The Hunt Wagon Train Pioneers.

My Great-Great-Great Grandfather Elias Jones took his family members (see below) and joined the Hunt Party Wagon Train in 1856.

 http://tellmystorytoo.com/members-hunt-wagon-company

They would run alongside the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies traveling to the Salt Lake City Valley. Elias and his family eventually settled in Spanish Fork, Utah, where they are buried today.

Jones, John (40), b. Wales, coal proprietor, brother of Elias
Jones, Elias (46), b. Wales, coal proprietor, newly married to Hannah. Had been married to her sister who died.
Jones, Hannah Williams Hopkin (38), wife, b. Wales
Jones, Mary (18), b. Wales, daughter of Elias
Jones, John (14), b. Wales, son of Elias
Jones, Llewellen (12), b. Wales, son of Elias
Jones, Ann (10), b. Wales, daughter of Elias
Jones, Elias (7), b. Wales, son of Elias
Jones, Ruth (5), b. Wales, daughter of Elias
Jones, Thomas (4), b. Wales, son of Elias
Jones, Hannah (2), died on train
(See Mary, also called Polly, Hopkin (7); was Hannah’s daughter from previous marriage)

[You can find their names listed in Martin's Cove 30 minutes from Casper, Wyoming in the visitor center. Also more can be found close to Independence Rock and Devil's Gate.]

"On May 3, 1997, the Church dedicated a Mormon Handcart Visitor's Center that is located approximately three miles from Martin's Cove. In one of the rooms is a memorial wall containing the names of all the immigrants in the two handcart companies (Willie and Martin) and the Hunt and Hodgett wagon trains. The ELIAS JONES family is listed with the Hunt wagon train there." 


Here are some of the parties general journal entries: 

-Sunday, Sept. 28. The journey was continued at 8:10 a.m. and the road led through considerable sand for 10 miles and then through more sand bluffs. Instead of going over them, the company passed along the bottom, near the river, having to double teams. Al got through safely. Traveling some distance further, the night encampment was made at 6:30 p.m., having traveled 12 miles during the day. The feed for the cattle was somewhat scarce. The cattle were corralled.

-Monday, Sept. 29. An ox belonging to Elias and Joel A. Jones was found dead this morning in the corral. It seemed to be in good condition, but had been strained the day previous. The brethren named had two wagons and did not double their teams like the rest of the company did. The journey was resumed at 9 o'clock a.m. and the traveling was over sandy roads, where the pulling was hard part of the day. The evening camp was made at 6:30.

-Sunday, Nov. 2. During the night a hard frost had prevailed and several of the cattle had strayed away. Search was made for some distance around the camp but they could not be found. Those who had their teams traveled on to Willow Springs, from which place oxen were sent back to bring up the other wagons afterwards. Capts. John A. Hunt and Gilbert Spencer went back to the previous day's camping place and found the missing oxen, which they brought to camp late in the evening. At this place, the snow was 6 or 6 inches deep, and the weather was very cold. The brethren cut down willows for the oxen. The company had traveled 4 miles during the day. A meeting was held in the camp in the evening addressed by Elders Wheelock, Webb and Broomhead, and a unanimous vote was taken that ll the emigrating Saints would be willing to do as they were instructed, even if it was required of them to leave all they had behind and be glad to get into the Valley with their lives only. They agreed to cease complaining at coming so late in the season, as everything was being done to start to company.

-Monday, Nov. 3. The company started at 10:30 a.m., the weather being very cold. Fourteen or fifteen oxen were left on the road. The night encampment was formed on Greasewood Creek, half a mile from the crossing, at 8 p.m., after traveling 11 miles during the day. The infant child of William Sable died at 9 o'clock p.m.*

*From this date on, the camp journal was written with lead pencil which at this late day, Feb. 25, 1926, can scarcely be read. It would appear that the ink used by the scribe had frozen, and the journal from now on only contained a few entries.

