Teaching Children to Fight Back
Gilbert Ward connects with ancestors by re-enacting Mormon trek
By Lawn Griffiths, Tribune
November 12, 2005
Something unexpected happened near Coolidge when families of a Gilbert Mormon ward re-enacted the historic and rigorous handcart journeys of Mormon pioneers across the West.
As planned for the second
day, a mob with blackened faces and bandanna masks ambushed the handcart
companies. They fired blanks and demanded that Joseph Smith be turned over to
them to be tarred and feathered.
According to script, a 16-year-old boy stepped forward to receive the abuse in
Smith’s stead and was covered in chocolate pudding and feathers.
But children (ages 7 to 11) on the trek "thought this was real, they really
thought the men were there to hurt their prophet," said trek organizer Jeanine
Smith, no relation to Joseph. "The children attacked the mob with poles they
used to pull their handcarts." Some from the "mob" were hurt, one sustaining a
cut on the side of his head.
"The children were absolutely fearless — they wouldn’t let these men harm their
prophet," she said.
About 200 members of the 9th Ward of the Gilbert Val Vista Stake of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under Bishop Greg Slater, carried out the
trek Oct. 21-22 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Smith’s birth.
As part of the adventure, they also erected a one-eighth scale model of the
destroyed and recently rebuilt temple in Nauvoo, Ill., the church’s one-time
"Zion" on the Mississippi River.
"The event was an effort worthy of those faithful pioneers," said Smith, who,
with husband Brian, organized the twoday, 12-mile trek in the desert southeast
of Coolidge. Traveling with 13 carts, the families dressed in 1850s clothing,
slept under the stars, did campfire cooking and danced to the music of a string
trio.
In the years after Joseph Smith was mortally shot by a mob in a Carthage, Ill.,
jail in 1844, Mormons largely abandoned their Midwest enclaves for Utah. Well
into the 1850s, waves of settlers unable to afford covered wagons and oxen made
the trip west pulling and pushing handcarts laden with their belongings.
"I had ancestors who were true Mormon pioneers, who crossed the plains in wagons
and handcarts," said Smith, whose grandfather, Lorenzo Wright, operated Wright’s
Markets in Mesa, some of the community’s first grocery stores. Ancestors on both
sides of Wright’s family made up founders of the city, while earlier ancestors
were close friends of Joseph Smith in his years in Ohio and Illinois.
Unlike many handcart reenactments commonly performed by Mormon youth, the
Gilbert ward’s venture had to include all ward members, the bishop insisted.
Stuart Reber, who served as "trail boss," checked aerial maps for Pinal County
and came up with mostly uninhabited areas to hold the trek.
"We had regular ‘restoration moments’ where we taught the handcart company about
the Prophet Joseph Smith," said Smith. Playing the role of the prophet in the
skits was Hyrum Wright, who is bishop of the singles ward in the Val Vista Stake
and is director of the Arizona State University Institute of Religion.
One youth, Lindsey Hatch, said the pioneers had enormous struggles, and she kept
thinking, "I can’t wait to get home. I wonder what the pioneers thought. They
didn’t have a nice house to go home to. They never stopped working."
Nelson Morris said he admired the pioneers’ willpower. "I really appreciate the
pioneers more than I used to," he said.
Months of reading about the pioneers before the trek heightened Sam Wright’s
regard for his ancestors. "I read about the lives of the saints, read the
scriptures, read about the Prophet Joseph, learned about the trials during that
time and pondered a lot," said the 15-year-old son of Hyrum Wright. "When the
mob came, they wanted to tar and feather my father (as Joseph Smith)," he said.
". . . I put myself in my ancestors’ shoes: What if my real father was being
hunted to be tortured? How would that make me feel? What would that cost my
family?"
A centerpiece of the weekend was erecting a replica of the Nauvoo temple, a
project led by Kelly Stott, a cabinetmaker. The original temple was started in
1840 on a bluff in Nauvoo. It was finished in 1846 and occupied for just six
weeks, then abandoned in an exodus sparked by anti-Mormon hostility. An arsonist
burned that temple in 1848. But in 1999, current church President/Prophet Gordon
B. Hinckley announced the temple would be rebuilt as close as possible to its
original design. It was completed in 2002.
Stott followed those blueprints in making the oneeighth scale temple at his
home. The structure was disassembled and transported to the desert for the trek
and reassembled by ward workers. Children braided rugs for it and designed
temple adornments. The structure also will be used for the stake’s restoration
celebration this month.
"I loved braiding with two adorable little girls — Hadley and Abbey — and
enjoyed playing with sticks and chasing dragonflies," said Diane Pospisil,
noting that it was a renewing experience "away from the hustle and bustle of
daily modern life."
"It’s nice to hear pioneer stories, but when that story is about your own
ancestors, it has a different feel," said Sharon Slater, daughter of the bishop.
While there were frequent complaints about trying to push and pull the handcarts
through deep desert sand in places, Dean Young said he imagined it was snow. "I
thought it was 2 feet of snow like the pioneers had."