The Story of Two Teenage Siblings

Although similar in age, the above image is not a picture of Joseph and Emily.  No image could be found of the siblings.

"Emily refused to leave her brother, so she promised to pull him in the handcart if they would be permitted to continue." 

Joseph and Emily Wall

Joseph and Emily Wall, two siblings who were emigrating on their own, did so with the blessing of their parents. Joseph was 17 and Emily 16 when they left England, the oldest of nine children. Because the family could not afford to emigrate together, Joseph and Emily were sent ahead, and the rest of the family hoped to follow soon afterward.

Before Joseph and Emily left England, Elder Orson Hyde gave them a blessing in which he promised that they would complete their journey safely if they were faithful and obeyed the counsel of those in authority. The fulfillment of this promise would require not only great faith but great sacrifice by Emily to help her brother.

Sometime after leaving Florence, they faced a serious challenge. During one of the river crossings, Joseph nearly drowned. When he was going under the water for the third time, he was rescued by someone who grabbed his hair. Joseph soon became too ill to walk, and company leaders wanted him to stay behind and wait for the next company. Emily refused to leave her brother, so she promised to pull him in the handcart if they would be permitted to continue. With the help of a young girl, Emily pulled Joseph for several days. In part due to this loving sacrifice, both Joseph and Emily made it to the Salt Lake Valley, as Elder Orson Hyde had promised in the blessing he gave them before they left England.

After arriving in Utah, Joseph and Emily Wall went to Manti.  In 1860, Emily married William Cowley, who had helped rescue the handcart companies four years earlier.  During the rescue he had asked Emily if she would marry him someday, and she had said he would have to write to her mother in England to ask permission.  But, after arriving in Salt Lake City, William was called away for three years to set up a printing press in San Bernardino.  When he returned, he found Emily and asked if she remembered his proposal.  She did, but she wanted to know if he'd written to her mother. He told her he had—and that her mother had said she would approve the marriage if William was a good man.

The rest of Joseph and Emily's family finally made it to Utah in 1862.  When Joseph met his family in Salt Lake City, he also met Selena Stevens, a friend of two of his sisters.  Joseph and Selena were married in 1863 in the Endowment House. They went back to Manti, where Joseph worked in a grist mill.

THOUGHT FROM THE STAKE:   Joseph and Emily Wall's story is simple, but endearing.  I love that as young teenage siblings, they not only travelled alone, without their parents or other siblings, but they truly rescued each other and lifted one another along the way.  I can imagine the scene of Emily pulling her brother in the cart with only the help of a young girl.  It must have been a very difficult task indeed.  I admire their courage, their love for one another, their fortitude and their faith!