairie turf. Eight inches down, diggers found a foul-smelling pool, but a foot below the surface of the water they found a four-and-one-half-inch layer of ice, which William Clayton said was “as clear as I ever saw and good tasting.” Hal Knight and Stanley B. Kimball, 111 Days to Zion (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1978), 184–85.

21. Devil’s Gate is a narrow gap in a rocky spur about 300 feet deep. The Sweetwater River runs through it for about 500 yards.

22. William Clayton wrote on October 1, 1852, “At Devil’s Gate we passed a small Fort, lately erected by a Frenchman for a trading post, to trade with the Indians and emigrants. . . . The Fort is composed of a good hewed log-house, and a strong yard for his stock, other sides being about 8 feet high, also built of hewed logs.” Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 432.

23. Like most travelers on the trail, Perrigrine climbed the turtle-shaped rock and carved his name on it. This was four and one-half miles east of Devil’s Gate.

24. On the westward journey, Perrigrine’s mother, Patty Sessions, wrote on Tuesday, August 24, 1847, “At Independence Rock I went up on the Rock got a piece off of the top to carry along we have got sallaratus plenty just before we come to this Rock the lake that had the best was at the left when we came.” Perrigrine had seen the saleratus lake on that earlier date, and he and other pioneers used saleratus like baking soda. See Smart, Mormon Midwife, 96.

25. At Mormon Ferry, today Casper, Wyoming, the missionary company reached the North Platte River, which, as Perrigrine recorded in his account, they followed to its confluence with the Missouri near what is now Omaha, Nebraska. The Oregon-California Trail and the Mormon Trail basically paralleled the Platte River, crossing it when necessary.

26. The “others” referred to included Orson Spencer, who subscribed to the idea that Adam came to this earth with a resurrected body. Orson Pratt, on the other hand, believed in the literal reading of the Bible. Perrigrine, however, does not state a preference. William Clayton wrote, “The chaplain Orson Spencer addressed the meeting for an hour and a half on the doctrine of our father Adam coming to this earth in the morning of creation with a resurrected body &c. He read extracts from the New translation of the 1st and 2nd Chapters of the Book of Genesis, and the Prophecy of Enoch to maintain his position [Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible]. He was listened to with great attention. He was followed by Elder Orson Pratt on the same subject, who read more copiously from the above mentioned works, followed by deep and reasonable remarks. He takes the literal reading of the scriptures for his guide, and maintains that God took the dust of the earth and moulded a body into which he put the spirit of man . . . while Brother Spencer endeavors to substantiate the position taken by President Young viz. that Adam came to this earth with a resurrected body, and became mortal by eating the fruits of the earth which was earthy. The subject was finally left in much difficulty and obscurity as it has been from the beginning. The Brethren are evidently getting tired of arguing on a subject in regards to which so little is known, or satisfaction desired, and on which there is so great a difference of opinion. Elder Pratt advised the Brethren to pray to God for a knowledge of the true principles and it appears evident that when ever the question is decided, it will have to be by revelation from God” (Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 433–34; see also Breck England, Orson Pratt [Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1985], 177).

27. It is difficult to know exactly to what officers Perrigrine referred, but in late October 1852 Benjamin G. Ferris, Secretary of the Territory of Utah, arrived in Salt Lake City, as did Justice Leonidas Shaver. The wife of Benjamin G. Ferris became very critical of Mormons, in particular of polygamy. She wrote a book, The Mormons at Home (1856; New York: AMS, 1971), a scathing diatribe against those who had settled the Salt Lake Valley. See also William Mulder and E. Russell Mortensen, Among the Mormons (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), 262–65.

28. Founded as Fort William in 1834 and operated by the American Fur Company, Fort Laramie was Wyoming’s first trading post. Later it was called Fort John, by which name the Mormon pioneers knew it. In 1849 it became Fort Laramie after Jacques LaRamie, a French trapper. See Kimball, Historic Resource Study, 56; Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 311 n. 46; and Knight and Kimball, 111 Days to Zion, 134.

