Handcart Pioneers

This monument is at This is the Place State Park and commemorates the Handcart Companies who came across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley from 1856 to 1860. There were ten companies and my Great Grandmother, Susan Olds Turner, came in the Stoddard Company with her sister and brother and her mother, Elizabeth Uren Olds, who joined the Church in 1853 in South Africa. Before they started their trek in Florence, Nebraska on July 7, 1860, they were told that if they were obedient and faithful no one in the company would die en route. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 24, 1860, and this promise was fulfilled. I am so grateful for Elizabeth and her little family for their courage and sacrifice. They have had a profound influence on my life.