Pioneer women set examples despite trials

by Ami Heyborne HEY01001@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Her shoes have worn out so she must go barefoot. Behind her are footprints of blood from every step she takes in the piercing snow.

Though the pioneer trek to Zion was hard and miserable, thousands of pioneer women endured, and at the end they heard Brigham Young say, “This is the place.”

The early women of the Church had an assortment of responsibilities on the trail west. They confronted unfamiliar challenges, unloaded and reloaded wagons, cooked meals, nurtured children, fed cattle, helped with repairs and walked, according to Mary Bywater Cross, author of Quilts and Women of the Mormon Migrations.

“Mostly they walked and walked and walked,” Virginia H. Pearce said in her talk, “Keep Walking and give Time a Chance.” On a good day, the pioneers walked 15 miles. On average, they walked ten miles a day.

These women not only walked, but also sometimes carried children in long dresses.
“Our garments reached from the neck to the ankle, with long sleeves to the wrist, and were made of heavy factory [cloth],” pioneer girl Mamie Woolley said in her journal.

Some of these women completed the journey alone. There were more women on the journey than men, Pearce said. Many men died along the trail, leaving the women to take care of the family and the wagon, alone.

The women of the trail became unified, according to Bywater. Women would help with cooking, loading and dealing with the emotional trials. They formed friendships and companionships through this time of trial and hardship.

“I shall try to present them in their terms and judge them in mine. That I do not accept the faith that possessed them does not mean I doubt their frequent devotion and heroism in its service. Especially their women. Their women were incredible,” Wallace Stegner wrote in The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail.

The trek didn’t stop family progression. Women had babies in the backs of wagons without the correct medical attention, leading to the death of many women and children. But these women persevered to bring children into the world.

There is no doubt that these women had to endure incredible hardships. The one thing that got them through was their undying faith, to M. Russell Ballard said in “You have Nothing to Fear from the Journey.”

“For the Utah pioneers of 1847, their faith was grounded in principle. They left their homes, their temple and in some cases their families, in search of a place of refuge where they could worship without fear of persecution. There was little that they could carry with them in the way of provisions and material possessions, but each wagon and handcart was heavily laden with faith—faith in God, faith in the Restoration of His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith and faith that God knew where they were going and that He would see them through.”