“Down and Back” Wagon Trains
By Donald L. Haynie, A Great-Grandson
As I
related
earlier,
my
great-grandfather,
Samuel
Jackson,
the
great-great-great-grandfather of my grandchildren, was
called
by authorities of The Church of Jesus
Christ
of Latter-day
Saints to drive an ox team and wagon from
Salt
Lake City to
Florence, Nebraska, and back,
in
1863, in order to bring members of
the
Church
to
Utah.
Several years ago, I read a story of this kind of journey
in
the
"Ensign"
magazine
and
I
want
to
share
that
story
here
with
my
grandchildren.
Following
are
excerpts
from
that
article.
Abraham
Lincoln's
election
as
president
of
the
United
States
in
November,
1860,
initiated
a
chain
of
events
that
would
change
for
years
to
come the
pattern
of
Mormon migration to Utah.
As a result of Lincoln’s election, the southern states
seceded – and the Civil War began.
During this time, the migrating
Saints
faced many questions.
Would the Civil War block ships from
Europe?
Would the armies commandeer all the available transportation?
A large segment
of the
emigrating Saints
were too poor to buy their own wagons and teams, and the Church lacked
the funds to buy them even if they were available.
Earlier emigrants
had used inexpensive
handcarts, but these had afforded too little protection
from
the
elements
and no room for extra food.
Thus, the leaders of the Church
needed
to
devise
a
new,
inexpensive
wagon
system for the emigrants
in
1861
and
later.
The
story
of
the
1860s
emigration
in “down
and
back”
wagon
trains
is
a
drama
that
spans
Europe,
the
Atlantic
Ocean,
and
America,
in
which
members
of
the
Church
from
many
lands
played
parts
in
gathering
the
Saints
to
Utah.
. . On
23
April
1861, the
day after
the
news arrived of
Fort
Sumter's fall,
two
hundred
wagons and seventeen
hundred
oxen
left
the
Salt
Lake
Valley
for
Florence,
in
Nebraska
Terri
tory, to provide transportation for hundreds of needy
emigrant Saints.
Earlier, in February, Brigham
Young
had asked Utah
wards
for
loans of wagons
and teams
for
the
six-month round
trip, in exchange for tithing credits.
Seventy-five wards
-
nearly
every
ward
in Utah
-- donated
a
fully outfitted
wagon
and
yoke of
oxen, and most sent two
or
more outfits.
These
"down and back"
wagons
made up four
Church trains,
whose captains
were
Mormon Trail
veterans
Joseph W.
Young,
John R.
Mur
dock,
Joseph
Horne,
and
Ira
Eldredge.
Young
men
agreed
to
drive
the
wagons.
Brigham
Young
himself
"donated" several teamsters, including
nineteen-year-old
Zebulon
Jacobs,
whose
diary
describes
the
struggles
and
the
triumphs
of
the
journey.
At
four
trail
stations
along
the
way,
the four trains
deposited
tons
of
flour
-- also donated
by Utah wards to feed
the
Saints
during
the
return
trip:
...Through
May, June and July of 1861, about four thousand Saints from the East, and two
hundred “down and back” wagons from the West converged on Florence, where a
bustling outfitting camp had been set up – complete with provisions store,
warehouse, campsites, corrals, weighing machines, bowery and Latter-day Saint
agents directing the outfitting.
Jacob
Gates,
agent
in
charge,
had
set
up
the
camp.
Acting
on
orders
from
Brigham
Young,
he
had
arrived
in
New
York
City from England
in February.
There he had made preliminary railroad
bookings for the May and June
European emigrants, taking time
to
visit
an
old
boyhood
friend
on
Wall
Street
to
show
him
a
copy
of
Joseph
Smith's
Civil
War
prophecy.
In
Chicago,
Elder
Gates bought
111 unassembled
wagons from Peter Schuttler Wagon Company for $7,300,
to
be
delivered
at
Florence
in
June.
After Elder Gates reached Florence
in early
April, he heard
the
distressing
news
of
the
fall
of
Fort
Sumter.
On
April
24,
he saw soldiers from
Fort
Kearney, Nebraska, heading east.
“The
war
spirit
is
up," he wrote, "and fear seems
to creep
over
the
nation
and
a
dread
of
something
to
come.”
On
May
5,
he
learned
how
many
"down
and
back"
teams
were coming from Salt
Lake
City:
Without
knowing
how
many
emigrants to expect because
of
possible delays, he opened a warehouse and
stockpiled
provisions
and
trail
equipment.
The
first
group
of
emigrants
--
the
Saints
who
had
traveled
on
the
"Manchester"
--
arrived
in
Florence
on
May
24,
1861.
Elder Gates helped
them
obtain
wagons,
form
an
independent
train, and start west on
May
29.
The
second
emigrant
company
–
the “Underwriter” passengers – reached Florence
on
June
3,
followed
by
Saints
from
the
eastern
states
on
June
20.
Meanwhile,
the
wagons
from
Utah
rolled
into
Florence
between
June
16
and
June
30, on schedule.
The last group of emigrants
-- the
"Monarch"
company
--
arrived
on
July
2.
Elder
Gates,
Elder
Orson
Pratt,
Elder
Erastus
Snow,
and
Captain
Joseph Young, were surprised by the large number of emigrants.
Elder
Snow had estimated
that
three hundred wagons would be
needed;
he
had,
in
fact,
misjudged
by
three
hundred wagons.
By July 2, the Florence
outfitting
camp
contained
more than 2,500 Saints, including Germans, Swiss, Danes,
Swedes,
Norwegians,
Scots,
Welsh,
English,
Irish,
and
Canadians.
