Handcart Pioneers

Tracing Latter-day Saint Ancestors Emigration and Immigration  Handcart Pioneers



Handcart Companies
Between 1856 and 1860 nearly 3,000 emigrants from the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined ten handcart companies--about 650 handcarts total--and walked to Utah from Iowa City, Iowa, (a distance of 1,300 miles) or from Florence, Nebraska (1,030 miles). Among these courageous handcart pioneers were cobblers, factory workers, farmers, fisherman, and aristocrats. Swiss, Danish, Scottish, Norwegian, Welsh, and English immigrants; they often didn’t share the same language. However they did share the same desire, to reach the Rocky Mountains and live among the members of their newfound church. This was, according to historian LeRoy Hafen, "the most remarkable travel experiment in the history of Western America." See also Mormon Trail and Latter-day Saint Emigration and Immigration.

Many families have a tradition that their ancestry came to Utah in a handcart company. These and others came overland between 1847 and 1868.

Histories

 * Hafen, LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen. Handcarts to Zion : the story of a unique western migration 1856-1860, with contemporary journals, accounts, reports, and rosters of members of the ten handcart companies. Glendale,California: Arthur H. Clark, 1960, 1976. FS Library 289.309 H119h
 * Cornwall, Rebecca. and Leonard J. Arrington. Rescue of the 1856 handcart companies. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1981. FS Library 978 W2c
 * Day, Robert O. The Enoch Train pioneers; trek of the first two handcart companies- 1856. Oviedo,Florida: Day to Day Enterprises, 2001. FS Library 289.373 D333e
 * Christensen, Allen C.  Before Zion: an account of the 7th handcart company. Springville, Utah: Council Press, 2004. FS Library 289.309 C462b
 * Knighton,Lisa. Bacon fat and axles, a recreation of the Eighth handcart company. S.l.: L. Knighton, 1991. FS Library 973 2kb
 * Jolene S. Allphin. Tell my story, too : a collection of biographical sketches of pioneers and rescuers of the Willie, Martin, Hodget, and Hunt Companies of 1856.[S.l. : Tell My Story Pub., [c2001] 2009 FS Library 979.2 W2ajs]

Google Books

 * The Divine Handcart Plan
 * Handcarts to Zion
 * Painters of the Wasatch Mountains
 * The Rocky Mountain Saints

Articles

 * 1848-1868 Companies
 * Martin Company: Mormon Pioneers Used Handcarts to Trek to Salt Lake City
 * Pioneer Voices
 * Some Must Push and Some Must Pull
 * They Walked 1,300 Miles

Related FamilySearch Blog Articles

 * Pioneer History and Discovering Your Pioneer Heritage
 * The Westward Expansion and American Pioneers—How It Affects Your Family History
 * Three Things The Oregon Trail Game Didn’t Teach You about the Pioneers
 * Who Were the Pioneers?