“Will and Alice are the most urgent,” he went on easily. “We’ve got to get them onto a boat tomorrow and sent off to St. Louis. But then, what difference would fifteen minutes one way or the other make?”
Will was nodding. “I think it should be Peter and Kathryn first.”
“And we think it should be Will and Alice first,” Kathryn retorted. “If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be getting married this soon.” She smiled wickedly. “And had we delayed much longer, Peter might have changed his mind.”
They roared at the shocked look that crossed Peter’s face. Benjamin turned and held up his hands helplessly. “See what I mean? A real dilemma.”
Now he turned back to face them. “So, after some thought, and after conferring with President Young”—he turned and Brigham inclined his head to confirm that—“we have determined that there is no reason why we cannot marry you both at the same time.”
“Ah!” came the cry from the crowd. Mary Ann seemed at first startled, then smiled. That would be wonderful.
“Make no mistake. We shall perform two separate marriages. Everything we do in the Church is done for individuals. We baptize only one person at a time. We do endowments for one person at a time. When the Savior came to the Nephites here in America, he let each person come one by one to feel the wounds in his hands and feet, even though there were more than two thousand of them. So we shall perform two separate marriages.” He smiled ruefully. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think that we were marrying the four of you all to each other. People already think the Mormons are strange enough.”
Brigham laughed aloud. “That would start a few heads a-wagging,” he said loudly. The crowd was enjoying this immensely, and laughter filled the air once more.
“So,” Benjamin went on. “We shall marry you separately, but at the same time.” He smiled at his candidates. “I hope that is sufficiently confusing.” But then all levity died away in him and he became very sober. “As you know, the Prophet Joseph Smith restored the keys for celestial marriage, making it possible for a man and a woman to be sealed together by the power of the priesthood for all eternity.”
They all four nodded. They had already talked about this and knew that Benjamin was speaking mostly for the benefit of the other children in the family.
“The Twelve still hold those keys today, because Joseph bestowed them upon them. However, this is a sacred ordinance and must await the time when the temple is completed sufficiently for the sealings to be performed there.” Again he turned and looked at Brigham.
Brigham stepped forward. “Father Steed is exactly right,” he said, loud enough for all to hear. “Brother Joseph performed this ordinance for a few people prior to his death, but he instructed us that the rest must wait until it can be done in the house of the Lord. This is one of the reasons that we press forward with the work on the temple with such urgency. Unfortunately, Will and Alice will not be here when the temple is completed. But rest assured that as soon as we reach our new home, we shall build other temples so this work can progress. They will not be deprived of this great blessing due to their faithfulness in answering a call.”
He stepped back as many heads nodded. Benjamin murmured a thank you, then looked back at the two couples again. “However, as a holder of the priesthood, I am authorized to perform this marriage for time. And though we are not in a temple, the covenants you make with each other here today are also very sacred in the sight of God.”
All four of them nodded gravely.
“All right. I think it is time for us to proceed.” He pulled his shoulders back and straightened to his full height. “I would like the two couples to turn so that you are facing each other as I perform the marriage. You are not making a covenant with me. You are making a covenant with each other.”
Kathryn swung around on her crutches to face Peter. Alice and Will likewise turned in toward each other.
“William Donovan Mendenhall Steed,” Benjamin said clearly, “will you take Alice Samuelson by the right hand?”
He did so.
“And you, Peter Ingalls, please take Kathryn Marie McIntire by the right hand.”
They did so too, Kathryn planting the right crutch firmly before letting go of it with her hand.
“I remind the four of you that what we undertake here is done under the will of God. He it was who married the first man and woman on earth, and he has ordained marriage as being one of the highest orders of his kingdom. Only as a man and a woman come together and strive to become one can they find a fulness of joy and happiness. As God himself declared in the Garden of Eden: ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’
“Since Will is older by about six weeks than Peter, we shall begin with you.” He took a breath and now his voice became more sonorous, as though he were speaking from a pulpit. “Do you, William Donovan Mendenhall Steed, take this woman who stands before you, even Alice Samuelson, to be your wife, legally and lawfully wed? Do you hereby covenant and promise with her, in front of God and all of these witnesses gathered around you, that you will love her and cherish her as though she were your own flesh? Do you covenant to care for her in whatever circumstances you may find yourselves; that you will stand by her and strengthen her, whether that be in health or sickness, youth or old age, joy or sorrow, times of prosperity or times of poverty?”
