Ankeny Genealogical Chapter

10/13/2026

This map on display in our Exhibit Hall (based on a document in the Law Library of Congress) shows the cessation of Indigenous lands in present-day Iowa between 1824 and 1851.

10/06/2026

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
HANDCART COMPANIES IN IOWA
By: Loren Horton

In 1856 and 1857 a total of seven Mormon handcart companies made the journey from Iowa City, across the Great Plains to Utah. A total of 2,340 persons, with 529 handcarts and 31 wagons were involved in the movement. During the trips, more than 250 persons died, though most of those deaths occurred in Companies 4 and 5, who got late starts and were caught in the high plains in winter. Most of these members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in the United States aboard eight ships, landing either in New York or Boston, and almost half of them had their passage paid by the Perpetual Emigration Fund. More than half of the members of the handcart companies came from England, with significant numbers also coming from Wales, Denmark, and Scotland.
When these immigrants arrived at the ports on the east coast, they travelled by train as far as the railroad was built at that time, Iowa City, Iowa. They then went into camp west of town, on the banks of Clear Creek, south of Coralville. While in camp they were divided into companies, the handcarts were built, supplies accumulated, and preparations were made for the arduous task of pulling the handcarts on to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Many of the handcarts were made in haste, not always by skilled workman, and the amount of baggage per person strictly limited. Most carts were of green lumber, made without iron, other than thin tires, and even the wheels were sometimes wrapped in rawhide. About 400 pounds of food, clothing, cooking utensils, and tents were loaded on. With these insubstantial vehicles, five companies departed in 1856 and two more in 1857.
Several diaries survive from persons who made the trip, and from those first hand accounts we can learn of the deaths and burials in camp and on the trail. Archer Walters was a carpenter, and was often called upon to make coffins, as well as carts. His diary entries are testimony to the times.
4 June 1856; Made a coffin for a
child dead in camp.
6 June 1856; Made another
child’s coffin.
15 June; coffin for William Lee,
aged 12, and another for Sister
Prator’s child.
17 June 1856; coffin for Job
Welling’s son.
21 June 1856; coffin for Brother
Bowers.
26 June; coffin for Emma Sheets
aged two and a half.
26 June 1856; coffin for Brother
Card’s daughter.
26 June 1856; Brother Henry
Walter struck by lightning in the
very middle of the train. Buried
without a coffin because no
boards available.
The diary of John D.T. McAllister is equally poignant.
16 May 1856; 4 o’clock Sister
Catherine…was delivered of a
daughter dead….During the
morning an adopted daughter
of John Taylor died of croup-
aged 5 months. The two were
buried in the camp graveyard
about a quarter mile from camp
19 May 1856; 10 o’clock Sister
Maria wife of James Shinn died
of consumption aged 60 years.
20 May 1856; Sister Shinn was
buried at 7 o’clock.
The diary of Daniel D. Cather contains similar entries.
7 June 1856; At 8 o’clock this
morning Jane, daughter of
Ralph and Elisabeth Ramsey,
departed this life at the
encampment, Iowa City, Iowa
age 7 days, buried in the
evening at the same place,

From these few examples , we can understand the experiences of the Saints as they left their homes in Europe, traveled to the United States on sailing vessels, and then walked from Iowa City to Utah. This short paper illustrates the difficulties encountered, resulting in deaths and burials . Even for the survivors ,undoubtedly it was an experience that they could never forget, and was a shaping force on their characters for the rest of their lives.

“Handcart Expeditions are a phase of the Mormon Trails even if not the 1846 route “, Loren Horton.

This article was taken from the Iowa Mormon Trails Association Quarterly Newsletter Wheel Writes
Volume 7 Issue 3 Spring 2000

Map created by Jane Briley. Founding Member of the Iowa Mormon Trails Association.

09/27/2026

FREE ~ The Importance of Photographs ~ If you want this page drag and drop it to your desktop then print. Gwyn

09/27/2026

FREE ~ Marriage Records page from my new notebook ~ Gwyn

09/26/2026

Minnesota Territory came into existence on March 3, 1849, during President James K. Polk's literal final hours in office, and it looked nothing like the state on a map today. Rather than the familiar shape Minnesotans grew up drawing in grade school, the territory sprawled far to the west, covering more than 166,000 square miles, stretching from the St. Croix River and Lake Superior all the way out to the Missouri River, and running north to the Canadian border. That's roughly double the land area of the modern state, since the western half of the territory covered the eastern portions of what would eventually become both North Dakota and South Dakota.

The territory was carved out of a patchwork of earlier claims. Land east of the Mississippi traced back to the original Northwest Territory established in 1787, while everything west of the river had come from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Before Minnesota Territory existed, that western stretch had bounced around as part of Iowa Territory and unorganized federal land, waiting for Congress to finally give it an actual government.

When territorial lawmakers sat down to organize the whole sprawling area, they divided it into just nine counties, a strikingly small number for a territory this size. Dakota County, for example, originally extended only as far south as present day Hastings but stretched several hundred miles west, nearly reaching the Missouri River, a boundary that would look almost unrecognizable to anyone living in the tidy, much smaller Dakota County of today. Other original counties carried names like Wabashaw, Itasca, Wahnahta, Mahkahta, and Pembina, the last one anchoring a distant settlement near the Canadian border that would later become the seed of Kittson County.

That far western reach came with its own political drama. Pembina's territorial representative, Joe Rolette, famously blocked a bill that would have split Minnesota Territory along an east-west line, a move that would have shifted the state capital to St. Peter and left Pembina stranded in unorganized territory once again. Rolette's maneuvering helped keep the territory intact long enough for statehood to arrive on its existing eastern boundary instead.

When Minnesota finally became a state on May 11, 1858, only the eastern portion of the original territory came along for the ride, and the borders finally settled into the shape most people recognize now. The vast western section, encompassing what's now eastern North and South Dakota, was left as unorganized territory and eventually got folded into the newly created Dakota Territory a few years later. It's part of why, to this day, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis still technically oversees Catholic dioceses across the Dakotas, a quiet administrative fossil left behind from a Minnesota that once stretched twice as far west as it does today.

09/22/2026

FREE ~ Why Genealogy is Important ~ to print you need to drag the picture to your desktop then say print. Gwyn

09/21/2026

More Memes at https://theancestorhunt.com/memes

09/21/2026

09/02/2026

Weighing evidence in genealogy research can be one of the most difficult steps.

Read our latest article here.

https://heritagegenealogy.xyz/weighing-genealogical-evidence/