We now enter a great black hole in Hannah’s life. Little is known of her from the time she
leaves Nauvoo and her death in Provo, Utah twenty-one years later. Unfortunately, the family kept few records of
this period so we are left to surmise what happened from the few records that
exist.
The following details are drawn from several sources:
1.
The Pioneer Trek from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters
by William G. Hartley (Ensign Magazine, June, 1997) See: https://www.lds.org/ensign/1997/06/the-pioneer-trek-nauvoo-to-winter-quarters?lang=eng
2.
Kanesville Area – BYU College of Life Sciences
article. See: https://winterquarters.byu.edu/Settlements/KanesvilleArea
3.
MTA Official Guide “The Mormon Pioneer Trail” by
Stanley B. Kimball. See: http://files.lib.byu.edu/mormonmigration/articles/MormonPioneerTrailMTA1997OfficialGuide.PDF
Hannah’s story is also the story of the expulsion of the Latter-day
Saints from Nauvoo so a good place to start is to learn about the waves of
emigrants from Nauvoo to the West in 1846.
The origins of this expulsion from Illinois were discussed
previously. Initially Brigham Young
planned that the exodus would take them directly to the Rocky Mountains that
year. That was the plan but reality
quickly set in and those plans had to be scrapped for 1846.
The Mormon exodus from Nauvoo consisted of three distinct phases
beginning on February 4, 1846 when the first Mormon crossed the Mississippi and
ending with the last groups leaving Nauvoo at gun point in mid-September of the
same year. This
exodus is broken into three parts:
Winter, Spring and Fall. Brigham
Young had initially wanted to wait to leave until spring when the grasses would
be growing as food for their livestock.
In October, 1845 Brigham had actually appointed captains for 25
companies of 100 wagons each and ordered the wagons to be built for a spring
departure. His reasoning was that Nauvoo
had about 12,000 people at this time and another 2,000 to 3,000 Saints lived in
nearby towns making approximately 15,000 people that would need to
evacuate. With 76 people per wagon it
would take approximately 2,500 wagons.
By November 23, 1845 it was reported that 3,285 families were organized
for the trek – some 800 more families than predicted wagons. Our Carter families were surely a part of
this planning.
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| Crossing the Mississippi on Barges |
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| Fanciful 1870 Drawing |
The first to cross the Mississippi River was Charles Shumway who
ferried across on February 4. For three
weeks the temperatures dropped causing the Saints to dodge ice chunks as they
crossed the river. On February 25
Charles C. Rich actually crossed the river on foot and so for a time the wagons
were driven directly over the frozen river.
The travelers camped along Sugar Creek some 7 miles west of the
Mississippi. Here Brigham organized the people into groups and developed camp
rules. Following a path blazed by a
vanguard company, the main body of the “Camp of Israel” left Sugar Creek on
March 1, 1846. For this first group the
trip had to be difficult. It was winter,
and they had to travel over snow covered ground. They took a southerly route at first –
skirting the border with Missouri where there were more settlers that they
could obtain need for themselves and their animals. They stopped near Richarson’s Point for 11
days so the men could work for money and provisions. They initially wanted to cross the Missouri
River above St. Joseph, Missouri and join the Oregon Trail to the west of
there. This was a time of great
suffering by all. March snow, cold,
rain, and awful mud made the trek miserable and exhausting. When they left Chariton Camp on April 1st,
they exited Iowa’s last organized county and moved into what could be called
wilderness but still followed rudimentary roads. They made slow progress, being
hampered by rain and mud. It was during
this time that William Clayton penned the song “All is Well” following the
birth of his son. Shortly after April 15,
the leaders changed the route to the northwest and headed across this
wilderness part of Iowa for Kanesville (known today as Council Bluffs.) Along the way groups were left to form small
communities with farms that would feed those that followed. Garden Grove and Mount Pisgah are good
examples of these way points along the trail. On June 14, the camp reached the
Council Bluffs area on the Missouri River, and the first portion of the march
was nearly over. The vanguard had taken 130 days, over 4 months, to cross some
265 miles of
southern Iowa, averaging only about 2 miles per day. Here on both sides
of the Missouri River, especially in present Nebraska at Winter Quarters, the
Mormons spent the winter of 1846-47.
