Ellen (Nellie) Pucell Unthank — Preservation during the Martin Handcart Company Trek

In the winter of 1856, nine-year-old Nellie Pucell and her fourteen-year-old sister Maggie were members of the ill-fated Martin Handcart Company. After their parents, Samuel and Margaret Pucell, died from exposure and starvation on the trail, the two young girls were left to survive alone in sub-zero temperatures with insufficient clothing and rations. Nellie's legs eventually froze to her stockings, yet she and her sister were among the survivors rescued by the party sent from Salt Lake City. Her survival, while approximately 150 others in the company perished, is documented in pioneer history as a significant instance of divine preservation.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in JacobBarlow.com, 'Ellen (Nellie) Purcell Unthank'):

Ellen (Nellie) Purcell was born November 6, 1846 in Tintwhistle, England. At 9 she, with her parents and sister Margaret (Maggie), 14, began the trek from Iowa to Salt Lake Valley in 1856 with the Edward Martin Handcart Company. Early snows overtook the company, both Nellie’s parents died on the trail. Nellie’s feet were frozen. On arrival in Salt Lake Valley, she was strapped to a board. No anesthetics were available. Both her legs were amputated just below the knee with a butcher’s knife and carpenter’s saw. For the rest of her life she moved about on the painful stubs of her legs. At 24 in Cedar City she became the plural wife of William Unthank. His income was small. Beginning as a wife in a one-room log house with a dirt floor, she kept her home spotless. Nellie took in washing, she knitted stockings to sell. She gave birth to 6 children. Her Bishop and Relief Society occasionally brought food to her family. To even the score, once a year she and her children cleaned the meeting house throughout. Nellie died at 68 in Cedar City — A noble representative of the rank and file of Mormon Pioneers.