A Brother's Dream of the Rescue Is Fulfilled to the Hour — Six Church Wagons Arrive as the Starving Handcart Company Camps (1859)
Published October 4, 2026 at 11:56 PM
Contributed by
Todd Morgan
Beaumont, CA, 92223
Late in the 1859 journey of the George Rowley Handcart Company, the rations gave out entirely; a soup the company made sickened everyone, and the whole body of Saints was in desperate condition. They stopped and camped, waiting for food. On the morning of the fourth day after camping, one of the brethren related a dream he had that night: the Church rescue teams would come that very day, and just before they could be seen the company would hear a gun fired. That afternoon the company heard a gunshot, and within a minute the teams — six wagons from Salt Lake City — came in sight. Men and women threw themselves on the ground begging for a crust for their last meal, and the melted wagon master ordered his boys to drive in and feed them all they could eat, promising more could be sent from Salt Lake if needed. Sixteen-year-old Fanny Fry recorded that the company then had all they could eat through to the end of the journey.
In Their Own Words
“On the morning of the fourth day after camping, one of the brethren related a dream he had that night. He told us that the Church teams would come that day, and just before we could see them we would hear a gun fired and they would come in sight. I think it was in the afternoon that we heard a gun shot, and in a minute the teams came in sight, six in number... Men and women threw themselves on the ground, begging for a crust for their last meal. It was a sight that none who witnessed it will ever forget. The wagon master, poor fellow, was melted to tears. "Boys!" he said, "I can't stand this; drive in."... "Stand back, brethren and sisters, until we can get the horses away, and then we will give you all you can eat." The teamster told us when that was gone to come and get more and to eat plenty — that if they had not brought enough they could send to Salt Lake City and get more. We were to have all we could eat, and we did from that time to the end of the journey.”
— Fanny Fry Simons, journal, in I Walked to Zion, pp. 76-80
Sources & References
Fanny Fry Simons, journal (holograph in possession of granddaughter Georgia Hansen); as reproduced in Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers on the Mormon Trail (Deseret Book, 1994), pp. 76-80, via https://heritage.uen.org/pioneers/Wc89a8d5111229.shtml. See also 'The Journal of Fanny Fry Simons,' in An Enduring Legacy (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1983), 6:178-212. (research confidence: high)
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