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| 1846 Tails in Red |
During April, May, and June 1846, three times as many Saints left
Nauvoo as went with President Brigham Young’s advance group. Among the 10,000
spring evacuees were Apostles Wilford Woodruff and Orson Hyde, many of the 300
men who had been guards and pioneers in the Camp of Israel who now had returned
to Nauvoo for their families, workmen who had finished the Nauvoo Temple, and
new LDS arrivals from out of state. Because of grass and springtime weather,
their treks across Iowa took only 4 to 5 weeks, compared to the Camp of
Israel’s 14 weeks. Economic, health, and family difficulties prevented these
people from leaving sooner. Thousands had trouble obtaining adequate outfits
and provisions. They counted on selling, bartering, buying, and luck. When they
tried to market their farms, houses, livestock, furniture, utensils, dishes,
clocks, books, and other nonessentials, they found many sellers but few buyers.
Most Saints sold or traded for pittances, suffering major financial losses. During this time three major waves of
departures occurred. There was no major
organization – when people could leave they did – few companies had more than
30 wagons. Typical outfits consisted of
a wagon and two yoke of oxen. Most of
the people walked and many were engaged in driving the loose stock. Because of the abundant spring grasses these
Saints took a more westerly route rather than going south to skirt
Missouri. Because of their quick passage
of Iowa some of these Spring immigrants caught up with the Winter group by May
15th near Garden Grove. Early
in July President Young counted 1,805 wagons between his Missouri River camp
and Mount Pisgah—1,300 more wagons than his Camp of Israel started with—and
hundreds more were still east of Mount Pisgah. By the end of July most of the
spring exodus groups had caught up with President Young’s company and merged
with it beside the Missouri River.
The final group to leave was called the Fall Exodus. On 13 September armed anti-Mormons attacked
these Nauvoo defenders and won what is called the Battle of Nauvoo. The Saints
signed a formal surrender of the city three days later, whereupon victors drove
them out at gunpoint. LDS refugees swarmed across the river to Montrose, and
many camped a mile north at Potter’s Slough, on the river’s shore. Most were
destitute and sickly. Scores found temporary work and lodging in eastern Iowa
while others took to the trail to Kanesville.
One mid-September count found between 600 and 700 Saints camped by
Potter’s Slough. Many of these had moved out by the time Thomas Bullock counted
only 17 tents and 8 wagons in camp on 4 October. “Most of those are the poorest
of the Saints,” he said. “Not a tent or wagon but sickness in it.” Two different relief parties were sent from
Kanesville in September and many arrived in Potter’s Sough by October 6. On 9 October 1846, Saints camped by Potter’s
Slough participated in the “Miracle of the Quail,” when large flocks of
exhausted quail flopped into the camp, landing on and under wagons and in
tents. “Every man, woman and child had quails to eat for their dinner,” Thomas
Bullock wrote.
The fall exodus essentially emptied Nauvoo of Latter-day Saints who
desired to go west. As noted earlier, Nauvoo and nearby areas held perhaps
15,000 Saints who could have joined the exodus, augmented by hundreds of
newcomers. Where were they at year’s end? Based on incomplete data, the
estimate is that by the winter of 1846–47 perhaps 5,000 exiled Saints were at
Winter Quarters, Nebraska; 7,500 were in LDS camps across the river from
Nebraska and elsewhere in Iowa and at Ponca Camp north of Winter Quarters; 69
and 1,500 were in St. Louis or other Mississippi River towns. At least 1,000
and possibly 2,000 or even more defected from the Twelve’s leadership and
scattered from the Nauvoo area. A few members, including Emma, the Prophet
Joseph Smith’s widow, and Lucy Mack Smith, his mother, later returned to and
stayed in Nauvoo.
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| Modern Replica Cabin at Mount Pisgah, Iowa |
And what of Hannah Knight Libby Carter?
We will never know for sure which group she left with. It appears that she traveled with Dominicus
and once her son Richard was endowed on February 7th they could have
left. If they did they experienced a
long, bitter and trying passage across Iowa.
I doubt that the rest of the family waited for William’s wife, Sarah, to
give birth in April. One would imagine
that William’s family didn’t leave until about May. In any case these early months were a trial
for all involved. The family would
never be together again – not just because of those left behind – but for those
who left Nauvoo too as they would be scattered as well. Hannah Carter York and her family stopped at
Mount Pisgah and didn’t move to the west until 1850. As we shall see shortly Richard left Iowa never
to return not long after the family reached the Kanesville area.
Next: The Grand Encampment and
Mormon Battalion
