July 24th commemorates the entering into the Salt Lake Valley of the Mormon immigrants. Many members of the church pilgrimaged from areas east in the United States to this western frontier, the Utah Territory, between 1847 and the 1850s and 60s. Driven, but willing to escape religious repression, eager to worship as they would.
These pioneers are worthy of imitation in our day.
Richard Bird, my great-great-grandfather, a young man of eighteen years and not yet a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, traveled to Missouri with members of his family and the Saints.
From the history of his brother, Charles Bird, by Maurine Bird Douglas:
In the Spring of 1838 there was a great deal of turmoil among the Saints in Kirtland [Ohio]. Enemies to the Church, including some apostates, were threatening members’ lives and property. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had to flee with their families in the middle of the night to escape the mob in Jan. 1838.
Shortly after this the Seventies Quorum in Kirtland began making plans for a group of Saints to travel as one large caravan to Missouri. They drew up a constitution or a set of rules that every head of the family participating in the journey had to sign. Charles Bird with seven members listed as his family was one of the signers of the document. Charles represented the large Bird family...
I believe including his father and his unmarried brothers and sisters, of which Richard was one
... at a meeting of the Council of Seventies in the attic story of the Kirtland Temple on 13 March 1838. By Thursday, July 5, 1838, those who planned to travel with the camp began to gather in a large field about 100 rods south of the Kirtland Temple. It looked like a large tent city. At 12:00 noon on July 6th the camp began to move. It would be hard to describe the emotions and feelings of the members of the camp and those left behind who were watching this spectacle.
Upon their departure from Kirtland on July 6, 1838 this mile-long caravan consisted of 529 men, women, and children with 97 horses, 22 oxen, 69 cows, 59 wagons and 33 tents. There were several families that shared each tent, with one man appointed to oversee each tent. A daily log of the Kirtland Camp is found in Joseph Smith's "History of the Church" and B. H. Robert's "Documentary History of the Church."
Needless to say there were many trials and faith-promoting experiences during this long trek which either increased a person's testimony of the gospel and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God or weeded out the weak. The Camp arrived at Adam-ondi-Ahman on 2 Oct 1838 at 5:00 p.m. They camped at Ambrosial Creek.
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Richard shared the Saints' trials in the state of Missouri. Near the end of the year they were were ruthlessly driven out by the mob into Caldwell County, Missouri suffering severely from cold and hunger.
Crosby Johnson, in his history of Caldwell County, says:
“If that strange people who built Nauvoo and Salt Lake City, who uncomplainingly toiled across the American Desert and made the wilderness of Utah blossom like a rose, had been permitted to remain, how different would be the history of this place, Far West. In place of ruins there would have been a rich prosperous city, among the streets of which would be pouring the wealth of the world.”
Richard Bird remained in Caldwell County among the Saints until the spring of 1839 when he was compelled to lay down his arms and sign away his right and title to his property to his enemies to satisfy the mob. He stood by and saw members of that wicked crowd occupy that hard-earned home while he, at the point of a bayonet, was forced to leave the State of Missouri and again seek another spot where thy could build a home and live undisturbed and free from persecutions.
This time they sought refuge in Quincy, Illinois and settled in that new city which sprang up in a few months, the City of Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. They lived in poverty for several years but in spite of the trials he found time to labor months without pay in the erection of that magnificent Temple in Nauvoo.
He became personally acquainted with the prophet Joseph Smith and between them grew a true and loving friendship.
After Richard Bird had been in Nauvoo for about five years he met Emeline Crandall who then lived at LaHarp, llinois. He said he only courted Emeline about two months when they were married on March 7, 1845. Richard was twenty-four years old and his wife twenty-one years. Their short courtship, which was the custom with the Saints in those days, was a courtship which lasted all through their married life for they were very devoted to each other.
Six months later Richard Bird was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, September 21, 1845, at LaHarp by William Bird, his brother.
Uhm, William wasn't this old that day!
My great-great-grandparents made their home in Nauvoo and while they were being threatened by the mobs and times looked dark, yet they were very happy. February 10, 1845, a baby girl was born to them, Amanda Fedilia, but she only lived until March 20, 1846, a great sorrow for this young husband and wife. A short time after this the mob came upon them and Richard Bird described it thus:
“In the spring of 1846 we were expelled together with the Saints from the United States, and in July landed in Pottawattamie, Iowa, and under-went many hardships such as sickness, cold, hunger and death.”
The great desire of Richard Bird was to secure if possible the comforts of life for his loved ones,
and to see them turned out into a wilderness to exist or perish as God should decide was to him a very severe trial, this being the fourth time in eight years that he was compelled to leave all he had. They arrived at Council Bluffs where they worked hard to raise crops and teams and struggled four years to prepare an outfit to cross the plains.
While at Council Bluffs, now known as Kanesville, two sons were born to them, Richard Leroy, September 11, 1848, and William Martin, December 1, 1849.
What pioneer mothers we had, to be willing to bear children under such privations. They felt it an honor, a lesson to those (us)
who enjoy the fruits of their struggles and who have every comfort and convenience possible.
On May 15, 1850 they began their long and tedious journey across the plains. They were in Aaron Johnson’s company which consisted of 135 teams. Richard Bird says: “We passed through everything that mortals could endure.” The trip across the plains was tiresome and monotonous and the spell was only broken by the dancing, singing, and prayer around the campfire at night. They truly felt that they were blessed and were sustained by their cherished prospects of the future. After a long and dreary march of three months they came into Salt Lake Valley September 2, 1850.
Although weary and tired, they had no time to rest. Richard Bird went up north of Salt Lake into Davis County, where his brother James then lived,
Again, this brother James not old in that year, oh well...
to seek a place to build his home. Upon his return to Salt Lake, he found that President Young had selected the first eight wagons from Captain Johnson’s company to go to Hobble Creek, afterwards known as Springville, to build their homes. Those eight teams belonged to Aaron Johnson, Myron Crandall, John W. Deal, Amos Warren and brother, and Richard Bird.
On the first of October, 1850, they commenced their little settlement. Before the winter set in they built a fort of logs covering one and one-half acres about where the old school house stood. This was done to& protect their families from the savage Indians. They built log and block houses around this fort with clay roofs, windows and doors opening into the center. There were two reinforced gates, one to the east and one to the west. They had cut wild hay which grew in abundance for their cattle. They had gathered from the canyons service berries and choke cherries, and dried them for winter, and had brought wood and corded it for winter. While they had very little to eat, yet these pilgrims were once more sheltered by a home which to them was a castle and they were too happy for us to try to describe.
Benjamin Freeman Bird Ancestry Site
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