Peter McBride Story

The tent was jerked loose from the snow, uncovering Peter. “I picked myself up,” 
he later wrote, “and came out quite alive, to their surprise.” 

The Peter McBride Story

Six-year-old Peter McBride was the youngest son of Robert and Margaret McBride. He had two older brothers and two sisters. His father had died after the last crossing of the Platte River, on a night when as many as 13 people died after being battered by the first winter storm.  "While my sister was preparing our little bit of breakfast, I went to look for Father.  At last, I found him under a wagon with snow all over him.  He was stiff and dead."  Peter cried and cried.  Fatherless, the McBride family pushed on.

While the Martin company was in Martin’s Cove, Peter and other children received only two ounces of flour a day. In the account Peter later wrote of those days, he said it was hard to forget the hunger when everyone was on starvation rations. One day someone gave him a bone from a dead ox. He cut off the skin and began roasting the bone in the fire, but some older boys took it away. Left with only the skin, he boiled it, drank the soup, and ate the skin. “It was a good supper,” he recalled.

The winds were ferocious the first night in the cove, flattening many tents, including the McBrides’ tent. Everyone but Peter crawled out and found other places to bed down for the night. Peter remained in the tent and later said he “slept warm all night.” The snow on top of the collapsed tent may have insulated him from the colder air. In the morning he heard someone ask, “How many are dead in this tent?” His older sister said, “Well, my little brother must be frozen to death in that tent.” The tent was jerked loose from the snow, uncovering Peter. “I picked myself up,” he later wrote, “and came out quite alive, to their surprise.” 

Peter later became a talented musician, and he shared this talent throughout his life. 

He also served in a bishopric in Arizona for 20 years.

THOUGHT FROM THE STAKE:  When I read stories of young children who survived and took on great "adult-like" responsibilities to help their families survive, I am humbled by their courage and love that they demonstrated at such a young age.  It becomes evident to me that God truly does qualify and make those who follow Him equal to the task that is before them.  The fact that the young kids of the Willie and Martin Companies could do what they did is screaming evidence that God exists and has power to enable a dedicated follower to accomplish seemingly impossible things.  If God can do what He did with a child, I wonder what He could do with me?

Reviewing the Lessons of the Past

A Story of True Love

"With a tear in his eye, [President Faust] said it had to be one of the great love stories 
of the western migration."

The Sarah Franks and George Padley Story

Sarah joined the Church in April 1848, when she was 16. Because her parents objected, she had to leave home. She began working in a lace factory, saving money to emigrate. When her father died in 1853, she returned to her family. Eventually Sarah helped bring her mother and sisters into the Church, though she was the only member of her family to emigrate in 1856.

Sarah Franks and George Padley were engaged to be married when they left England. Four other couples who were emigrating together had gotten married during the voyage on the Horizon. Sarah Franks and George Padley, however, were waiting to be married in Salt Lake City so they could be sealed. By the time they got to Martin's Cove, both were failing due to hunger and exposure. Sarah was taken into one of the sick wagons. George tried to care for her, but his strength waned. According to one account, he had "overexerted himself in trying to help other members of the handcart company. He had gotten wet and chilled from the winter wind." Suffering from a combination of pneumonia and hypothermia, he died in the cove. Sarah mourned not only the loss of her fiancé but also the inevitable work of the wolves on his body. Her family history relates: "Sarah took her long-fringed shawl from her almost freezing body and had the brethren wrap her sweetheart's body in it. She couldn't bear to think of his being buried with nothing to protect him." Some men then reportedly placed George's body in a tree to protect it from the wolves.

During one of President James E. Faust's visits to Martin's Cove, President Kim W. McKinnon of the Riverton Wyoming Stake told the story of Sarah Franks and George Padley. President Faust"was very moved by the story. With a tear in his eye he said it had to be one of the great love stories of the western migration."

For Sarah Franks, the future seemed desolate without George. Their dream of raising a family together in Zion was over. Already close to death herself, with no family to look after her, with her hopes disappointed, she could have easily lost the will to live. Nevertheless, she persevered and would yet live a life of fulfillment.

Sarah survived the journey but had no relatives or friends to meet her and nurse her back to health. What followed is a powerful example of persevering and making the most of life when fervent hopes are disappointed. One of the wives of Thomas Mackay invited Sarah to come and live in their home. After a few months, in April 1857, Sarah married Thomas Mackay as his third wife. Years later when Sarah was a widow, one of her granddaughters who knew of her heartbreak at Martin's Cove asked if she had really loved Thomas Mackay. Implied in the question may have been a thought that the marriage was only for expedience. But Sarah replied, "Yes, he was a good man. He was good to us." Sarah and Thomas Mackay had five sons and four daughters. In a way Sarah never had imagined, she was able to raise a family in Zion. Thomas Mackay died in 1880 when Sarah was 47 and their youngest child was 6. Sarah lived 31 years as a widow, dying in 1911 at age 78. During her last years, she lived with one of her daughters in Murray. "She was especially admired and loved for her thoughtfulness of little children," wrote one of her descendants. "She always had a surprise awaiting them when they called to see her. [She] would always bring us a little gift, such as a pretty little china cup and saucer, a little toy, or a box of lovely assorted cookies. . . . She was dearly loved by all."

