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TRAIL OF HOPE
Parley Street
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The quotes along Parley Street come from pioneer journals spanning several years from 1846 to 1869. They do not all reflect the experiences of pioneers leaving Nauvoo. Nevertheless, when read as a group, they can be a powerful statement of the faith of individuals to move forward along the Pioneer Trail and begin a new life in the Rocky Mountains.
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1. "Our camp resounded with songs of joy and praise to God - all were cheerful and happy in the anticipation of finding a resting place from persecution in some of the lonely, solitary valleys of the great interior basin whithersoever we might be led."
-- Orson Pratt --
2. "How well I remember what a hard time (father) had breaking in the animals to draw the wagon. There were six cows and two oxen. The oxen were well broken and quite sedate. But the cows were wild and unruly...While Father was breaking the cattle, Mother was praying...Many nights when we were in bed asleep...She would go out into the orchard... And there pour out her soul in prayer, asking the Lord to open the way for us to go with the Saints."
-- Margaret Judd Clawson --
3. "I stopped my carriage on the top of a rolling prairie and I had...a splendid view. I could (see) the Saints pouring out & gathering like clouds from the hills & dales grove and prairie with their teams, wagons, flocks and herds by hundreds & thousands as it were until it looked like the movements of a great nation."
-- Wilford Woodruff --
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4. "Last evening the ladies met to organize... Several resolutions were adopted... If the men wish to hold control over women, let them be on the alert. We believe in equal rights."
-- Louisa Barnes Pratt, June 7, 1846 --
5. "The thoughts of leaving my famiiy (for the Mormon Battalion) at this time are indescribable. My family consisted of a wife and two small children, who were left in company with an aged father and mother and a brother. The most of the Battalion left families... When we were to meet with them again, God only knew. Nevertheless, we did not feel to murmur."
-- William Hyde --
6. "So we have both suffered. We must help one another and the Great spirit will help us both..."
-- Chief Pied Riche, Pottawattamie Tribe --
7. "A large amount of labor has been done since arriving in this grove. Indeed the whole camp is very industrious. Many houses have been built, wells dug, extensive farms fenced, and the whole place assumes the appearance of having been occupied for years..."
-- Orson Pratt --
8. "He died in my arms about four o'clock. This was the second child which I have lost, both dying in my arms. He died with the whooping cough & black canker. We are entirely destitute of anything even to eat much less to nourish the sick."
-- Hosea Stout --
9. "There on the bank of the Chariton River, I was delivered of a fine son. Occasionally the wagon had to be stopped that I might take breath. Thus I journeyed on. But I did not mind the hardship of my situation, for my life had been preserved, and my babe was so beautiful."
-- Zina Huntington Jacobs Young --
10. "My last act in that precious spot was to tidy the rooms, sweep up the floor, and set the broom in its accustomed place behind the door. Then with emotions in my heart ... I gently closed the door and faced an unknown future, faced it with faith in God and with no less assurance of the ultimate establishment of the Gospel in the West and of its true, enduring principles, than I had felt in those trying scenes in Missouri."
-- Bathsheba Smith --
11. "We hurried to pack some food, cooking utensils, clothing and bedding, which was afterward unpacked and strewn over the ground by the mob as they searched for fire-arms. Mother had some bread already in the kettles to bake. Of course she didn't have time to bake, so she hung it on the reach of our wagon and cooked it after we crossed the Mississippi River."
-- Mary Field Garner --
12. "The fall of 1845 found Nauvoo, as it were, one vast mechanic shop, as nearly every family was engaged in making wagons. Our parlor was used as a paint shop to paint wagons."
-- Bathsheba W. Smith --
13. "Those of us who can remember when we were compelled to abandon Nauvoo, when the winter was so inclement know how dark and gloomy the circumstances of the Saints were, with the mob surrounding our outer settlements and threatening to destroy us and how trying it was to the faith of the people of God. The word was to cross the Mississippi and to launch out into an unknown wilderness - to go where, no one knew. Who knew anything of the terrors of the journey thither, or of the dangers that might have to be met and contended with? Who knew anything about the country to be traversed? Moving out with faith that was undisturbed by its unknown terrors. It was by faith that this was accomplished."