29. Kimball, Historic Resource Study, 55, writes, “Along this stretch on both sides of the river are some of the most famous and dramatic topographical features of the Mormon and Oregon-California Trails. Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff guarded the Oregon Trail, while Indian Lookout Point and Ancient Ruins Bluff sentineled the Mormon Trail.”

30. Ash Hollow was a famous campsite on the Oregon Trail. It was approximately forty miles east of Ancient Ruins Bluff.

31. On the south side because the bluffs prevented passage on the north.

32. William Clayton wrote, “Orson Pratt delivered a very interesting discourse on the nature and character of the God we worship. Showing that he is the same God who is worshipped by all the millions of worlds besides this. That it is not the person of God we worship, but the attributes or properties which constitute the Godhead. He also proved that there is a substance which fills all the elements of eternity called the Holy Spirit, separate from the personage of the Holy Spirit. He referred to many passages in the Bible, Book of Covenants, and modern revelations, to sustain his arguments. The discourse was highly interesting and full of instructive matter” (Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 447). Clayton also said that Pratt was writing a lengthy piece on the premortal existence of man.

33. According to Madsen, Journey to Zion, 327, “A great scourge was cholera. Diarrhea and dysentery were close rivals, but when the Asian cholera appeared on the plains in 1849, with outbreaks for several years afterwards, few wagon trains escaped losses.” Clayton’s journal does not refer, as Perrigrine’s does, to the deaths.

34. Fort Kearny, Nebraska, established 1848, was on the south bank of the Platte River, southwest of what is now Kearney. It was named for Colonel S. W. Kearny, who according to the diary of President Polk, “was also authorized to receive into service as volunteers a few hundred of the Mormons who are now on their way to California, with a view to conciliate them, attach them to our country and prevent them from taking part against us.” Quoted in Preston Nibley, Exodus to Greatness (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1947), 181.

35. The prairies were tinder-dry in the autumn. Fires started for almost no reason and could consume everything. After the railroad’s advent and the building of settlements and farms along the westward trail, sparks ignited prairie fires that leveled farmhouses, sometimes burned the owners and their families, and wreaked havoc upon cultivated farmlands unless some plowed, unplanted land kept the flames from spreading. Fires were also ignited by Indians, however, perhaps to harass travelers or to clear the plains for grass to grow better the coming spring. Madsen, Journey to Zion, 215.

Regarding this fire, William Clayton wrote on October 24, 1852, “Soon after our noon halt we passed 5 wagons loaded with stores for the Sutler [civilian merchants] at Fort Kearney. They say they passed large bands of Pawnees, both last night and this morning, on their way down the river; and that the Indians have fired the grass below.” He continued to describe the scene, then stated, “The excitement lasted about an hour, and through the mercy of God we escaped, I had almost said without a hair of our heads being singed, but there were some who had their eyebrows scorched. . . . The brethren also plainly saw the power of God manifested in our behalf in the wind striking the fire from us, when only about three rods distant.” Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 454–55.

36. The village referred to was probably on the Loup Fork of the Platte River, where the original pioneers had first encountered the Pawnee Indians. According to Kimball, Historic Resource Study, 54, the Pawnee were “the largest indigenous tribe in Nebraska, numbering as many as 10,000 people. The nation was centered on the Loup River and habitually demanded gifts from white travelers near Shell Creek.” Shell Creek joins the Platte near Columbus, Nebraska.

37. Rosilla Cowan married David Sessions, Perrigrine’s father, as a plural wife in Nauvoo. She had briefly joined the emigrating Saints in 1847, but she and Patty jousted for dominant position in David’s affections. Rosilla tried to persuade David to turn back with her. After his refusal to do so, she went back to Nauvoo on her own. Smart, Mormon Midwife, 64–66, 142. Apparently, according to Perrigrine’s entry, she lived in Council Bluffs at this time.

38. George Parker Dykes spent a total of ten years as a missionary in England, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark. In 1849 he served a mission to Great Britain, and in 1850 he and Erastus Snow served as two of the first missionaries to Denmark.