-Sunday, Nov. 9. The weather being a little milder, the company resumed the journey at 12 o'clock noon, crossing the Sweetwater and camped at 4 p.m., having traveled 6 miles. Twenty-four wagons were the number taken by the company from Devil's Gate.

-"We arrived in Salt Lake City nine o'clock at night the 11th of December 1856. Three out of four that were living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. Bishop Hardy had us taken to a home in his ward and the brethren and the sisters brought us plenty of food. We had to be careful and not eat to much as it might kill us we were so hungry. Early next morning Brother Brigham Young and a doctor came. The doctor's name was Williams. When Brother Young came in he shook hands with us all. When he saw our condition -- our feet frozen and our mother dead - tears rolled down his cheeks. The doctor amputated my toes using a saw and a butcher knife. Brigham Young promised me I would not have to have any more of my feet cut off. The sisters were dressing mother for the last time. Oh how did we stand it? That afternoon she was buried. When we had been in Salt Lake a week, one afternoon a knock came at the door. It was Uncle John Wood. When he met Father he said, "I know it all Bill." Both of them cried. I was glad to see my father cry. Uncle said for him to pack up and we could start right away. That night we got to Centerville. There Aunt Fanny was waiting for us at Brother Garns. We stayed there that night. The next morning we went to Farmington and stayed there until the following April. My father married again. Instead of my feet getting better they got worse until the following July I went to Dr. Wiseman's to live with them to pay for him to doctor my feet. But it was no use he said he could do no more for me unless I could consent to have them cut off at the ankle. I told him that Brigham Young had promised me. He said all right sit here and rot and I will do nothing more until you come to your senses. One day I sat there crying. My feet were hurting me so - when a little old woman knocked at the door. She said she had felt some one needed her there for a number of days. When she saw me crying she came and asked what was the matter. I showed her my feet and told her the promise Brother Young had given me. She said, "Yes, and with the help of the Lord we will save them yet." She made a poultice and put on my feet and everyday after the doctor had gone would come and change the poultice. At the end of three months my feet were well. One day Doctor Wiseman said, "Well, Mary, I must say you have grit. I suppose your feet have rotted to the knee by this time." I said, "Oh, no, my feet are well." He said, "I know better, it could never be." So I took off my stockings and showed him my feet. He said that it was a miracle and wanted me to tell him what I had been doing. I told him to never mind that they were now healed. I have never had to have any more taken from them. The promise of Brigham Young has been fulfilled. -Mary Goble Pay (Hunt Wagon Party)" 

Other more exciting entries went more like this:

-Saturday, Dec. 6. A messenger arrived from Great Salt Lake City in the evening, bringing intelligence that a number of teams were coming on the road to bring in the remainder of the Saints from the mountains, they were also bringing provisions with them. This caused great joy in the camp.

-Tuesday, Dec. 9. This morning some of the teams which had come from the valley to help in the belated emigrants started on their return.

-Monday, Dec. 15. The following is the last entry made by lead pencil in Capt. John A. Hunt's camp journal: "The remainder of the Saints arrived in Great Salt Lake City today, the emigration being now completed."

A more complete account of Elias and his family can be found in "The Price We Paid" by Andrew D. Olsen. 

Click on image for Deseret Book site. 

I had the privilege of being able to Trek the same paths that my Great-Great-Great Grandfather Jones and his family did back in the summer of 2007. It was a memorable occasion, one that when I look back on...I KNOW that I was not alone in. There is the most amazing spirit that walks with you as you walk those same trails. I took the name Hannah William Hopkins Jones (second wife of Elias) as my own through the trek and kept her in my mind with every push of the handcart and every step of the way. I feel like I got to know her a little more from the other side because of that amazing experience. I will never forget it. I am so grateful for my family traveling in such harsh conditions with such grief in which had begun before the journey had even started and persevered all the way from Wales to the promised land. Without them, I would not be here and I most certainly wouldn't be living in my beautiful Idaho today. 

Difficult to explain the beauty here. 

Best friend Kamie and I (a very long time ago) with those beautiful Wyoming mountains behind us. 

Treckings hard work.