I do love stories about courageous women! Here are two, so this post is sort of long, but so worth your time.

This story starts off with Elsie Nielson who traveled with the Willie company, through the blizzards, then later traveled south to Bluff, Utah with the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition. Also, during that southern expedition, we learn the story of Arabella Smith.

Jens and Elsie Nielson traveled from Denmark, with their six-year-old son, Neils. At the time of conversion, Jens covenanted with the Lord that he would do whatever he was called upon to do. Elsie apparently felt the same way.

The Willie company was hit with the early winter storms as they reached Rock Creek, in the Wyoming hills. Jens, like so many other men, had sacrificed his food to his family and was weak and unable to travel anymore. He told Elsie, “Leave me by the trail in the snow to die, and you go ahead and try to keep up with the company and save your life.”

Elsie’s now famous answer was, “Ride, I can’t leave you, I can pull the cart.” And she did. This petite woman put her 6-foot-tall husband in the handcart and pulled him up the rocky ridge, and for the rest of the day until they camped that night. The next day, the company had to bury 13 graves for those who didn’t make it, including one for their little boy, Neils.

Together, they made it to the Salt Lake Valley. And then they were sent to blast their way through the southern mountains of Utah, through Hole-in-the-Rock. Loaded with dynamite and lots of rope, the company of families set out in late fall, including Jens and Elsie Nielson along with Joseph Stanford and Arabella Smith.

After they arrived, Jens said, “As extreme as this handcart ordeal was, the trek through Hole-in-the-Rock was more severe.” He helped settle Bluff, Utah, serving as the bishop for 25 years.

Jens died at age 86 years. A few years later, Elsie told her grandson that Jens had appeared to her during the night. Even though she was in relatively good health, at 84, she laid in bed all that day saying Jens was coming for her and, sure enough, by morning she was gone.

As the company began heading south, traveling atop the rock-faced mountain, they looked at the sheer cliff they would need to descend to reach the river that would lead them to their destination. In his book about this expedition, David E. Miller states, “The wagons were all driven down that narrow defile with horses or oxen hitched to the front, a driver in the wagon, and as many men hanging on behind as could find footing.”

Joseph Stanford Smith had spent the entire day assisting each wagon as it made this difficult drop down the cliff to the river. Finally, someone called out all the wagons were down, so Stanford began looking around for his family wagon. Realizing it wasn’t there, he dropped his shovel and climbed back up to the top.

He found his wife sitting and waiting in a pile of snow. Answering her husband, she explained the men had moved their wagon out of the way to help the others. Stanford was mad as you can imagine.

He looked over the edge at what he would face alone. A 150-foot drop through a narrow crevice. He didn’t think they could make it, but Belle said she would help.

She set their three-year-old on a folded quilt with the baby propped between his legs. The older daughter was to sit in front of her brothers and say a little prayer.

According to Miller’s book,

“Stanford braced his legs against the dashboard and they started down through the Hole-in-the-Rock. The first lurch nearly pulled Belle off her feet. She dug her heels in to hold her balance. Old Nig (their horse) was thrown to his haunches. Arabella raced after him and the wagon holding to the lines with desperate strength. Nig rolled to his side and gave a shrill neigh of terror. … Just then [Arabella’s] foot caught between two rocks. She kicked it free but lost her balance and went sprawling after old Nig. She was blinded by the sand which streamed after her. She gritted her teeth and hung on to the lines. A jagged rock tore her flesh and hot pain ran up her leg from heel to hip. The wagon struck a huge boulder. The impact jerked her to her feet and flung her against the side of the cliff.

“In a shaky voice he asked, ‘How did you make it, Belle?’

“‘Oh I crow-hopped right along!’ she answered.”

When they reached the bottom, he fixed her bleeding leg and she sent him off to rescue their children. As he climbed up the rocky path, he stopped and lifted his hat in salute to his wife. When he reached his children, his daughter said God had stayed with them.

As the family reached the river’s edge, they saw some men coming back with chains and ropes. Stanford said, “Forget it, fellows. We managed fine. My wife here is all the help a fellow needs.”

As Wallace Stegner once wrote, “I should prefer to deal with the Mormon pioneers, if I can, as human beings of their time and place, the earlier ones westward-moving Americans, the later ones European converts…Suffering endurance, discipline, faith, brotherly and sisterly charity, the qualities so thoroughly celebrated by Mormon writers…That I do not accept the faith that possessed them does not mean I doubt their frequent devotion and heroism in its service.  Especially their women.  Their women were incredible” (The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail).

Information is taken from these sources:

“’We Must go Through:’ Jens Nielson’s Persevering Leadership,” Jacqueline Smith (article)

Journal of the Trail, compiled by Stewart E. Glazier and Robert S. Clark (book)

Follow Me to Zion, by Andrew D. Olsen and Jolene S. Allphin (book)

Hole in the Rock, by David E. Miller (book)

The painting is called “Mother, Carry On,” by Julie Rogers  (I love her art!!)