Handcart Trek

I don't think I will ever look at a handcart the same. Our stake youth did the handcart trek reenactment this past week. About 80-90 youth were organized into 'families' that pushed handcarts and camped, dressed, acted, and cooked like pioneers. Cole and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa of a family. Tons of planning, lots of stress, a little too much heat but a great experience. The trek was at the Sooner Cattle Ranch (owned by the church) in Oklahoma. Maybe easier said in-the-middle-of-nowhere. Cole and I felt extremely under qualified because the other 8 Ma and Pa couples were former bishops, branch/stake/mission presidents, super duper scout people, girls camp goo roo's and all sorts of other super qualified things. We don't even own a tent. Much less 3 of them plus 3 dutch ovens and a whole slew of other things.  (Thanks to my dad we were able to borrow most of them!)

We were the only Ma and Pa that had young kids or was even under 40. Before we even started walking the trek I had to point out to different people that I was the Ma of the family since I blended in too well with the youth. Multiple times everyday of the trek I was mistaken for a youth, or someone didn't recognize me, or they couldn't point out who the Ma was. As we were loading up the buses to leave, another one of the Ma's came up to me and asked if I really did have two kids. Yup!

Family Ratcliffe

 

 

The cows were hilarious. I have never seen cows with so much personality. They would literally stop and watch us. They would line up and just watch. Most of the time there were no fences that separated us. They would run in circles around us. Then stop in front of the first wagon. When we would get closer they would get skittish again and run some more. They would repeat this over and over.

  We had a live band (that is me on the flute). We played a few songs to start the evening. Then it was dancing time. Cole and I were in charge of sqaure dancing. Cole kind of accidentaly got asked to call for sqaure dancing which he agreed to before he even knew what it was! Good thing he married someone with a dance background! We prepared for it by practicing on the youth in our ward and with my family before we left the kids there. I taught the group the steps and then played in the band while Cole called the steps with the music. It was so much fun! I think everyone enjoyed it. Cole can now officially call square dancing. And if you have never square danced- you need to! So much fun and a small learning curve!

 Our family cart. We had a great group of youth. It really strengthened my testimony of the youth of our church. Those that were really strong and knew what was important really stood out. It made me as a parent more determined to raise my kids so that one day they will 'stand out' as someone who really cares for and lives the gospel.

Dutch oven cooking. After the first day, the longest and hardest day, we still had to set up tents, cook our dinner, have family devotional and get your kids to bed. Can you say overwhelmed? To think back on our cooking is quite funny. We had no idea what we were doing. We would be one of the first to start and one of the last families to eat. But by the last meal we had gotten it down. We were so proud of ourselves.

Thanks to my parents and Alyssa. They watched the kids for us while we were gone. Of all the things we could do for a 3 day date without the kids, trekking it up was not my top choice. But I am so glad we were able to do it. I have such a greater appreciation and understanding for the pioneers, their sacrifices, and the way the gospel is set up. We did a lot of reading and researching in preparation for this. It would have not been the same had we not. I am really excited to go back to our temple (Winter Quarters) because they have a pioneer center and graveyard there. We have walked through it before but now it means a whole lot more.

In part of our preparation we read The Price We Paid by Andrew D. Olsen (highly recommended!) We would talk about it together and decide on certain stories to share with our youth. As part of our preparation, Cole did some research on his family history. He started by looking up his family on familysearch.org and through some miracioulus turns we found out that he has some pioneer ancestors (William and Jane James family) that traveled with the Willie Handcart company. Some of their experiences were some of our favorite stories we read in the book, even before we discovered our connection to them. Here is an abbreviated version of their story:

William and his family were devout members of the Church of England as had been their forbears before them for many generations so it was a disturbing thing when missionaries from America brought the message of the restored gospel to them.  The principles of apostasy and restoration were new to them but of great concern so they took the matter to the Lord in prayer.  The answer came in such a forceful way that the entire family accepted the gospel and were baptized.  The James home became a gathering place for the Saints in the area and a home away from home for the missionaries.  It didn’t take long for the ministers of the Church of England to turn their friends and relatives away from them and it was little wonder that they began to think of gathering to Zion.

William was reluctant to leave immediately.  He knew that he couldn’t take the full responsibility for the family because of his poor health.  He reasoned that one or even two of the family could find passage and the others could follow.  It might be possible for the immigrant to find work in Utah and send money home for the rest of the family to come.  In that way a few years would have them all in Zion.  Jane vetoed the idea.  She was a strong willed person and she had a better idea.  She meant to keep her family together at all costs.  It would be easy for the family separated to go its several ways and if some were in one place and some in another place they might even forget family and the church.  There would be some better way and of that she was sure.  As if an answer to her prayers there came a solution.

…On 3 May 1856 the James family with a large group of Saints from all over Europe embarked on the ship “Thornton” at Liverpool bound for America.  They had been on the ocean for about 5 weeks when Jane noticed that her baby was becoming listless and for a day or two refusing to eat.  The child was 11 months old and it could have been most any illness that would come to one of this age but she grew steadily worse.  Her temperature shot up and the parents spent all of their time with her while kind friends cared for the rest of the family.  On the first of June the sorrowing parents were forced to see the tiny body wrapped in a bit of canvas slide from a board over the side of the ship and disappear into the ocean. ..

Sara James (18) recounted the following: “The day that we reached the last crossing of the Sweetwater River I will never forget as long as I live.  It was a bitter cold morning in October as we broke camp.  As usual there was the dead to bury before we went on.  Father and Rueben were with the burial detail.  Mother was helping to pull the heaviest cart, waiting to come on with Father.  She sent the rest of us on ahead with the light cart, with the main company.  After the burial Father seemed so tired that he asked her to go on.  As soon as he felt stronger he and Rueben would come after us.  Mother was sick at heart for she knew that Father had given out.  She urged him to try but he collapsed.  Feeling that with some rest he would be better she hurried on to the rest of us.

“She found us on the river bank too tired and frightened to cross alone.  We had waded this river before but it had never looked so far across before.  With her encouragement and help we waded the icy waters.  Our wet clothing was soon covered with ice and the rags on our feet were frozen to them.  We reached the main company, put on dry clothing and proceeded on our way.  When we stopped for the night we inquired about our folks but nothing had been heard of them.

“Since there were many stragglers we felt that Father and Rueben would soon catch up with us.  All night we waited for word.  Toward morning one of the captains who had gone hunting for the stragglers came into camp with the dead body of our Father and the badly frozen body of Rueben.  Our brother was to suffer from this incident all of his life.  He was unconscious for some time and it took some time for him to recover.  Father’s body along with others who had died in the night were buried in a deep hole.  Brush was thrown over the grave and a fire built on it to cover the scent from the wolves.  I can see my Mother’s face as she sat quietly holding a sleeping child.  Her eyes looked dead and I was frightened.  She didn’t sit long however for my Mother was never one to cry.  When it was time to move on Mother with her family was ready.  She put the invalid son Rueben in the cart with the baby and joined the train.  We felt that she would see us through anything.  My Mother was a strong woman.”

On 24 October 1856 the Willie Handcart Company stayed in camp to bury the dead. One of the dead to be buried was William James, aged 46. He was buried in a mass grave with twelve others who had died. Four days later on 28 October 1856, the rescue party under George Grant met with the Willie Company at the sixth crossing of the Sweetwater River.

(From “Combined Histories By Henry Thomas)