The full story from Lesson 35 Sunday School Lesson

[tubaloth]

Had an interesting Sunday school lesson today. It was from lesson 35 about the Martin and Willie handcart companies. The teacher knows the doctrines of the church very well and puts a lot of time and effort in to each lesson he teaches. But for some reason in the past when he had heard this story he always questioned it. So, from what I gathered, he wanted to figure out the full story to this story below:

Three eighteen-year-old boys belonging to the relief party came to the rescue; and to the astonishment of all who saw, carried nearly every member of that ill-fated handcart company across the snow-bound stream. The strain was so terrible, and the exposure so great, that in later years all the boys died from the effects of it. When President Brigham Young heard of this heroic act, he wept like a child, and later declared publicly, “That act alone will ensure C. Allen Huntington, George W. Grant, and David P. Kimball an everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God, worlds without end” ’ (LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1960], pp. 132–33).

The lesson has this quoted by Pres Monson in a 1990 Conference Address.

The teacher of the lesson then proceeds to go through different areas of the story and really to show it didn’t happen the way it says.

First, this story comes from Solomon Kimball, the younger brother of David P. Kimball. We learn that Solomon Kimball was only 9 at the time of the crossing. The Sunday School teach also said something to the effect that Solomon wasn’t even there, but was told the story by his brother, but I can’t seem to substantiate that. Solomon wrote this account in a letter, which the Improvement Era published in Feb 1914.

Further study shows there are many Holes in this account. From what I gathered the Teacher took time to research most of this, which could still be the case, but a quick Google Search leads me to this

http://byustudies.byu.edu/shop/pdfSRC/45.3Orton.pdf

It’s a BYU Studies article written by Chad M. Orton. So far as I can tell 99% of all the Teacher presented has come from this article.

For those that don’t have the time to read the 34 pages here is a summary of where things are different.

1. 3 Brethren -- The accounts, and journals show that many helped the saints cross the river. The names of a lot of them are not known. But there are actually a couple of other names mentioned in the different accounts.

Not only where there these three:

C. Allen Huntington

George W. Grant

David P. Kimball

But also these two that helped

Ira Nebeker

And Stephen W. Taylor

2. 18 years old

Actually this is probably the easiest to figure out. But none of the guys were 18 years old.

C. Allen Huntington was 24 years old (B December 6, 1831)

George W. Grant 16 years old (B December 12, 1839)

David P. Kimball 17 years old (B August 23 , 1839)

Ira Nebeker 17 years old (B June 23 1839)

Stephen W. Taylor 20 years old (B December 25, 1835)

3. Helped almost All cross the river

This is kind of hard to summarize. With the way you cross a river you follow it down stream along the shallow path. That means even if the river was only 30-40 feet across, accounts say you actually walk closer to 100 feet across. I’m not sure how far across they had to go, but what is known is that there was probably around 500 people in the party. Doing the math (the Article come up with this number) shows it would have taken at least 8 hours to have 3 men carry everybody across. That doesn’t fit with what they know of WHEN they crossed. Sounds like because of the wind chill the party was waiting for a break in the wind. Finally it came in the afternoon. If that is the case it seems like the longest they had to cross the river was 2 hours and from most accounts this about how long it took.

Also the Article bring in the idea the use of Wagons. There was 6 probably a 7 wagons all helping people across. This would make it doable in the time they had to cross.

4. Deaths

I quote from the BYU Study Article

Given the fact that medical science during this time lacked many of the diagnostic capabilities of today and that the cause of death was often a guess, it probably cannot be determined with accuracy the effect that the Sweetwater experience had on the lifelong health of these rescuers. To what extent the great sacrifices of that day may have weakened them, thus making them susceptible to health problems or illnesses that eventually claimed their lives, may never be known. While rescuers and their families reported lingering effects from the events of that cold November day, and while some died prematurely according to today’s standards, most lived active and relatively long lives.

Really back then it seems like when peopled die, they would always blame it on some event in the person’s life that must have caused it, even if it was years before. The way the original quote makes it sound is that all the guys dies soon after, but this is not the case.

C. Allen Huntington - Almost 65 years old. Was in the Utah penitentiary for a time. He was working on a ferry on the Colorado river when he died.

George W. Grant - died at the age of 32 from tuberculosis

David P. Kimball - died at 42 (was married and honeymooned on Antelope Island) How he died has two accounts, one showing it was because of some “typhoid pneumonia”, another account says it was because of a cold or a “pneumonia or lung fever” but he didn’t die until two years later after getting this lung fever.

Ira Nebeker – Again Almost 65. Seems like it had something to do with kidney failure (that they say came because he went through the sweetwater river)

Stephen W. Taylor – 84 when he died. No explanation is given to how he died.

5. Brigham Young Quote

So far this quote by Brigham Young is not found. I like how the article explains this

Solomon F. Kimball’s assertion that Brigham Young publicly proclaimed that this one heroic act alone guaranteed “everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom; worlds without end” is the only account of such a statement. What is meant by the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps Brigham was using hyperbole occasioned by his strong feelings concerning the rescue to drive home a point. Perhaps it was a statement of praise and gratitude. Perhaps it was a conditional promise, such as those found in a patriarchal blessing, rather than an absolute pronouncement of eternal judgment. What seems to be clear, however, is that Young was not proclaiming that Latter-day Saints are saved by one act—although individuals will be rewarded for the good they do—but “by obedience to the laws and

ordinances of the gospel” (A of F 3).

