Heritage Gateways

Pioneer 1848-1868 Companies

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1853-7, Immigration/Emigration to Utah—Ships and Companies

1853
The interests of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund were cared for under Apostle Richard's agency, so much so that up to January, 1852, 1,410 pounds of sterling had been donated, and in the two ships which sailed January 10, 1852, two hundred and fifty-one persons were sent out requiring above 1,000 pounds more than had been donated, which extra outlay was supplied in the meantime by Apostle Richards. This was the first operation with the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, and it required much careful thought and wise deliberation to adopt plans that would carry this branch of the emigration properly through to the Valley. It was also the first time arrangements had been made before leaving Liverpool. Never before had such a journey been undertaken by so large a number of people with such limited resources.

1853

Sailed	Port	Ship	Leader	People	Landed
Jan 16	Liverpool	Forest Monarch	J. E. Forsgren	297	New Orleans
Jan 17	Liverpool	Ellen Maria	Moses Clawson	332	New Orleans
Jan 23	Liverpool	Golconda	Jacob Gates	321	New Orleans
Feb 5	Liverpool	Jersey	Geo. Halliday	314	New Orleans
Feb 15	Liverpool	Elvira Owen	J.W. Young	345	New Orleans
Feb 28	Liverpool	International	Chr. Arthur	425	New Orleans
Feb 28	Liverpool	Falcon	Cor. Bagnail	324	New Orleans
Apr 6	Liverpool	Camillus	C.E. Bolton	228	New Orleans
Aug 24	Liverpool	Page Bender		17	New Orleans
	Liverpool		Miscellaneous	23	New Orleans

Departure	Date	Captain	People	Arrival
Six-Mile Grove, Iowa	Jun 1	Wilkin/Cooley	122	Sep 9
Keokuk, Iowa	May 18	Jesse W. Crosby	79	Sep 10
Keokuk, Iowa	Jun	Moses Clawson	295	Sep 15
Keokuk, Iowa	Jun 3	Jacob Gates	262	Sep 26
Keokuk, Iowa	May 21	John E. Forsgren	294	Sep 30
Keokuk, Iowa	Jul 1	Henry Ettleman	40	Oct 1
Keokuk, Iowa	Jul 13	Vincent Shurtliff		Sep 30
Kanesville, Iowa	Jul 11	Joseph W. Young	321	Oct 10
Kanesville, Iowa	Jun 3	Cyrus H. Wheelock	400	Oct 16
Kanesville, Iowa	Jun 3	Claudius V. Spencer	250	Sep 24
Kanesville, Iowa	Jul 14	Appleton M. Harmon	200	Oct 16
Kanesville, Iowa	Jul 1	John Brown	228	Oct 17
Six-Mile Grove, Iowa	Jun 9	John A. Miller	282	Sep 9

During the year 1853, several companies of non-English speaking Saints passed through Liverpool. The first one from the Scandinavian Mission numbered two hundred and ninety seven souls and was reshipped at Liverpool on board the Forest Monarch January 16th, under the direction of Willard Snow, then president of the Scandinavian Mission. Donations to the Perpetual Emigrating Fund having been commenced in Scandinavia, particularly in Denmark, the sum of 136 pds. 15s 6d was appropriated during Elder Willard Snow's presidency, for the assistance of a number of those who sailed On the Forest Monarch. The next company from the continent was seventeen persons from the German Mission, who sailed from Liverpool in August and September 1853. These were the first Latter-day Saints emigrating to Zion from any of those countries.

From the 9th Epistle, April 13, 1853: "Brethren, come home as fast as possible, bringing your poor, your silver, your gold, and everything that will beautify and ennoble Zion, and establish the House of the Lord, not forgetting the seeds of all choice trees, and fruits, and grains, and useful productions of all the earth, and labor saving machinery; keeping yourselves unspotted from the world by the way side."

