The year 2006 marks the sesquicentennial of the Martin and Willie Handcart Company treks to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Members of the Willie Company sailed from Liverpool, England, in May of 1856, and arrived in Salt Lake the following November. With limited funds and resources, these faithful Saints made the journey to the Valley pulling handcarts and walking, consequently enduring some of the greatest hardships of all the pioneers who followed Brigham Young’s call from the Lord to gather in the West. In an attempt to bring some of the personal, daily experiences of the Willie Company in particular to members of the Church and other interested viewers, BYU Studies has produced a day-by-day web chronology of the trek, based on research by Paul D. Lyman.

On the website handcart.byu.edu, viewers can follow the Saints on their journey by reading from the Willie Company Journal, as well as a brief highlight and summary pulling from other journals and sources. Where applicable, each entry includes links to these full-text journals and accounts, including the diaries of William Woodward and Levi Savage, the Willie Company Journal, and an account by John Chislett, written some years after they arrived in Salt Lake. The information on the site also uses a wide range of previously overlooked sources, including Daughters of Utah Pioneers, state historical societies, newspapers, railway maps, congress reports, and John Dickerson’s territorial surveys.

When you open the webpage, you will see a summary for that specific day along with information from the original documents. From there you can click to see entries organized by day, by month, or by place. Because the Saints were traveling and in a new place almost every day, the places are divided into six categories: (1) Liverpool to New York City, (2) New York City to Iowa City, (3) Iowa City to Florence, Nebraska Territory, (4) Florence, to Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory, (5) Fort Laramie to Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater River, Nebraska Territory, (6) and Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater River to Great Salt Lake City.

Each different place on the Willie Company’s trek provided an entirely new set of hardships that they had to endure. Whether sea sickness, cramped trains, hot and humid days of walking, or harsh winter storms on a reduced food supply, these Saints experienced almost every kind of physical trial imaginable. For example, the company journal casually mentions that early in the morning on October 16, “sister Ella, wife of Olof Wicklund was delivered of a son.” Put into the context of the journey, you realize that “sister Ella” made the entire trek up to this point pregnant, with the last months of her pregnancy on foot through the long, hot stretches of Nebraska. Looking ahead in the chronology, you also realize that she her baby just seven days before the company experienced the fatal ascend of Rocky Ridge. Miraculously, both Ella and baby Jacob survived the rest of the trek into Salt Lake City. We know little else of what this family experienced, but we can see their sacrifice.

Whether you know a little or a lot about the pioneers, this chronology of the Willie Handcart Company will give new insights into their experiences, hardships, and faith. Even stories and events that are already familiar may strengthen your testimony and understanding when considered in this new, fuller context. To access the chronology, please visit handcart.byu.edu or contact byustudies@byu.edu to have daily events emailed directly to you.