Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.
Some Who Stayed
Today, the land on every side of the Winter Quarters site is a rich part of America's breadbasket. The Mormon pioneers marched right through this fertile country, forded the streams that annually brought silt to enrich its precious topsoil, and blazed their trail into an unknown wilderness. Understandably, there were some who stayed behind rather than venture into the unknown. The number of Mormons who decided not to join in the migration to Utah has not been determined, but there are evidences that there were many.
Elder Andrew Cunningham was called in 1855 to go to Florence, at the old Winter Quarters site, to assist with the annual emigration to the West. During his visit, he called upon some of the "old Mormons" in western Iowa. At a meeting in the old bowery in Salt Lake City, two years later, he told the Saints: "I found that it was not a very pleasant business, for there were almost all kinds of spirits among them except the true spirit of the gospel." He told of divided branches: half following one leader and the rest another. In Missouri and Illinois, he visited many "old Mormons," but found very few who had any disposition to come to the mountains. "Many of them" he said, "feel quite above those Saints that President Young led to Utah. They do not associate with those that left Illinois, neither do they associate with those that are favorable in emigration to this country."
On April 12, 1860, Elder Jacob Gates, returning from a mission to England, wrote from Florence:
Since I came to this place, I have been quite astonished to find so many people who once belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of them are waking from a dream and are rubbing their eyes to ascertain if they can see. . . . I have been much gratified to find that Elders Martindale and Wareham have gathered up the remnants which have been left from England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Sweden and almost every place under the whole heavens, and out of these scattered fragments have organized several branches of the Church, numbering several hundred souls, who are anxious to gather to the valleys of Utah.
There were many who did not hear or did not follow the preachings of such eager missionaries. There were others who were rounded up by various splinter groups that broke away from the Church following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith. At least two such groups grew out of the Winter Quarters experience. Their leaders had once been strong in the faith and had held positions of leadership in the Church.
One such was Alpheus Cutler, sixty-two years old when the Saints came to Winter Quarters; he was known as Father Cutler to many who knew and loved him.