1854

Sailed	Port	Ship	Leader	People	Landed
Jan 3	Liverpool	Jesse Munn	C.J. Larsen	333	New Orleans
Jan 22	Liverpool	Ben. Adams	H.P. Olsen	384	New Orleans
Feb 4	Liverpool	Golconda	Dorr P. Curtis	464	New Orleans
Feb 22	Liverpool	Windermere	Daniel Garn	477	New Orleans
Mar 5	Liverpool	Old England	Robert Campbell	393	New Orleans
Mar 12	Liverpool	John M. Wood	John O. Angus	45	New Orleans
Apr 4	Liverpool	Germanicus	Richard Cook	220	New Orleans
Apr 8	Liverpool	Marsfield	William Taylor	366	New Orleans
Apr 24	Liverpool	Clara Wheeler		29	New Orleans
	Miscellaneous		Miscellaneous	34	New Orleans
Nov 27	Liverpool	Clara Wheeler	Henry E. Phelps	422	New Orleans

Departure	Date	Captain	People	Arrival
Kansas City	Jun 15	Hans Peters Olsen	550	Oct. 5
Kansas City	Jun 17	James Brown	300	Oct. 3
Kansas City	Jun 17	Darwin Richardson	300	Sept. 30
Kansas City	Jun 16	Job Smith	217	Sept. 23
Kansas City	Jul 2	Daniel Garn	447	Oct. 1
Kansas City	Jul 14	Robert L. Campbell	400	Oct. 28
Kansas City	Jul	Ezra T. Benson		Oct. 3
Kansas City	Jul	William Empey		Oct. 24
Miscellaneous

In 1854, the Saints living in Europe were counseled to come to the United States under the direction of the Church Presidency in the British Isles. They were advised to stay in such places in the East as would be selected where they could find work until a way could be opened for them to come to Utah. The Saints living in Australia, India, and all countries bordering upon the Pacific, were instructed to gather in California where their future movements would be directed by the Presidency of the Church. According to the Deseret News of April 13, 1854, sixty-five men were called during the spring months to fill missions. The missionaries abroad were making converts and encouraging them to gather to Utah. Although numerous deaths occurred crossing the ocean, and along the trail, those people who reached their Zion strengthened the settlements and helped to build a greater commonwealth.

1855

Sailed	Port	Ship	Leader	People	Landed
Jan 6	Liverpool	Rockaway	Samuel Glasgow	24	New Orleans
Jan 7	Liverpool	James Nesmith	P.O. Hansen	440	New Orleans
Jan 9	Liverpool	Neva	Thomas Jackson	13	New Orleans
Jan 17	Liverpool	Charles Buck	R. Ballantyne	403	New Orleans
Feb 3	Liverpool	Isaac Jeans	George C. Riser	16	Philadelphia
Feb 27	Liverpool	Siddons	John S. Fulmer	430	Philadelphia
Mar 31	Liverpool	Juventa	William Glover	573	Philadelphia
Apr 17	Liverpool	Chimborazo	Edw. Stevenson	431	Philadelphia
Apr 22	Liverpool	Samuel Curling	Israel Barlow	581	New York
Apr 26	Liverpool	Wm. Stetson	Aaron Smethurst	293	New York
Jul 29	Liverpool	Cynosure	George Seager	159	New York
Nov 30	Liverpool	Emerald Isle	Phil C. Merrill	350	New York
Dec 12	Liverpool	John J. Boyd	Knud Peterson	512	New York
		Miscellaneous		319

Departure	Date	Captain	People	Arrival
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jun 7	John Hindley	206	Sep 3
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jun 13	Jacob F. Secrist	368	Sep 1
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jun 15	Seth M. Blair	89	Sep 11
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jul 1	Richard Ballantyne	402	Sep 25
(P. E. Fund)
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jul 4	Moses F. Thurston	134	Sep 28
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jul 8	C.A. Harper	305	Oct 29
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Jul 31	Isaac Allred	61	Nov 2
Mormon Grove, Kan.	Aug 5	Milo Andrus	452	Oct 24

Over six hundred Saints had been helped through the Perpetual Emigrating Fund this year to reach the Valley of the Mountains. It was reported that "the work of the Lord was still progressing in Australia, Sandwich Islands, British Isles, Denmark, Sweden, Northern Italy, Switzerland, France, the British provinces and in many parts of the United States. At Cape Town, South Africa another Branch of the Church had been established."

The Epistle of 1855 stated: "In regard to the foreign emigration another year let the Saints pursue the northern route from Boston, New York or philadelphia and land at Iowa City or the then terminus of the railroad. There let them be provided with handcarts on which to draw their provisions and clothing, then walk and draw them thereby saving the immense expense every year for teams and outfits for crossing the plains. We are sanguine that such a train will out-travel any oxteam train that can be started ... Let the Saints who thereby immigrate the ensuing year understand that they are expected to walk and draw their luggage across the plains, and that they will be assisted by the Fund in no other way."