The article sites many places that the IDEA of Brigham Youngs quote could come from but no exact quote is found. The strange thing from a Sunday School manual point of view is the doctrine supposedly taught here isn’t found in the scriptures. With that said Solomon Kimball in 1908 some 6 years before the quote in question is stating, he gives a little different account “President Brigham Young heard of this heroic act, he wept like a child, and declared that this act alone would immortalize them.” Immortalize them is a little different then Celestial Glory.

Both the teacher and the article don’t really blame Solomon Kimball for not telling the full story, because it in a way it keeps the Martin and Willie handcart companies’ story around. Neither try to bash or show Solomon was wrong, more both my teacher (who gets it probably from the article) shows that once we understand the full story we see even more the sacrifice that is made. Knowing the truth does help.

My beef here is not even with Pres Monson who quotes it in General Conference because I don’t expect him to go to this much research in ever quote he shares. My beef is with the church curriculum department, or who ever writes the Sunday school manual. To quote this story again assumes that is true. When they do have the resources and time to figure out it is not completely accurate. This then leads to the story being told over and over again, which doesn’t do anybody any good.

Edited September 21, 2009 by tubaloth

[StallionMcBeastly]

Great post.

Thanks.

[Saguaro]

This past summer I visited Martin's Cove in Wyoming, there they tell the story pretty much like the sunday school lesson does. There are even three statues depicting three young men carrying people in their arms. I read the same BYU article after I returned.

This is a case of how a faith promoting story may have a little bit of historical truth to it, but also has a lot of exageration, unverifiable facts, and a dose of mythology. In this case I think it's an effort to bring something positive out of a horrific experience that was caused by many factors, including poor planning, shoddy equipment, lack of provisions, and just plain bad luck.

A good article on the whole handcard experience can be found here:

www.xmission.com/~research/central/handcart.pdf

[cougarfan]

Practically every faith promoting story I have ever bothered to look in to has ended up disappointing me. There is usually a little bit of historical truth and a lot of exaggeration from people living many years after the event. I'm not surprised this Martin's Cove story doesn't check out.

[Traveler]

......

In this case I think it's an effort to bring something positive out of a horrific experience that was caused by many factors, including poor planning, shoddy equipment, lack of provisions, and just plain bad luck.

I would add that staying at Winter Quarters may not have been much better. One in five wintering at Winter Quarters passed and most of them were women and children. There was a lot of pressure to get to the West that added to the problem.

One of my favorite quotes in life comes from a girl that survived the Donner party in a letter she wrote to a friend coming out west. She said, “Hurry along as fast as you can and don’t take no short cuts.” Something worthy of a family evening and a good attitude for many things in this life or preparing for the next.

The Traveler

Edited September 22, 2009 by Traveler

[Just_A_Guy]

Indeed.

[mhancock65]

As the gospel doctrine instructor in my ward, I think the instructor who deviated so drastically from the spirit of the lesson, missed the true pearl this lesson is asking the instructor to convey. If one is going to truly take a different path on this lesson, why not find out the back story of these heroes? I cannot speak to any of the other men however as a member of the Huntington line, I can testify to the sacrifice that C Allen Huntington made not only with the incident of the Willie and Martin Handcart co but with his life prior to this event having the honor of reading my family journals. Did you all know that C Allen went on the march with the Mormon Battalion as a boy? Do any of you know the long term effects of severe frost bite? The story does not say that the boys died within a few days of their service only that they suffered from the effects of their service. Yes, C Allen died when he was 65 however a soul can live a very long time in severe pain, it does not discount his sacrifice.

In the future, I would hope that Sunday school instructors would stay with the plethora of material given to cover the topic assigned for the specific lesson. Bringing in an article to "discredit" a story of sacrifice is a serious disservice to his Sunday school class, and our ancestors sacrifice. So the boys weren't all 18, their average age is very close to that? I am sure those individuals who were assisted by them that day didn't give two flips if they were 18 or 21. I am sure that the individuals who were assisted that day were not offended that these boys didn't die within the next few days or years to seal their sacrifice. The point is that when the prophet of then Lord asked for them to go and rescue, these boys and many others got off the butts, traveled for multiple hundreds of miles in the freezing cold by wagons and did what The Lord ask them to do through his Prophet. If we were all so willing to heed to call of The Lord, how blessed would we be?

Edited September 20, 2013 by mhancock65

[Just_A_Guy]

I'm actually teaching this lesson on Sunday, but I'm not planning on using this particular story--just not germane to the direction I think our class needs to go this week. We will read Brigham Young's call to action when he learned that the Martin and Willie companies were still on the plains; and we'll read his second call to action once they arrived in SLC (both in the manual). From there we'll probably break into groups and focus on modern-day applications of the idea of "rescue", drawing on a talk President Monson gave in April 2001 priesthood session and a talk President Uchtorf gave a couple years ago about us being the hands of Christ. We'll probably end by tying all that into some specific objectives that our stake presidency set at the last stake conference.

As for the story of these three (five?) young men: I think the story is powerful enough without having to add untrue embellishments like the boys carrying the whole company across, dying of exposure while still in their youths, and/or attaining exaltation solely because of what they did that day. In my experience, it's pretty hard to undo the damage that can come from bad history taught (quite innocently, in most cases) under the auspices of the Church.

[tubaloth]

I do agree that the Sunday School Teacher that taught the lesson did have his own agenda in teaching the full story.

But, like I said before, and agree with Just_A_Guy, the manual should have the full correct story in it to teach from. Like the BYU Study author points out, we realize that more people were involved in the rescue. I don't think knowing the full story hurts the experience or those involved. I think knowing the full story points out how the Saints came together. If anything it leaves out the experience of other ancestors that should "go down in history" for what they did.