39. While a Ft. Des Moines had existed near Montrose, Iowa, across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois, the fare was to a location at or near the site of the present Des Moines, Iowa.

40. Perrigrine copied four hymns between the dates of November 18 and November 24, 1852. Each one is dated near the words, “Copied Iowa City.” The first is entitled “‘Resurrection Song’ by Wm C^l^ayton.” The others are titled “Joseph Smith and Hyrum,” “Union Hymn,” and “The Mullinium Hymn.” Perrigrine does not say who wrote the last three. Perhaps they are all creations of William Clayton. The last three are printed in the appendix.

41. Emma Hale Smith had borne up under severe afflictions during the persecution of the Saints, which culminated in the murder of her husband, Joseph. After the martyrdom, she differed with Brigham Young on several issues, property ownership and plural marriage being the most divisive. Consequently, she declined to leave with the departing Saints, instead living out her life in Nauvoo. In 1847 she married Lewis Bidamon, a member of another religion. Her mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, spent her last years with Emma, at least from Perrigrine’s 1852 visit until Lucy’s death on May 14, 1856.

Lucy expressed her respect for Emma in the history she wrote of her martyred son. She said, “I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship, from month to month, and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, which she has ever done.” Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1958), 190–91.

Why Perrigrine wrote in one version that Lucy appeared glad to see him and in the other that she was glad to hear his voice but could not see him, is a mystery. Perhaps it was just a figure of speech, or perhaps she could not see him because of circumstances or ill health. Lavina Fielding Anderson, in researching Lucy Mack Smith, discovered that she had at least four other visitors who left a record of Lucy and her health after Perrigrine’s visit. One was Horace S. Eldredge, who crossed the plains with Perrigrine in 1852 and who visited Lucy in July 1853. Others were a British convert, Hannah Tapfield King; Frederick H. Piercy in 1853; and Enoch Tripp, a cousin of Perrigrine, in 1855. Not one mentioned any problem with Lucy’s eyesight. In letters he wrote to John Bernhisel, Joseph Smith III referred to his grandmother’s health and said that she had “her senses to the last moment.” Lavina Fielding Anderson, ed., A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2000), 793–95, 796.

42. “On 9 October 1848 the temple was gutted by an arsonist’s fire. Several walls were razed by a tornado on 27 May 1850. The temple stones were used in many buildings in Nauvoo, including the old Nauvoo jail just behind the temple on the next block. The remaining wall was purposely leveled in 1865.” Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and T. Jeffrey Cottle, Old Mormon Nauvoo, 1839–1846: Historic Photographs and Guide (Provo, Utah: Grandin Book, 1990), 39.

43. What Perrigrine commented on was later described by Upton Sinclair: “It was like some horrible crime committed in a dungeon, all unseen and unheeded, buried out of sight and memory.” The Lost First Edition of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (Memphis, Tenn.: Peachtree, 1988), chap. 3. It took until 1906 before something was done about the conditions in the meat-packing industry. In his annual message to Congress, December 5, 1905, Theodore Roosevelt recommended “that a law be enacted to regulate interstate commerce in misbranded and adulterated foods, drinks and drugs.” He signed the bill into law on June 30, 1906. The act ruled that all foods coming within federal jurisdiction must be prepared in a cleanly manner from pure and wholesome materials and must be free from any added substance that might render them injurious to health. Gerald H. Carson, “Who Put the Borax in Dr. Wiley’s Butter?” American Heritage 7 (August 1956): 62, 95; and Robert C. Alberts, “The Good Provider,” American Heritage 23 (February 1972): 46.

