Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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Mormon Battalion and Crossing the Plains

"The Nauvoo Temple" by C.C.A. Christensen.
© Copyright by the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University.
Used by permission for educational, personal use.

President Brigham Young continued the work on the Temple, gave the Saints their washings and anointings in the House of the Lord and has led them to the tops of the Mountains. The Government came after us and called for five hundred (500) of our best men to go and fight the Mexicans, in this they thought to prove our loyalty to the government, after driving us from our homes three times in Missouri, breaking three treaties with us, killing our husbands and children, and confiscating our property and taking our land that we had paid money for, to the Government. Thousands of us must go, in the dead of winter, no matter our sufferings, we must go or be exterminated. Our sufferings cannot be told. Leaving our Prophet and some of our best men in prison, we fled to Illinois and stayed there about seven years. It was there they killed our Prophet and Patriarch and drove us out again.

We were on our way to the mountains when the United States Officers came to our camp and told us their business. My oldest son, William, was driving the team. He said they could go to Hell and prove their loyalty there. We had to lift my husband out and in the wagon for he was still suffering from the effects of the wounds received from the hand of the mob in Missouri. The Church authorities began to preach and persuade the brethren to go for they knew if the Batallion was not raised and sent to Mexico, that extermination stood in our pathway at the hands of the U. S. Army. But the hand of the Lord was in it, I have seen it since.

I will relate the circumstances of my son, William D., going in the army which was called the Mormon Batallion. The brethren said the five hundred must be made up in two weeks. They held meetings every day or two to get men inspired to go but my son was all I had to depend on, his father being helpless and Joseph, my other son, being in his ninth year only and my girls not healthy. One would say to me, Is William going. I answered, No, he is not. Then another would ask, Is William going. I answered, No, Why, they said, they would not have their son or husband stay for anything, then I would say, a burned child dreads the fire. But when I was alone, the whispering of the Spirit would say to me: "Are you afraid to trust the God of Israel. Has he not been with you in all your trials. Has He not provided for your wants." Then I would have to acknowledge the hand of God in all His goodness to me. It seemed so cruel in the Government Officials. My fury would come up and I had no language to express my feelings.

I was in a complete struggle but I held back until they had their dance which was held at Sarpee's Point¹. He went to the dance. Some of the brethren came and asked if we wanted to go to the dance which was five miles from our camp and we said we did. Then he told us to get ready as quick as we could. I and my oldest daughter (Elizabeth) got our shawls and bonnets and went with them. When we reached there the Brass Band was playing the tune of Sweet Home and other tunes that were played on the top of the Temple when they bid it adieu. This overpowered me and I wept, I could not help it. I immediately looked around for my son, William, and finally I saw him up in a tree that had been broken off in a hurricane, with one of his comrades who was going in the batallion. I commenced to cry again as my heart seemed so swollen I thought it would burst. They began dancing and when I saw a brother lead his wife or daughter to dance I could not help weep. So I spent that day in weeping and when evening came we went to our camp. We had no home for we were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

One of the H. C. Kimball's wives went with us. We sat up until near midnight. The girls sang and William played on the Violin, for none of us felt as though we could sleep and it was a long time then before I went to sleep. The Batallion was to be marched off the next morning. I thought the number was made up, this is the last thing I thought before I went to sleep and the first thing when I woke I thought, Well you have got your boy yet, are you not happy. And it seemed like a second person spoke and said, How easy something might happen and you would say Oh, if I had let him go with the Batallion this would not have been.

As soon as it was light William got up and also myself. He said, Mother I will go after the cows and my eyes followed him as he started through the tall heavy grass wet with dew. I thought how easy something might happen for that was a sickly climate. I got ready to get breakfast and when I stepped up on the wagon tongue to get my flour I was asked by the same spirit that had spoken to me before, if I did not want the greatest glory and I answered with my natural voice, Yes, I did. Then how can you get it without making the greatest sacrifice, said the voice. I answered Lord, what lack I yet. Let your son go in the Batallion, said the voice. I said it is too late, they are to be marched off this morning. That spirit then left me with the heart ache. I got breakfast and called the girls and their Father to come to the tent for prayers. William came wet with dew from the grass and we sat down around the board and my husband commenced asking the blessing on our food, when Thomas Williams came shouting at the top of his voice, saying "Turn out men, Turn out, for we do not wish to press you but we lack some men yet in the Batallion." William raised his eyes and looked me in the face. I knew then that he would go as well as I know now that he has been. I could not swallow one bite of breakfast but I waited on the rest thinking I might never have my family all together again. I had no photograph of him but I took one in my mind and said to myself, If I never see you again until the morning of the resurrection I shall know you are my child. My husband took his cane and went to where the drum was beating. I went to milk the cows. Libbie went with Sister Kimball. Catherine went to the brook to wash some towels. I thought the cows would be shelter for me and I knelt down and told the Lord if He wanted my child to take him, only spare his life and let him be restored to me and to the bosom of the church. I felt it was all I could do. Then the voice that talked with me in the morning answered me saying, It shall be done unto you as it was unto Abraham when he offered Isaac on the altar. I don't know whether I milked or not for I felt the Lord had spoken to me.

