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Our family will be traveling through Wyoming this month on our way to my brother’s wedding. While traveling through this wasteland, I mean beautify country, we have decided to stop at Rawlins and head north to Martin’s Cove. Both my wife Deanna and I have ancestors that have a history with the handcart companies. Interestingly enough, my wife’s ancestor was in the Willie Handcart Company and I have an ancestor that came from Salt Lake to rescue them.

I was able to find a small writing about Deanna’s ancestor ELIZABETH CROOK PANTING. Here is an excerpt from the document I found that pertained to the Willie Handcart Company and their fateful trek west.

Elizabeth was given a blessing by Wilford Woodruff in which he promised that she and her children would reach the Salt Lake Valley alive.

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean and traveling further across their land of promise by steamboat and train, Elizabeth, Christopher (5), and Jane (1) began their handcart trek in Iowa City, Iowa.

Elizabeth was privileged to experience another miracle during her journey to Zion. She told the story of this miracle to her daughter, Jane, repeatedly throughout her life. As Jane (Panting Bell) grew older she told this story to her children and grandchildren:

As the Willie Company traveled along the plains, they had many trials which slowed them down considerably. Little Jane rode in the handcart and was very ill. Her mother didn’t dare to stop to take care of her as she pulled her handcart along. She would call to her son, Christopher, to ask if Jane was dead yet. When they reached Ft. Laramie, the expected provisions were not waiting, and they had to continue on with reduced food rations. On October 14, after another reduction was made in rations, Elizabeth went out to gather some buffalo chips to make a small fire to warm what little food was left for her children. She had on a long, full apron and had almost filled it with the uffalo chips when a man came up to her suddenly (and seemingly out of nowhere) and inquired as to the circumstances of the company. Elizabeth told the man that most of them were starving and were in great need. He asked her to follow him, saying perhaps he could help a little. Shaking the buffalo chips from her apron, Elizabeth followed the man. They went over a small hill out of sight of the camp, where he led her to a cave where a lot of dried buffalo meat was hanging. Elizabeth told her granddaughter, June Cranney Monson, that there were shelves of books on one side of the cave that looked like the Book of Mormon gold plates. She said they looked as if they were sealed. The man loaded as much meat in Elizabeth’s apron as she could carry and told her to share with the other people. Then he led her out of the cave and to the top of a small hill and pointed out the camp below, cautioning her not to get lost. As Elizabeth turned back to the man to thank him after she had looked where he had pointed to the camp, he had disappeared. She looked for the cave and could not find any trace of it, but she still had the dried meat. She went back to camp and divided the meat out to the ones that were in the most need, no doubt saving lives.

It is a wonderful story that has been handed down from generation to generation. This story was also verified by an older gentleman that had a part in a Mothers Day program years later and said that when he was very young he still remembers a sister that received some dried meat in a miraculous way and shared it with him and others. He spoke his gratitude for this sweet sister.

I wish I had a nice history about my ancestory WILLIAM PULSIPHER to go along with this story of ELIZABETH CROOK PANTING, but I don’t. There are only a couple of small references that even exist on the subject that lead us to believe that he was there at the rescue of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies. Here are the 2 references.

At age 18, William heard President Brigham Young request help for the handcart companies stranded in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming. William volunteered to go and rescue the weary Saints. It cost him his health—and he was ill for a very long time.

And this one that is actually a small story about his sister Eliza Jane Pulsipher Terry. Here is the report.

Her hardships were compounded when her brother William, who agreed to help with the heavy chores, left her alone because of a call from Brigham Young to help rescue the handcart companies in Wyoming.

So, there you have it, Deanna’s ancestor (ELIZABETH CROOK PANTING) headed across the plains for Salt Lake City, got stranded in a horrible snow storm and my ancestor (WILLIAM PULSIPHER) heeded the call of Brigham Young and volunteered to go and rescue the weary Saints. I don’t know if William every helped Elizabeth but I do know that both were brave and famous Mormon Pioneers, both linked together by our little LDS Family.

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