Brigham Young's Call to Rescue the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies (October 1856)

In October 1856, after Apostle Franklin D. Richards arrived in Salt Lake City on October 4 and reported that the Willie and Martin handcart companies—nearly 1,000 pioneers—were still on the Wyoming plains and dangerously late in the season, Brigham Young responded with an immediate, public call to rescue them. Two days later, at the October General Conference held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle (a Sunday meeting), Young suspended the conference and declared, 'Go and bring in those people now on the plains,' asserting that their salvation was of paramount importance. His directive initiated a large, life-saving mobilization of men, wagons, and supplies who set out into winter mountain conditions to reach the stranded Willie and Martin handcart pioneers. Accounts name Franklin D. Richards, George D. Grant, and Robert T. Burton among those involved, along with numerous rescue party members and the rescued Willie and Martin handcart pioneers.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Ensign, 'Go and Bring Them In,' December 2006):

I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak to-day and during the conference. It is this. On the 5th day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with hand-carts, and probably many are now 700 miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, 'to get them here.' I want the brethren who may speak to understand that their text is the people on the plains, and the subject matter for this community is to send for them and bring them in before the winter sets in. ... I shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until to-morrow, nor until [the] next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send oxen, I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them; also 12 tons of flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. ... I will tell you all, that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain; the preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you. (Deseret News, Oct. 15, 1856, 252.) Immediately horses and mules and strong wagons were offered. Flour in abundance was forthcoming. Warm clothing and bedding were quickly assembled by the women. The next morning, horses were shod and wagons were repaired and loaded. The following morning, Tuesday, 16 mule teams pulled out and headed eastward.