He paused. Will was looking deep into Alice’s eyes, and the love that passed between them was almost tangible. He spoke loudly and clearly. “Yes, I do solemnly covenant.”
“And do you, Alice Samuelson, give yourself to William Donovan Mendenhall Steed, to be his wife and take him to be your husband, legally and lawfully wed? Do you covenant and promise to love and cherish him above all others, including those of your own family? Do you covenant to care for him in whatever circumstances you may find yourselves, whether that be in sickness or in health, in youth or old age, in joy or sorrow, in prosperity or poverty?”
“Yes.” It rang like one sweet tone of a bell.
Benjamin turned slightly. “Do you, Peter Ingalls, take Kathryn Marie McIntire to be your wife, legally and lawfully wed? Do you hereby covenant and promise, in front of God and all of these who have come to witness this marriage, that you do love her and that you will cherish her as though she were your own flesh? Do you covenant that you will care for her in whatever circumstances life may bring upon you? Do you covenant to stand by her and strengthen her, both in health and in sickness, youth and old age, joy and sorrow, times of plenty and times of want?”
“Yes.” Peter was so overcome with happiness that his voice cracked and it came out little more than a croak. As everyone smiled, he blushed deeply, cleared his throat, and then boomed out, “Yes. I do so covenant.”
“And do you, Kathryn Marie McIntire, give yourself wholly to Peter Ingalls to be his wife, and take him to be your legally and lawfully wedded husband? Do you solemnly covenant and promise to love and cherish him above all others? Do you promise to stand by his side as his helpmeet and care for him in whatever circumstances you may find yourselves, whether they be joyous or sad, healthy or well, in youth or old age, in times of prosperity and success as well as times of poverty?”
Kathryn was no longer aware of the crutches that bore her up. She looked at the face of the man she loved, and spoke softly. “I promise I will do that forever and ever.”
Benjamin nodded. “Then I, Benjamin Steed, by authority of the holy priesthood which has been vested in me, and with the permission of the authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do pronounce you, Peter Ingalls and Kathryn Marie McIntire, husband and wife, this day legally and lawfully wed in the sight of God and in the eyes of the world. And I do pronounce you, William Donovan Mendenhall Steed and Alice Samuelson, husband and wife, this day legally and lawfully wed in the sight of God and before all the world.
“I do charge the both of you to remember that if you honor and sustain the covenants you have made with each other this day and strive to cherish one another and to love your partner and companion above all others except for God, then God will greatly bless your union and bring you untold happiness and joy.”
He stopped for a moment, lowering the Bible and his notes, tucking them under his arm. A sweet and tender smile now softened his mouth. “As a seal and a witness to each other, and to those of us who have come here to witness this joyous occasion, you may now kiss each other as husbands and wives.”
Chapter Notes
The scripture Benjamin cites to Alice about forsaking father and mother is found in Matthew 19:29.
Chapter 24
Once the decision to go west was officially made and shared with the Saints in the October conference, the enormous task of preparing to leave began. In a matter of days, Nauvoo was transformed. The same prodigious energies and boundless determination that turned the swamps of Commerce into beautiful Nauvoo were now turned to the preparations required to move a whole people into the wilderness. Nauvoo became one vast workshop. Homes, businesses, barns, sheds—virtually every available building in the city became a shop for the manufacture of the items needed to take thousands of people across the plains. Day and night the ring of the blacksmith’s anvil sounded through the city. One could not pass down the street without hearing the sound of the hammer and saw, the whir of spinning wheels, or the clickety-clack of looms.
