Story #8
In issuing
the call to rescue, Brigham Young must have wondered how much more he could ask
the Saints to sacrifice. They had just endured two years of drought and famine.
Although the harvest of 1856 was better, resources were still scarce. To help
ensure survival for another year, every hand was needed to prepare for winter
and plant wheat for the next season. LeRoy and Ann Hafen described this
circumstance—and the Saints' response in spite of it:
"Only nine years removed from the stark
desert it had settled upon with empty wagons and bare hands, the Mormon
community was not yet one of surpluses. But the religious and human tie that
bound the Saints in the Valley to those who soon might be freezing and starving
on the Plains transcended the instinct for personal safety. Families of
moderate means and the poorest individuals contributed from their meager
stores. One lent a horse, one a wagon, one a tent; another, two bales of hay
and a sack of barley. Some gave iron camp kettles, dutch ovens, brass buckets,
tin cups and plates. Women darned socks and shawls; patched underwear,
trousers, and dresses; faced quilts, sewed together pieces of blankets; and
took clothes from their own backs. Families brought out from their scant
cellars sacks of flour, sides of home cured bacon, bags of beans, dried corn,
packages of sugar and rice."
From
Wallace Stegner's perspective, the rescue effort would show "the
priesthood and the people of Mormonism . . . at their compassionate and
efficient best."
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