families were entirely out of provisions, and their des- titute neighbors were .sorely taxed.[1] A fatal sick- ness swept through the camp, and soon there were not sufficient persons to nurse the sick; frequently burials were hastened with little ceremony. In the spring of 1847, Lorenzo Snow was made president of the camp. The men were put to work wherever they could get it. Seed was planted, and the result was enough not only for themselves, but they were enabled to send supplies to the camp at Council Bluffs.[2]
Snow instituted religious ceremonies and amusements to brighten and encourage them. He describes a dance in his log cabin, where clean straw was spread over the ground floor, and the walls draped with sheets. Turnips were scooped out and in them were placed lighted candles, which, suspended from the ceiling of earth and cane, or fastened on the walls, imparted a picturesque effect. Dancing, speeches, songs, and recitations varied the exercises, which opened and closed with prayer.
On each side of the hills where now stands Council Bluffs could be seen the white canvas tents of a Mor- mon encampment, from which arose at sunrise the smoke of hundreds of fires. After the morning meal, the men employed themselves in tending herds, in planting grain and vegetables, or in building houses for winter. Many of them were excellent craftsmen, and could fell a tree, and split its trunk into boards, scantling, rails, posts, or whatever were needed, as
- ↑ It cannot be said that any considerable number died of starvation. 'Only those died of it outright,' says Kane in The Mormons, 'who fell in out-of-the-way places that the hand of brotherhood could not reach ... If but part of a group were supplied with provisions, the whole went on half or quarter ration.' 'Articles of diet, such as tea, coffee, sugar, with every species of clothing, were eagerly stored up, as possibly the last we should ever see.' Broom's Testimonies, MS. , 24. ' When starting from Nauvoo, a gentile neighbor gave me a pound of tea, which through sickness and great suffering was about all the sustenance I had for some time. ' Mrs Richards' Rem., MS. , 20.
- ↑ 'Parties were sent to the gentile settlements to look for work, food, and clothing, and elders Dana and Campbell collected about $600 from the rich gentiles in Ohio and elsewhere.' Snow's Biography, 91.