1856

Sailed	Port	Ship	Leader	People	Landed
Feb 18	Liverpool	Caravan	Daniel Tyler	457	New York
Mar 23	Liverpool	Enoch Train	Jas. Ferguson	534	Boston
Apr 19	Liverpool	Samuel Curling	Dan Jones	707	Boston
May 4	Liverpool	Thornton	Jas. G. Willie	764	New York
May 25	Liverpool	Horizon	Edward Martin	856	Boston
Jun 1	Liverpool	Wellfleet	John Aubray	146	Boston
Nov 18	Liverpool	Columbia	J. Williams	223	New York
	Miscellaneous			69

Departure	Date	Captain	People	Arrival
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun 9	*Edmund Ellsworth	275	Sep 26
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun 11	*Daniel McArthur	222	Sep 26
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun 23	*Edward Bunker	300	Oct 2
Iowa City, Iowa	Jul 15	*James G. Willie	500	Nov 9
Iowa City, Iowa	Aug 25	*Edward Martin	575	Nov 30
Florence, Nebraska	Jun 5	P.C. Merrill	200	Aug 13–18
Florence, Nebraska	Jun 10	Canute Peterson	320	Sep 20
Florence, Nebraska	Jun 15	John Banks	300	Oct 1
Florence, Nebraska	Jul 30	Wm. B. Hodgetts	150	Dec 10–15
Florence, Nebraska	Aug 1	John A. Hunt	300	Dec 10–15

* Handcart Companies

"This season's operations have demonstrated that the Saints, being filled with faith and the Holy Ghost, can walk across the plains, drawing their provisions and clothing in handcarts. The experiences of this season will, of course, help us improve in future operations; but the plan has been tested and proved entirely successful. The entire trip from Iowa City, a distance of over 1,300 miles to this city, has been accomplished in less traveling days than it has ever been by ox train or wagons and with far greater ease to the travelers. These companies, with the exception of the last two which started too late in the season, have made the trip from the Missouri River in a little over two months ... The accounts of this year's operations not yet being completed, we are at present unable to state the precise amount of expenditure incurred per passenger; but we know that it must be far less than heretofore, and may still be lessened in the future. In the first place our emigrants must start earlier in the season and the necessary arrangements must be made and completed by the time they arrive at the western frontier and no company must be permitted to leave the Missouri River later than the 1st day of July... They must be provided with stronger handcarts and endeavor to arrange things so as to have the burden upon each cart vary as little as possible during the journey ... All emigrants should supply themselves with an extra supply of good shoes ... The very aged and infirm should be brought in wagons in a separate train ... By observing these suggestions it is believed that, with one four or six mule team to each two hundred persons, the emigration will be much facilitated at a still lessened expense...."

1857

Sailed	Port	Ship	Leader	People	Landed
May 28	Liverpool	Geo. Washington	J. P. Park	817	Boston
Apr 25	Liverpool	Westmoreland	Matthias Cowley	544	Philadelphia
May 30	Liverpool	Tuscarora	Richard Harper	547	Philadelphia
Jul 18	Liverpool	Wyoming	Charles Harmon	36	Philadelphia
Misc.	Liverpool			50

Departure	Date	Captain	People	Arrival
Iowa City, Iowa	May 22	*Israel Evans	149	Sep 11
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun 15	*C. Christiansen	330	Sep 13
Florence, Nebraska	Jun 13	Wm. Walker	86	Sep 4
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun	Jesse B. Martin	192	Sep 12
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun 15	Matthias Cowley	198	Sep 13
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun	Jacob Hofheins	204	Sep 21
Texas	Jul	Homer Duncan		Sep 14–20
Iowa City, Iowa	Jun	Wm. G. Young	55	Sep 26

*Handcart Companies

During the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, being held near the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Abraham O. Smoot and Judson Stoddard arrived from Independence, Missouri without the mail, the postmaster there refusing to forward it, but with the disturbing news that an army was being sent to Utah for the purpose of putting an end to a supposed Mormon rebellion against the government. Their isolation had kept them ignorant, up to this time, of the movement of the government against them.

Over twelve hundred converts in eight organized companies, two of them handcart companies, arrived in the valley during the month of September. They found the Saints much concerned over the possibility of another exodus.

Source: Our Pioneer Heritage © Carter, Kate B., ed. 20 vols. Salt Lake City: International Society, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1958-1977. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Documents and images are exerpted by permission from the LDS Family History Suite CDROM from Ancestry.