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Willie And Martin

     

Handcart Companies
by
Ned Eddins

The Perpetual Emigration Fund was started in 1849 to help defray the costs of
Mormon converts traveling to the Great Salt Lake Valley. By 1855, the thousands of
converts from England and Europe reached the point the Perpetual Emigration Fund
(PEF) did not have enough money to pay the costs for Mormon converts coming to
the Salt Lake Valley. Brigham Young decided the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way
for the large numbers of converts was to pull handcarts.
                                                           Mormon Handcart

Five persons were assigned to each cart. A family with small children used a covered
handcart. The use of these two-wheeled handcarts was a feature unique to Mormon
Trail migration. Modeled after carts used by street sweepers in New York, the
wooden handcarts were six- to seven-feet long, and wide enough to span a narrow
wagon track. The small box on the cart was  four-foot long and eight-inches high. A
handcart loaded with personal belongings and provisions carried four- to five-
hundred pounds.

An adult was allowed seventeen pounds of personal belongings and a child ten
pounds...personal belongs included bedding, family keepsakes, clothes, cooking
utensils, etc. The belongs were closely weighed for each individual and anything
beyond the seventeen pounds was discarded, or in case of a family, anything beyond
the total weight allowed for the family members...imagine discarding all of your
worldly goods down to seventeen pounds. Even though the converts had little, there
were many heirlooms and keepsakes discarded on the prairie outside of Iowa City. In
addition to the carts, a wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen was provided for a
"company" of one hundred persons. The wagons carried extra provisions, primarily
flour, and five tents. Twenty people were assigned to each tent.
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