One of "Our" Pioneers

Our youngest son Carson (15) is on Pioneer Trek this week at the Sixth Crossing and Martin's Cove. He comes home today (Pioneer Day).

I like to remember stories about the pioneers, and one of my favorites is a direct ancestor of ours, Lucy Ward. She was in the 4th Company known as the Willie Handcart Company. Lucy was in the Third hundred of approximately 500 members of that company (there were 87 people in her "100").

According to one of Lucy's granddaughters, Ruby Hall, "To each hundred there were five tents with 20 persons to a tent; 20 handcarts and one Chicago Wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen to hold provisions and tents, each person was limited to seventeen pounds of clothing and bedding.The strength of the company was equalized as much as possible by distributing the young men among the different families to help them. Several carts were drawn by young girls exclusively. Lucy was one of these. She had just turned 23 years old in May."

Lucy was a native of London, England. She was apprenticed to a milliner (hat maker) and became very skilled and her hats were popular. After she joined the church she wanted to "go to Zion" and she worked for a year making hats to earn the money to get on a ship to New York City. Then in New York City she saved money from hat-making for another year to join the Saints in Winter Quarters, Iowa. She had a fur coat and some green netting, and she cut off a strip of fur from her coat and made herself a fur cap with a green veil to keep her head warm.

I have read enough Regency novels to know that ladies who "move in the first circles" are very particular in their milliners. The best milliners, in addition to spectacular talent in their art, must be genteel and well-mannered. And one of the Pioneer Trek websites says this about our Lucy: "Lucy Ward was a well-to-do, and proper lady, [even] bringing high-heels on the journey!!”

We know something about the experiences of those pioneers in the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. They were caught in early winter storms, they didn't have enough warm clothing and blankets, and they ran short of food. Fingers and toes were frostbitten. Infants, children, and adults died from the cold, from hunger, from illness. They suffered terrible hardships, and many developed tremendous faith.

At this time, (6 October 1856) the Salt Lake Conference was taking place and Brigham Young was sending a rescue party to the stranded handcart companies. James Barnet Cole was called to help in the rescue. One night on their way, James dreamed that when they met the emigrants he saw a beautiful girl wearing a fur cap tied on with a green veil, whom he married. He was so impressed with his dream that he related it to Brother William Kimball who remarked, "We will see no beautiful girls in green veils among those half frozen and starved emigrants." Reminiscing, James Barnett Cole said that they saw the encampment just as the sun was sinking in the west. It looked like an Eskimo village which was fully a mile away. The snow was very deep and paths had been made from tent to tent giving the camp that appearance. It was located on a plain near the river. It was October 21, 1856. When the people caught sight of the wagon train coming, they shouted, they cried, they threw off all restraint and freely embraced their deliverers. When they finally reached the suffering Willie Handcart Company, Brother Kimball noticed a girl with a green veil tied over her fur cap to keep her head warm. He drove the wagon up to her and exclaimed, "Brother Jim, there is your dream girl." James asked her to get in the wagon and her reply was, "No, I don't know you." She got used to the idea of having him around, because just 12 days later, November 2nd, on the way to Salt Lake, Lucy Ward, the dream girl, and James Barnet Cole were married at Fort Bridger by William Kimball. They stayed at Fort Supply the rest of that winter and came to Willow Creek (near Willard) the next spring, 1857.

I love this story. I think it's partly the idea of romance in Martin's Cove. In the midst of sorrow and despair it is a story of normal hopes and dreams and love.

There is a story about James's mother being a little impatient with Lucy, because she had been gently brought up in a middle class family in England. Of course Jim and his family had been driven from place to place with the early saints, and had known only hardship and pioneering. When she complained about Jim doing what she called 'women's work' around the house he said ,"It's a damn poor family that can't afford one lady."

On January 31,1858 Lucy Ward Cole gave birth to a baby girl. That spring Johnston's Army came and all the homes and mills were prepared to be burned, if necessary. Lucy described their preparations to move south. Sacks of flour from the Cole family mill were piled high in a covered wagon. Then she and her tiny baby were hoisted up to ride on the flour to Provo.

James and Lucy had 11 children. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. James died while Lucy was away helping someone have a baby. She was needed there, and couldn't get home so she sent word to bury him and where, and she didn't even get home for the funeral. They were tough people. Even the "ladies."

* Rescuing the handcart pioneers was not the first time James Barnet Cole willingly accepted a call to serve from the prophet. In February 1846 his parents with their children, were driven from Nauvoo. They crossed the Mississippi River with the exiled Mormons and settled temporarily at Mount Pisgah, Iowa where James Barnet, aged seventeen, joined the Mormon Battalion.

I think we have "inherited" some traits and strengths of these amazing ancestors of ours. Toughness. Steadfast. Skilled. Determined. Loyal...and "beautiful!"

I am proud and blessed to be a part of this family!