It is unparalleled in history, the procession of Latter-Day Saints pushing handcarts from Iowa City and Florence (Omaha) to their promised Zion by the Great Salt Lake. Many of the three thousand hardy souls who trudged across thirteen hundred miles of prairie, desert, and mountain from 1856 to 1860 were European converts to the Mormon faith. Without funds for wagons and oxen, they carried their possessions in two-wheeled carts powered and aided by their own muscle and blood. Some of the weary travelers would finally be welcomed by their brethren in Salt Lake City; others would go to wayside graves or get caught in early winter storms in the Rockies and hope to be rescued by the parties sent out by Brigham Young. The migration is described in Handcarts to Zion, which draws on diaries and reports of the participants, rosters of the ten companies, and a collection of the songs sung on the trail and at "The Gathering." LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen dedicated the book to his mother, Mary Ann Hafen, who wrote about the long journey in Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: A Woman’s Life on the Mormon Frontier, also a Bison Book.

Traces the tragedy-marked 1856 journey of three thousand Mormons from Iowa to Utah, explaining how leader Brigham Young disregarded warnings and then convinced his followers that hardships and deaths were part of a higher plan.

In 1856 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints employed a new means of getting converts to Great Salt Lake City who could not afford the journey otherwise. They began using handcarts, thus initiating a five-year experiment that has become a legend in the annals of Mormon and North American migration. Only one in ten Mormon emigrants used handcarts, but of those 3,000 who did between 1856 and 1860, most survived the harrowing journey to settle Utah and become members of a remarkable pioneer generation. Others were not so lucky. More than 200 died along the way, victims of exhaustion, accident, and, for a few, starvation and exposure to late-season Wyoming blizzards. Now, Candy Moulton tells of their successes, travails, and tragedies in an epic retelling of a legendary story. The Mormon Handcart Migration traces each stage of the journey, from the transatlantic voyage of newly converted church members to the gathering of the faithful in the eastern Nebraska encampment known as Winter Quarters. She then traces their trek from the western Great Plains, across modern-day Wyoming, to their final destination at Great Salt Lake. The handcart experiment was the brainchild of Mormon leader Brigham Young, who decreed that the saints could haul their own possessions, pushing or pulling two-wheeled carts across 1,100 miles of rough terrain, much of it roadless and some of it untrodden. The LDS church now embraces the saga of the handcart emigrants—including even the disaster that befell the Martin and Willie handcart companies in central Wyoming in 1856—as an educational, faith-inspiring experience for thousands of youth each year. Moulton skillfully weaves together scores of firsthand accounts from the journals, letters, diaries, reminiscences, and autobiographies the handcart pioneers left behind. Depth of research and unprecedented detail make this volume an essential history of the Mormon handcart migration.

Some may say Doc was just an old man on a long walk, but it was a walk that forever changed his life. He lived experiences you may not believe, and had conversations you may not be ready for. Only you can open that door, when you're ready. If you find something in this book that changes your life, you are not alone.Doc Cleland is a man who lost his childhood to an abusive, alcoholic stepfather; his wife to Lou Gehrig's disease; his job, home, and savings to the economic downturn; and 4 of his 5 children to paths that stray from his Mormon roots and lifestyle. Seemingly a man who has also lost his path in life, Doc decides to honor his great-grandmother's memory by re-creating her pioneering handcart journey of 1856. He begins walking in Iowa City, pulling a wooden handcart, heading west on his 1400-mile journey, uncertain of exactly what he'll encounter along the way.Sarah Goode Marshall was the first Mormon handcart pioneer to reach the Salt Lake Valley, a 34-year-old widow with 6 young children and a powerful commitment to her newly found faith. A woman who left in England her family, her home, and everything she knew, Sarah's story has lived only in family journals and lore for the past 5 generations until Doc brings her to life by connecting with her indomitable spirit during his trek.Join Sarah as she discovers the faith that is true for her, withstands the abuse her husband piles upon her, and finally leaves her home in England to answer the call to Zion. Her husband, who dies after mishandling an attempt to poison Sarah, lies buried in English soil while her siblings chastise her for daring to consider leaving their homeland; neither is enough to stop Sarah from following her heart. She and her children travel by ship, train, and finally by foot and handcart in their journey to reach the Great Salt Lake Basin. Though their company is plagued by exhaustion, inadequate nutrition, terrifying storms, savages and death, an indomitable spirit travels with them and seems to leave traces behind, just waiting to be discovered by the next travelers. While Doc experiences physical ailments that land him in a hospital and near-constant mental struggles due to his exhaustion, he engages the reader with his gritty determination to understand his ancestor's journey, his jaunty commitment to his task, and his humble acceptance of what eventually transpires: a spiritual gratification unlike any he's ever known. Although Doc walks alone, his encounters along the way expand his experience to an understanding of humanity in its many and varied forms, from the Schwan's delivery man who drives ice cream out to him, to the Civil War Re-enactment buff who gives up a day to drive behind and protect him, to the women who spend their days rescuing birds from sludge ponds and share their stories with him. In Faith Greater Than Pain, Sarah Goode Marshall's story anchors Doc's modern-day journey, as each—separated by a century and a half—walks toward Zion, all the while discovering a second Zion within.