"Winter Quarters," was three miles northeast of Cutler's Park, which may have been Drusilla's "Settlers Park."
"Winter Quarters" by C.C.A. Christensen.
© Copyright by the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University.
Used by permission for educational, personal use.
I ran to the tent but William was not there. I looked to the wagon and found him sitting with his head in his hands and I said, Do you want to go with the Batallion. For if you do I have had a testimony that it is right for you to go. He answered me saying Yes and No. He did not want to go as a pleasure trip but said he "Mother I can do you as much good as I can do by staying for I would have to go to Missouri to get work. Pres. Young said it is for the salvation of this people and I might as well have a hand in it as anyone, and he also said we will have nothing to fight but some wild beasts. Then I said, "My son, I have held you back but if you want to go I shall hold you no longer so he ran to his father and told him what I had said. His father said we will see Brother Young and they had not gone but a few steps until they met him and said, Here is my boy if he will do, take him, and Brother Young told the clerk to put down his name and William came running back to me and said, my name is down and I must be at the Point in one hour, so I got his clothes and other notions that he would need. Catherine came from the brook and all the family came to take their leave of him. Catherine gathered him, I waited until I thought he must go, then I broke her hold of him and I kissed him and pushed him off and held her by this time his father had started to go with him and they went out of sight.

I don't think that Abraham felt any worse than we did, I cannot tell the hardships we endured by his going. We were then at Council Bluffs. We crossed the river and camped again at what we called Settlers Park² and stayed there until the brethren secured their hay. There was not a wagon in the whole camp, but what had sickness in it and we bore it with the patience of Job.

I dreamed that we would yet see the day that we would be glad that our noses had been held on the grindstone all the day long. William was gone from us fifteen months.

I dreamed that I saw the Temple finished... and Joseph Smith
"I dreamed that I saw the Temple finished...
and Joseph Smith"
© Copyright 2001, Robert Raymond.
We reached the Valley October 4th, 1847 and William reached there on the 14th of the same month. The night before he came I dreamed that I saw the Temple in Salt Lake Valley and that it was just where it now stands but was finished. The wall towered so high and was so white and so far superior to the Nauvoo Temple that they were not to be compared. The banisters around the top were so large and as white as the driven snow. And Joseph Smith stood by the Banisters dressed in his Priestly garments and held in his hand a fine leg horn hat with a white satin ribbon tied loosely around it. I saw the ring on his finger and it seemed as if I could see him as plain as if I were close to him. I called my husband and children. They came out of the house on the Porch. I said there is Joseph, he laughed and spoke. There was two doves came, one from each side of him down to us and the children said that they would get soiled if they should alight, so they caught them. I thought that kindness from what Joseph said.

I awoke and said to myself, what can it mean. It seemed to come to me in a moment that when the Saviour was baptized the Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove to prove the acceptance of the Lord. My husband and son had laid down their lives for the Kingdom of God. I was then filled with the Spirit of God and rejoiced in tribulation and knew I had joyfully taken the spoiling of my goods, I knew also that there was a God that watched over us and He would provide.

NOTES

"After a long and tedious journey, attended with much suffering and want, the 'Camps of Israel' arrived near Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. There the memorable event occurred of enrolling the Mormon Battalion for service in the Mexican war. Most of the camp crossed to the west side of the Missouri River and located at what was called Cutler's Park, on the west side of the river about twelve miles above Sarpee's Point,³⁰ and on high ground about two miles west of where Winter Quarters was afterwards established.
³⁰Sarpee's (Sarpy's) Point was named after a well-known St. Louis trader, Peter A. Sarpy, who operated for many years along the Missouri River." (James Amasa Little, "Biography of Lorenzo Dow Young," p.76.)

I've found no other reference to Settlers Park. Perhaps she referred to Cutler's Park. "On Aug. 1, 1846, an advance company moved onto the west bank of the Missouri River into Indian Territory, which is now Nebraska. They first stayed at Cold Springs Camp, according to information from the Douglas-Sarpy Counties Mormon Trails Association. A few days later, the advance company abandoned the Cold Springs Camp and moved nine miles north to an area that became known as Cutler’s Park. Here, as the Middle Mormon Ferry worked long hours bringing the Saints across the Missouri, a tent community was founded. A public square was laid out and elections were held. Alpheus Cutler, for whom the community was named, was elected mayor. As many as 2,500 persons poured into the area. But the community only lasted a little more than a month. Troubles brewed over the giving of benefits to two different Indian tribes [who both claimed] the land. The Saints moved to a new location on a low plain between the river bluffs and the western banks of the Missouri. The new site was called Winter Quarters." (Church News, 26 April 1997.) The move to Winter Quarters began 23 September 1846. (Church News, 28 September 1996.)

Historical Sketch of James HENDRICKS and Drusilla DORRIS
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Sunday, 08-Aug-2004 19:32:49 MDT