1850 Emigration

More than 800 wagons, 4000 sheep, and 500 head of cattle crossed the plains, under the direction of Orson Hyde, at Council Bluffs, and Wilford Woodruff at the outfitting station at Bethlehem, Iowa (also known as Bethlehem or Martin’s Ferry), 20 miles south for a migration of not less than 5000 Saints (DUP). Woodruff’s company was heavily loaded with new machinery and household goods. All companies followed the Ox Bow Variant; the Snow/Young, Warren Foote, and Wilford Woodruff companies used a cutoff [near Rocky Ridge]; the Evans company and the 4th and 5th Tens of the Foote Company used the Golden Pass Route. There was much disagreement and dissension this year with companies and small groups separating and combining. Numerous non-Mormon companies were on their way to Oregon, Calif., the States, freighting or driving herds.

March 29, 1850, Apostle Franklin D. Richards arrived in England to cooperate with Apostle Orson Pratt, in the British Mission, and immediately introduced the subject of the PEF to the British Conferences. This fund, started by Mark and Charlotte Shelly of Woolwich, England, who gave two shillings and six pence. The first company of PEF emigrants was organized on July 4, 1850. It consisted of 261 persons, 67 wagons, 106 yoke of oxen, 114 cows, 10 horses, 19 sheep, 19 dogs, 6 cats, and 6 doves, besides 40 loose cattle belonging to individuals, of which, 5 wagons, 55 yoke of cattle, 41 cows and 27 loose cattle belonged to the PEF.