Saints
who
could
not
buy
their
own
wagons
and
teams
signed
up
to
travel
in
the
"down
and
back"
companies.
Captain
Joseph
W.
Young
supervised
the
"ticket
sales"
and
the
loading
of
the four Church trains, freeing
Elder
Gates
to
oversee
the
outfitting
of
the
independent
trains.
While
waiting
for
wagon
assignments,
emigrants
assembled
Schut
tler
wagons,
built
a
public
bowery,
and
sewed
together
wagon
covers
and
tents.
To
feed
the
Saints
and
stock
wagon
trains,
Elder
Gates's
agents
procured
bulk
supplies
from
stores
in
the
area,
including
13,000
pounds
of
sugar,
3,000
pounds
of
apples,
3,300
pounds
of
ham,
and 15,000
pounds
of
bacon.
During late June and early July, six independent trains and the four “down and back” trains fitted out. On Perpetual Emigration Fund Company ledgers, Church agents issued loans and cre dits for food, supplies, and wagon fares to passengers in need, including more than six hundred heads of households. People in Church trains received wagon assignments, with six to twelve people per wagon. Fares were fourteen dollars for adults and seven dollars for children under age eight. Each passenger was allowed fifty free pounds of baggage, and was charged twenty cents for each pound over fifty.
One
sister
wrote
that,
in
her
wagon,
items
not
used
daily “were stacked up in the middle of the wagon, as
high as the bows,” cutting the wagon into two compartments.
Camp kettles were
tied beneath the wagons.
The groups camped outside Florence
until departure day, practicing campfire cooking and
learning
to
handle
ox
teams.
The
"down
and
out"
trains
moved
out
during
the
first
two
weeks
in
July.
Jacob
Gates
closed
down
the
Florence
camp
and
left it on July
17,
four
days
before
the
first
major
battle
of
the Civil War.
By then, twelve
wagon
trains
with
624
wagons
had
left
Florence,
carrying
3,900
emigrants
--
1,000
from
the
eastern
states,
1,900
from
Europe,
and
1,000 “independents” who had reached Florence on their
own.
About 1,700 emigrants traveled
to
Utah
in
the
four
"down
and
back"
wagon
companies.
The 1,000-mile
trail the emigrants followed paralleled the
Platte
River's
north
shore
across
Nebraska
and
part
of
Wyoming,
then followed the Sweetwater river halfway across
Wyoming to
South
Pass
before
cutting
southwest
to
Fort
Bridger
and
over
rugged 7,700-foot high mountains into Utah.
In mid-journey,
the
trains
passed
U.S.
Army
units
that
had
once
been stationed in
Utah,
with
their
troops
and
baggage
wagons
heading
east
to
join
the
fighting.
The emigrants
traveled safely, for the most part.
Although they experienced some problems, the majority of
the emigrants arrived in Salt Lake City healthy and in good spirits.
James H. Linford, and emigrant from England, wrote
“There was a sameness in every day’s travel,” and “all in all it was a nice trip
for the healthy and strong.”
He noticed that “All of the able-bodied emigrants walked
from Florence to Utah.”
The Utah teamsters,
called “Utah boys,” were considered rough-mannered by some of the European
Saints.
But the “Utah boys” helped to make the journey more interesting.
Zeb Jacobs wrote in his diary of a man who had joined
with the young teamsters in a “snipe hunt” one night:
“We stopped him and found he belonged to Heber P.
Kimball’s train which was a short distance ahead of us.
The boys had induced him to catch rabbits in Yankee
fashion, by building a small fire and lying down by it with an open sack for the
rabbits to run into, and then hit them on the head with a club, now and then
giving a low whistle, other boys going out to drive the rabbits in, when all of
a sudden the boys gave a yell.
The man thought the Indians were upon him, and off he
started at a full run.
He had run about a mile when we stopped him.
The fellow was scared out of his wits.”
During
August,
September,
and
October,
the
wagon
trains reached Salt Lake City.
Church
leaders
welcomed
the
newcomers,
and
the
"Utah
boys" resumed their less
exciting
work.
The “down and back” trains were
disbanded and the
borrowed
wagons
and teams were returned
to their Utah owners, who
received a total of
more than two hundred
thousand
dollars
in tithing
credits as
pay.
Emigrants quickly found lodging and work. Hundreds stayed in Salt Lake City; other settled in areas such as St. George, Tooele, and Lehi. Brigham Young felt pleased that 3,900 emigrants had reached Utah safely -- 1,700 of them in “down and back” wagons with Utah oxen, saving the Church thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been spent to buy cattle and wagons. “The sending down of wagons from Utah to Florence is a grand scheme,” wrote Elder John D. T. McAllister to George Q. Cannon.
From 1862
to
1868 (the railroads reached
Utah in
1869), 24,000 more emigrants
came
to
Utah.
One-third
to
one-half of those,
needing Church help,
came
in "down
and
back"
wagon
trains sent from Utah.
It
was
on
one
of
these
"down
and
back"
wagon trains in 1863 that my great-grandfather, Samuel Jackson,
served as a teamster, driving
two yoke of
oxen and
a wagon
to Florence,
Nebraska,
and
back
to
Utah,
a
trip
which
required
six
months on the trail.
The
carefully orchestrated
emigrations
during
the 1860s pay
tribute
to
the
inspiration
and
organizing
genius
of
Brigham
Young
and
the
emigration
officers
who
oversaw
the
migration.
Although
some other
companies
did
endure severe
hardships,
the
carefully
planned
and
supplied
"down
and
back"
wagon
trains and the independent
trains
that
traveled
with
them
typify
our
Latter-day
Saint
emigration
legacy.
DLH/2-16-89
(7-5-85)