Charles E Griffin and the handcart companies

Faced with overwhelming opposition from the populous in Missouri the LDS Church began to make plans to leave Nauvoo. One of the primary goals was to organize in such a way to make it possible for every Saint to make the trek west. But despite their best intentions many Saints were left behind, some because of philosophical differences, but many simply due to a lack of resources. Gathering these Saints is a constant theme in the history of the early Church………………………………………………. In 1849 the Perpetual Emigrating Fund was started to aid the poor Saints, then living in the United States, that did not have the means to make the journey to Salt Lake City. In 1853 the system was expanded to include the European Saints. …….. The whole enterprise was well organized. Agents were hired or appointed to organize each step of the trip. Church callings were issued and men were given the task of identifying those that were eligible to emigrate. Agents were hired to purchase passage on ships leaving Europe and make all the necessary arraignments for crossing the Atlantic. In America agents purchased train and ship passage from the ports to the gathering places on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In Utah men were called to travel east and serve as company captains for the newly organized wagon trains bringing the emigrants west. ……………………………………………………….. By 1854 the Perpetual Emigrating Fund was at a low financial ebb. There simply was not enough funds available to outfit new wagon trains. The response was to try out a new concept, the handcart company. The plan was put into effect and those new companies made their passage to America and west to Iowa City, Iowa. There materials were gathered by fund agents and the companies built there own handcarts for the journey west. ……………………………………………………………………….. The story of two of the handcart companies, the Martin and Willie Companies, is well known. Arriving late in Iowa City they caught the fund agents by surprise. Materials were hastily gathered and these two companies put together handcarts. The result was poorer materials and a delay in the beginning of the journey west. These two factors were to prove disastrous for the Willie and Martin handcart companies……………………………………………………………………………………………………. The story of their struggle is well known. There late arrival in America and their even later departure-heading west also caught the Church leadership by surprise. Brigham Young shared the news with the Church in the October Conference that year. He said the text for the Conference was the Saints still out on the plains. …. Beginning that very day he issued a call for the organization of the relief efforts to bring in the handcart companies. By the next day a mountain of supplies had been donated and a relief party organized and dispatched east. …………………………………. One of the interesting points is how well those early relief efforts were documented. We present here several examples. One document was a circular issued by the Church and shared with the congregations in England. It details the key provisions for the voyager. After the call at the October Conference detailed records were kept of who donated material and what they donated. We present two of them here. Note on one is the name of Sarah Griffin wife of Charles E. Griffin. Note that the two largest donations for foodstuffs was flour and onions. Among the list of coats and blankets we also find listed aprons and neckties. ……………………………………………… We also include a list of the men who volunteered to go as teamsters driving the wagons full of the donated materials. Listed among the teamsters is the name Charles E Griffin. …………………………………………………………………………………………… This first wave of volunteers was the men who were the first to find the Martin and Willie Companies. Some made the journey all the way to Martins Cove. As news of the full scope of the disaster made its way back to Salt Lake City other donations were gathered and other teamsters were called. ……………………………………………… We have told the story of Charles E Griffin’s participation in a chapter in his Biography. …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Charles E Griffin / Albert Bailey Griffin / Samuel / Samuel / Samuel Griffin of Killingworth CT.