44. By 1850 the steamboat was in its glory, with fancy gingerbread designs in the woodwork and Victorian elegance. The Civil War disrupted the steamboat industry, and it never fully recovered. From the beginning, boiler explosions had been a problem. See Leonard V. Huber, “Heyday of the Floating Palace,” American Heritage 8 (October 1957): 15–25, 96–98. On March 30, 1852, the Saluda, a ramshackle side-wheeler, left St. Louis with 175 people aboard, ninety of them Latter-day Saints bound for Council Bluffs and across the plains to Salt Lake. It was impossible to get through the ice and pass Lexington, Missouri, until the ice finally stopped running. On April 9, 1852, the captain, Francis T. Belt, had the fireboxes filled and the boilers fired. Somewhat due to carelessness on both the captain’s and the engineers’ part, the boilers burst and killed at least twenty-five Latter-day Saints and injured possibly an equal number more. See William Hartley and Fred Woods, Explosion of the Steamboat Saluda (Riverton, Utah: Millennial, 2002); R. Scott Lloyd, “Town Memorializing 1852 Steamboat Disaster,” Church News (March 16, 2002): 14.

The explosion mentioned by Perrigrine must have been a typical one; it is not chronicled with others. Conway B. Sonne, Ships, Saints, and Mariners: A Maritime Encyclopedia of Mormon Migration, 1830–1890 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 175–76.

45. By Perrigrine’s and any early standards, Mr. Porter was surely a giant. According to Frederick Drimmer, “A giant, in common usage, is a person who is exceptionally tall. . . . By general agreement if a man is over 6 feet 6.7 inches, he’s a giant.” Drimmer explained that the reason a person may be so tall may be due to good health, a pathological condition, big parents, or may even be a fake. Frederick Drimmer, Very Special People (New York: Citadel Press, 1991), 215–18.

46. William Clayton reported that he and other elders (Glover, Walker, Woodward, Haven, Riter, Hunt, and Smith) did not like the crowded conditions on the American Union, so they decided to book passage on the ship Columbia, which sailed the same day. Their passage was $22.50 each. See Smith, Intimate Chronicle, 480.

47. It was probably the Barnum Museum. In 1841, P. T. Barnum went into the museum business when he purchased Scudder Museum on Broadway and Ann Streets in New York City. By 1852 he had developed the Traveling Barnum Caravan Museum Show—and there were others, as well. Of course, during that period and into the twentieth century, sideshows were very popular.

In December 1852 a circus called R[ichard] Sands & Company Circus and Menagerie performed in New York City. One Casimir Odell was billed as “Hercules.” This may or may not have been the show Perrigrine saw. Some of the nostalgia and excitement of those earlier days can be found at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where the Ringling Brothers Circus originally wintered between 1884 and 1918. For further information, see Stuart Thayer, Annals of the American Circus, 1848–1860 (Seattle: Dauven and Thayer, 1992), 58–59, 185.

48. Edward Stevenson, one of the elders called to Gibralter, recorded in his diary, “August—Considerable business has been done during the conference among which was the appointment of 106 elders on missions to the various parts of the habitable globe; some to America, some to Europe in its different parts—to England, Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, Prussia, Gibraltar, Denmark, Norway; and also China, Siam, Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Australia, the Pacific, the Sandwich Islands. . . . Though the appointment of these elders was short notice, no complaining; but all are up and doing making ready as minutemen all to go without purse or scrip, trusting in the Lord who will shield us. . . . We have had a quick passage across the plains of forty-six days. All well and greatly blessed. . . . We have purchased our provisions and cooking utensils all complete. We shall have to be our own cooks and I think we will be a happy lot of bachelors. . . . Saturday, December 25—Merry Christmas was highly applauded and such a one I never before experienced. As this is rather rougher than common it is about as much as we can do to keep in our berths. The tinware is rolling and rattling together with the provision chests from one side of the ship to the other. Heavy waves often come over the top of the ship. The waves look like mountains heaving. It looks sometimes as though the ship, when going over a large wave, was going to plunge under, but rises with the next. One Frenchman got thrown by a wave against a rope and cut his head and wet him and one of the brethren all over. The sea looks quite angry and boisterous. Perrigrine Sessions was thrown on a provision box and took a ride from one side of the cabin to the other and back while a woman was thrown down, taking a slide across. Many others laughed and some were somewhat alarmed” (Lesson Committee, comp., “Early Foreign Missions,” in An Enduring Legacy, 12 vols. [Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1977–89], 10:189).