THOUGHT FROM THE STAKE:  What an example of perseverance. Like many of the handcart pioneers she sacrificed everything (leaving family and the familiarity of home) to come to Zion. She endured incredible heartbreak and had her hopes of marriage and family taken away, yet she continued on in faith.

The difficulties which come to us present us with the real test of our ability to endure. A fundamental question remains to be answered by each of us: Shall I falter, or shall I finish?...

Only the Master knows the depths of our trials, our pain, and our suffering. He alone offers us eternal peace in times of adversity...Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, He is with us. 

James and Joseph Kirkwook

On October 23, the Kirkwoods made the 15-mile journey up Rocky Ridge in a storm. This 15 mile journey took up to 27 hours for some to complete....James and Joseph became separated from their mother and fell behind.

James and Joseph Kirkwood

James and his family were among the first converts in Scotland in 1840. Their home was always open to the missionaries. James’s father and two sisters had died in 1852, but his determined mother gathered her four sons and set her sights on Zion. Margaret sold precious possessions, including her beautiful handwork to help with finances. Margaret’s prominent family were fabric designers who had disowned Margaret for joining the Church.

Robert (age 21) and his mother pulled Thomas (age 19) in the handcart as Thomas was crippled and could not walk. James was primarily responsible for his younger brother, Joseph Smith Kirkwood (age 4). 

On October 23, the Kirkwoods made the 15-mile journey up Rocky Ridge in a storm. This 15 mile journey took up to 27 hours for some to complete. Margaret had one eye freeze and was blind in that eye the rest of her life. James and Joseph became separated from their mother and fell behind. Margaret waited for her sons by a small fire until late that night. When the pair finally arrived at the campfire that night, James set his brother down, whom he had carried most of the way up Rocky Ridge and then died from exhaustion and exposure, literally giving his life for his brother. With determination, he had faithfully carried out his task and saved his brother.

The biography of Joseph by his daughter, Mary, states: “Next morning when arriving in camp the brother James fell dead due to starvation and cold. He was buried on the banks of the Sweetwater in a grave with twelve others.”

James' story is a fairly familiar and commonly told story about Willie Company. But his story is oft repeated for great reasons. It is a beautiful example of love and devotion for ones own family. We ache for his mother when we think of what she must have been feeling. I cannot imagine her pulling her handcart with only her 21 year old son to help and the added weight of her 19 year old son in the handcart. Then to lose her two younger sons in the blizzard and wait for their arrival. How her heart must have warmed to see her 11 year old James carrying his 4 year old brother on his back into camp. And then her sadness when James passed away.

THOUGHT FROM THE STAKE:  Elder M. Russel Ballard said this:  "We cannot begin to understand the journeys made by those who laid the foundation of this dispensation until we understand their spiritual underpinnings. Once we make that connection, however, we will begin to see how their journeys parallel our own. There are lessons for us in every footstep they took–lessons of love, courage, commitment, devotion, endurance, and, most of all, faith. Handcarts were heavily laden with faith–faith in God, faith in the restoration of His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and faith that God knew where they were going and that He would see them through. We all face rocky ridges, with the wind in our face and winter coming on too soon. Always there is a Devil’s Gate, which will swing open to lure us in. Occasionally we reach the top of one summit in life, as the pioneers did, only to see more mountain peaks ahead, higher and more challenging than the one we have just traversed. And how will we feel then, as we stand shoulder to shoulder with the great pioneers of Church history? How will they feel about us? Will they see faith in our footsteps? I believe they will. We will learn, as did our pioneer ancestors, that it is only in faith–real faith, whole souled, tested and tried–that we will find safety and confidence as we walk our own perilous pathways through life. We are all bound together–19th and 20th century pioneers and more–in our great journey to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and to allow His atoning sacrifice to work its miracle in our lives. While we all can appreciate the footsteps of faith walked by Joseph Smith and his followers from Palmyra to Carthage Jail and across the Great Plains, we should ever stand in reverential awe as we contemplate the path trod by the Master. His faithful footsteps to Gethsemane and to Calvary rescued all of us and opened the way for us to return to our heavenly home. Joy will fill our hearts when we fully come to know the eternal significance of the greatest rescue–the rescue of the family of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is through Him that we have promise of eternal life. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of spiritual power that will give you and me the assurance that we have nothing to fear from the Journey."