Item Detail
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27099
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0
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0
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English
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The 1866 European Mormon Migration
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
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UMI Dissertation Publishing
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137
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nebraska at Kearney, 2014.
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In the year 1866, more than 3,000 European converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) left their homes to migrate to their "Zion," which was located in the Utah Territory. During that year, nine sailing ships departed Europe for the United States. Following their arrival in New York City, they boarded trains and traveled to St. Joseph, Missouri, where a paddle wheeler took the immigrants up the Missouri River to the village of Wyoming, Nebraska Territory. In the mid 1860s Wyoming became the outfitting station selected by Church leadership to prepare for the overland travel. Several hundred wagons, teamsters and wagon masters were sent from Salt Lake City to take the immigrants west. The first leg of the pioneer's travel through Nebraska, the Nebraska City Cut-off Trail, would take them as far as Fort Kearny. After Fort Kearny, the pioneers crossed the Platte River and continued their long journey west. Much had changed during the nineteen years since the first Mormon's comprising Brigham Young's Vanguard Company of 1847 traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley. However, Mormon immigrants in the late 1860s still faced disease, storms at sea, separation from families, long days on the trail, and even death. Many were poor and needed assistance from the Church to travel to Salt Lake City. 1866 was the last full year eastern Nebraska was used as the beginning point for the Mormon cross-country pioneer migration. By 1867 the railroad extended to North Platte, Nebraska, and the village of Wyoming was no longer needed as an outfitting station. Each Mormon pioneer who left their homeland and traveled through the Nebraska Territory to reach "Zion," left an imprint with every step on the trails of Nebraska.