-- George Q. Cannon --
14. "I was in Nauvoo on the 26th day of May, 1846, for the last time, and left the city of the Saints feeling that most likely I was taking a final farewell of Nauvoo for this life... I looked upon the Temple and City as they receded from view and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of his Saints."
-- Wilford Woodruff --
15. "Some had covers drawn over their wagons while others had only a sheet drawn over a few poles to make a tent. Sometimes these rude tents were the only covering for them. While keeping the watchman post in the darkness of the night... I wept over the distressed conditions of the Saints. Toward the dim light of many a flickering lamp have my eyes been directed because of the crying of children, the restless movements of the aged, infirm and mournful groan of many suffering from fever. These have made an impression on my mind which can never be forgotten."
-- Gilbert Belnap --
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16. "With this advanced camp of the great exodus there had come a brass band, led by Captain Pitt. After encampment was made and the toils of the day were over, the snow would be scraped away, a huge fire or several of them kindled within the wagoned enclosure, and there to the inspiring music of Pitt's band, song and dance often beguiled the exiles into forgetfulness of their trials and discomforts."
-- B.H. Roberts --
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17. As Sarah Leavitt and her daughters tried to comfort her sick husband, he began to sing, 'Come, let us anew, our journey pursue...' He sang the hymn as long as he had strength to sing it and then wanted Elisa (one of his daughters) to sing it. He died without a struggle or a groan.
-- Sarah Leavitt --
18. "The suffering and sadness of that camp I shall never forget. It is impossible to describe the cries of the hungry children, the sadness of others for the loss of their loved ones. What a terrible night of misery. We didn't even have a light, except a candle which flickered out in the wind and rain as it was carried from one place to another."
-- Mary Field Garner --
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19. "Prepared for the night by erecting a temporary tent out of bed clothes. At this time my wife was hardly able to sit up and my little son was sick with a very high fever and would not even notice anything that was goin on."
-- Hosea Stout --
20. "... Here we all halted and took a farewell view of our delightful City... We also beheld the magnificent Temple rearing its lofty tower towards the heavens... My heart did swell within me."
-- Newell Knight --
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21. "I was five years old when we started from Nauvoo. We crossed over the Mississippi in the skiff in the dusk of the evening. We bid goodbye to our dear old feeble grandmother (Lucy Mack Smith). I can never forget the bitter tears she shed when she bid us goodbye for the last time in the life. She knew it would be the last time she would see her son's family... "
-- Martha Ann Smith --
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22. "When a boat sank while attempting to cross the Mississippi, a number of saints... Were tossed and sported on the water at the mercy of the cold and unrelenting wave... while cows and oxen were seen swimming to the shore from whence they came."
-- Hosea Stout --
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23. "I had a small flock of sheep which I had not time to sell. These I left, together with my house and lot, the former containing my furniture and books."
-- Priddy Meeks --
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24. "Without fire, and something warm to eat, all would suffer through the night. Seeing no other way I emptied a large, valuable chest, highly prized, split it up with the hatchet, and soon had a warm supper, then in the freezing storm, we crowded into our wagon and remained through the night."
-- Benjamin F. Johnson, Recollections --
25. "Early in February, multitudes of the people commenced to cross the Mississippi, and form their encampments in the forest of Iowa. In regard to the terrible sufferings that followed - the terrible snow storms and rains that continued from February until May, causing such floods and mire, distress and suffering and consequent sickness, as perhaps has never before been known to the lot of Man..."
-- Erastus Snow --
26. "Unless the people are more united in spirit and cease to pray against counsel, it will bring me down to my grave. I am reduced in flesh so that my coat that would scarcely meet around me last winter now laps over twelve inches. It is with much ado that I can keep from lying down and sleeping to wait the resurrection."
-- Brigham Young --
27. "We bade our children and friends goodbye and started for the west. Crossed the river about noon...I knitted almost a mitten for Mr. Sessions while he went back to get some things we left."
-- Patty Sessions --
28. "I was not large enough to keep out of the way of the wagon at all times and consequently had my feet and leg run over two or three times when jumping out of the wagon to stop the team."
-- Gideon Murdock, age 12 --