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KEARNEY — In 1856, a
company of Mormons was pulling their handcarts through Nebraska on their way
west when a herd of buffalo stampeded the group’s cattle near the current
town of Shelton.
The company lost 30 cattle
and three days searching for the animals — three days that might have saved
lives later when they were caught in a snowstorm in Wyoming and about 215 of
1,076 people in that and another company died, according to history reports.
They were the last two companies of five that left for Utah that year.
Kearney will be the host June 2-3 for a 150th anniversary celebration of the
handcart trips.
A member of the handcart company wrote in his journal of that 1856 incident
near Shelton:
“About this time, we reached Wood River. The whole country was alive with
buffaloes, and one night — or, rather, evening — our cattle stampeded. Men
went in pursuit and collected what they supposed to be the herd; but, on
corralling them for yoking next morning, thirty head were missing. We hunted
for them three days in every direction, but did not find them,” according to
the book “Handcarts to Zion” by Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen.
Between 1843 and 1869, almost 360,000 pioneers crossed Nebraska on the
Oregon, Mormon and California trails.
The Mormon Trail, on the north side of the Platte River, began in 1846 with a
large group traveling from Nauvoo, Ill., for the Great Salt Lake Valley in
Utah.
Mormons, a common nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, were the only ones to use handcarts as they went west.
To protect themselves from Indians and other dangers, most of the emigrants
went west in large companies, and in 1856 the church introduced handcart
company expeditions.
The most common way to travel the Mormon Trail was by covered wagon, although
some of the Mormons, too poor to afford wagons, moved all their possessions
across the plains and mountains to Utah in two-wheeled carts pushed or pulled
by hand, said Joe Carlson of Kearney, a local history buff interested in the
trail and the migration.
The cost of a cart was about $10 to $15, compared with $275 for a wagon
setup, making it more affordable to the poorest immigrants, according to
“Handcarts to Zion.” Still, the carts held enough supplies for the Mormon
pioneers to start anew in the West.
The handcarts generally weighed about 60 pounds when empty and were loaded
with 400 to 500 pounds which include 100 pounds of flour, bedding, clothing,
cooking utensils and possibly a tent. Each person was allowed just 17 pounds
for their personal belongings.
A covered wagon also traveled with the group carrying extra food and
provisions.
The handcart method of travel was for the most part abandoned by 1860 when
established Mormons would drive wagons east and pick up new immigrants. That
lasted until 1869, when the railroad was completed to Utah. By 1860, 2,962
people with 653 handcarts had traveled the Mormon Trail.
The most widely known of the 10 handcart companies that crossed to Utah were
those two companies in 1856 that lost nearly 20 percent of their members in
that Wyoming snowstorm, Carlson said.
The odds were against the Martin and Willie companies, which were named for
their leaders, before they ever saw the buffalo near Shelton that stampeded
their cattle.
The first three handcart companies that year made the journey from Iowa City
to Salt Lake City with fewer problems and fewer deaths in comparison with
similar ox-drawn wagon trains. The first company was in Utah by September
after traveling 1,400 miles from Iowa City in nine weeks, according to the
Hafens’ book.
The last two companies were very late getting started. The members didn’t
leave England until May 25, and the still had to travel by train to Iowa
before outfitting the companies. According to journals in Hafen’s book, the
companies departed eastern Nebraska in late August 1856. They averaged 15
miles a day through Nebraska.
After losing the 30 head of oxen to pull their provision wagons, they had to
hook up milk and beef cattle to the wagons, the “Handcarts to Zion” book
reports.
“We at last reluctantly gave up the search, and prepared to travel without
them as best we could. We had only about enough oxen left to put one yoke to
each wagon; but as they were each loaded with about three thousand pounds of
flour, the teams could not of course move them. We then yoked up our beef
cattle, milch cows, and, in fact, everything that could bear a yoke — even
two-year-old heifers. The stock was wild and could pull but little, and we
were unable, with all our stock, to move our loads. As a last resort, we
again loaded a sack of flour on each cart.
“It was really hard for the folks to lose the use of their milk cows, have
beef rations stopped, and haul one hundred pounds more on their carts. Every
man and woman, however, worked to their utmost to put forward towards the
goal of their hopes,” a journal from the company said.
Eastern Buffalo County, the area of present-day Shelton and Wood River,
included temporary support bases for those traveling the Mormon Trail.
Some of the earliest English people to settle in what became Buffalo County
were Mormons who located around Wood River Center (Shelton) and chose not to
continue to Utah.
The Boyd Ranch near present day Gibbon was one of the first landmarks on the
Mormon Trail, according to a September 1980 issue of Buffalo Tales by the Buffalo
County Historical Museum.
The ranch was a place where emigrants could restock some provisions and trade
for fresh stock. The Boyd Ranch house, built in the late 1850s, now stands at
the Trails and Rails Museum at 710 W. 11th St.
e-mail to:
amy.schweitzer@kearneyhub.com
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