A few days ago, I went on a trek to re-enact the Mormon handcart pioneer experience. There were 240 of us from the LDS Spanish Fork Maple Mountain Stake who dressed in pioneer clothes and pulled handcarts. We all thought about the stranded pioneers that tragic winter of 1856 and the 210 people who died. We also thought about those who risked their lives to rescue them. One of the rescuers was my great, great, grandfather Daniel W. Jones.
There is a cove of trees with benches named after him at Martin's Cove in Wyoming. Our group of 240 youth and leaders assembled there.
I was asked to speak about you Daniel.
As I spoke I saw tears in the eyes of those who listened.
Thank you for your life of courage.
You are my hero.
Daniel Webster Jones (August 26, 1830 - April 20, 1915) was an
American and
Mormon pioneer. He was the leader of the group that colonized what eventually became
Mesa, Arizona, made the first translation of selections of
The Book of Mormon into
Spanish, led the first
Mormon missionary expedition into
Mexico, dealt frequently with the
American Indians, and was the leader of the group that heroically wintered at
Devil's Gate during the rescue of the stranded handcart companies in 1856.
Jones was born 26 August 1830 in Booneslick,
Howard County,
Missouri. Orphaned at the age of 12, he joined a group of volunteers to fight in the
Mexican-American War in 1847. Following the war, he remained in
Mexico for a number of years, learning
Spanish, and while taking "part in many ways in the wild, reckless life that was common in that land," still he longed for something. When a sheepherding expedition bound for
California departed in 1850, he left with them.
While camped along the
Green River in 1850, his pistol went off in his holster, piercing through fourteen inches of his groin and thigh. His companions left him, lame, but alive, with a
Mormon settlement in
Provo. There, he studied Mormon doctrine and was baptized by
Isaac Morley in 1851. The next year, he married Harriet Emily Colton, daughter of Philander and Polly Colton.
In the October 1856
General Conference of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church President
Brigham Young informed those gathered that a group of Latter-day Saint
immigrants were then stranded on the plains of
Wyoming. These were the
Martin and Willie handcart companies, as well as the Hunt and Hodgett wagon companies. The next day, about 25 men departed from the
Salt Lake Valley to find the immigrants.
The company found the Willie Handcart Company near
South Pass. After reaching
Devil's Gate, they still hadn't found the other groups, and Jones,
Joseph A. Young, and Abe Garr were sent ahead to find the missing parties and help them in to the Devil's Gate area. After assisting them to a spot now known as
Martin's Cove, it was determined that Jones, Thomas Alexander, and Ben Hampton would remain behind with the goods cached at Fort Seminoe, together with 17 teamsters detailed from the Hunt and Hodgett wagon companies. During that winter, they endured terrific privations which Jones later detailed in his autobiography.
In 1874, Jones was commissioned by
Brigham Young to translate selections from
The Book of Mormon into
Spanish, in preparation for a missionary expedition into
Mexico. This he did, with the assistance of Henry Brizzee and Mileton Trejo, a recent Spanish convert from the
Philippines. Following the translation, the company, including James Z. Stewart, Helaman Pratt (son of
Parley P. Pratt and father of Rey L. Pratt), Wiley C. Jones (Jones's son), R. H. Smith, Ammon M. Tenney and
Anthony W. Ivins (who would later become an
Apostle and First Counselor in the
First Presidency, departed for Mexico. The mission lasted from 1875 to 1876.
Upon returning, he was commissioned by
Brigham Young to start a settlement in the Salt River Valley of
Arizona. Originally called Jonesville, the settlement was later renamed
Lehi, and was eventually incorporated into
Mesa, Arizona.
After some conflict with the other settlers, Jones moved to the
Tonto Basin area, where his wife and 14th and youngest child were killed when a shed fell on them during a storm in 1882. In 1890, he published his
autobiography,
Forty Years Among the Indians. He died on 20 April 1915, of
gangrene after an accident, and was buried in the Mesa City Cemetery.
[1] He was 84 years old.
Jones was the grandfather of
Fay Wray (
King Kong (1933)), his last surviving grandchild. He is the great-great-great grandfather of
Jeffrey Jones, the first Mormon
senator in
Mexico.
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| Martin's Cove |
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| The Mormon Trail. |
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| Youth groups and their leaders re-enact the heroic struggles of their pioneer ancestors. |
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Sometimes
we read books
And
the skies become a sea