To purchase a new, ready-made wagon—particularly when the demand skyrocketed as it did immediately following conference—could cost a family as much as a hundred dollars, an impossible amount of cash for most families. But they could make their own for a fraction of that cost. Off went men to various parts of the state or surrounding territories to cut lumber. The hardwoods required for the axles and wheels and other critical moving parts had to be purchased outright. Wood for the wagon boxes was cut green, brought to Nauvoo, and dried in heated drying sheds. The hardwood was boiled in great vats of salt water to soften it to the point where it could be curled into the shapes needed for hubs and for the felloe timbers, the outer part of the wheel into which the spokes were inserted.
Men with teams were sent off in other directions to procure the iron needed to make the axle thimbles, the bushings, the steel “tires” that went around the outside of the wheels, the clevises, bolts, endgate rods, and the hundred other iron pieces that were needed to make a serviceable wagon. Blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, carpenters, joiners—artisans of every kind were pressed into service and worked from early morning until long into the night.
Nor were the women any less serviceable to the cause. In addition to the making of wagon covers and tents, there was grain, beans, dried fruit, and various seeds to be bagged and prepared for the journey. Clothing and bedding sufficient to withstand the rigors of outdoor living and the winters of the Rocky Mountain regions were required of every household. Then there was the food. The women dried squash, pumpkins, and fruits. They made pickles and vinegar, ground corn into meal, bagged potatoes and carrots and turnips.
Children of all ages became the day laborers for the massive effort. They worked alongside their fathers and mothers, doing whatever was required. They ran errands, spun linen, carded wool, planed wood, chopped firewood for the drying sheds or to keep the vats of water boiling.
The organizational structure was honed and perfected. Companies designed to accommodate a hundred families were first contemplated, but this proved to be too unwieldy and that number was cut in half. A company captain was called by the Twelve, and individual families were assigned to the various companies. Each company was encouraged to meet together and plan how to best accomplish the work, share their resources, help the less able, procure the tools and equipment each company was required to bring. Within each company there were further divisions—captains of tens to watch over smaller groups of families; a commissary officer who would procure and distribute food along the way; a treasurer; wranglers to help manage the livestock; guards and “pioneers” who would watch for danger, scout out the trail, make roads and bridges or find the best stream crossings.
And all of this was done while trying desperately to sell off their property and trade unneeded items for absolute necessities. People from a hundred miles around flocked in to what amounted to “a sheriff’s sale,” where goods are sold at ridiculously low prices to recoup money from a debtor. For all the people’s hatred of the Mormons and what they believed, everyone knew of their reputation for industry and enterprise. Nauvoo and the surrounding settlements were juicy plums ripe for the picking, and they came in like a flock of squabbling, squawking geese to peck it clean.
To no one’s surprise, none of the buyers were willing to pay top dollar, or even half of what things were worth. Fully developed farms of fifty and sixty acres sold for a hundred dollars and a team of oxen. Homes went for twenty cents on the dollar, and sometimes not that. John D. Lee would later recount his experience: “My large house, costing me $8,000, I was offered $800 for. My fanaticism would not allow me to take that for it. I locked it up, selling only one stove out of it, for which I received eight yards of cloth. The building with its twenty-seven rooms, I turned over to the committee [a group of the brethren left behind to sell off property], to be sold to help the poor away. The committee informed afterwards that they sold the house for $12.50.”
The Steed family fared better than many. First of all, they were a large and tightly knit clan. There were six family units planning to join the exodus—Benjamin and Mary Ann, Jessica and Solomon, Nathan and Lydia, Derek and Rebecca, Peter and Kathryn, Matthew and Jenny. They were all assigned to the same company. Nathan told Brigham that they were trying to persuade Joshua and Caroline to join them and asked that space in the company be held for them. Brigham agreed and recommended they simply form their own company of ten. If Joshua went, they would have seven families, with a total of fourteen adults and nineteen children—twenty, if one counted Lydia’s baby that would be born in the spring. If by some miracle they ever talked Carl and Melissa into joining them, it would make eight families and twenty-four children.