Winter Quarters
Abraham and his family left Nauvoo, crossed the Missouri River, and headed west in early 1846. The date they left Nauvoo is not known. Again they left three graves behind-those of John E., Sarah Elizabeth, and Joseph Bates. Tamer was pregnant. Mary Ann was married to Joseph Bates Noble and pregnant. Amy Jane was 15, Daniel Abraham 9, and Susanna not yet 3. They settled in Nebraska in the camp known as Winter Quarters, just a few miles away from what is now Omaha, Nebraska. While at Winter Quarters, Abraham served as first counselor to his son-in-law, Bishop Joseph Noble (Winter Quarters was divided into thirteen wards initially. This eventually increased to 22. A bishopric was appointed over each, with instructions to look after both the temporal and spiritual welfare of the people, to supervise industrial activities, and provide for sanitation in the community. This is the first time in Church history that wards of 300 to 500 members were created (see William E. Berrett, The Restored Church, p. 224).
[Abraham] left Nauvoo and was among the first of the saints to reach Winter Quarters. He built a comfortable home for the family and assisted in building houses for those who would come later.
During the winter, those in Winter Quarters suffered greatly. Weakened by the long trek from Nauvoo and the lack of sufficient vegetables in their diet, people became victims of malaria, scurvy, and other diseases. Before the cold of winter prevented the spread of disease, 300 fresh graves appeared in the cemetery outside Winter Quarters ("See William E. Berrett, The Restored Church, 245). Fortunately, the Washburns had no deaths either during the travel to Winter Quarters or while residing there.
When the early pioneers were going to the Rockies in 1847, [Abraham] loaned a yoke of oxen to assist them. These oxen were to be returned so that he could be ready to start early in the spring of 1848. There was a colony of Infidels who had taken up land and made a small settlement a distance from Winter Quarters. While Brother Washburn was waiting for his team to be returned he went and worked for this colony. They liked him very much and told him if he would stay with them, they would divide their land with him, but he declined. Early in the spring of 1848 while working for this colony, and waiting for his ox team to be returned, as he went out to his work one morning there stood a fine yoke of oxen with the yoke on all ready to hitch to a wagon. He went immediately and inquired of every man living in that section of the country, but no one knew anything about the cattle. He accepted them as a gift from God, a direct answer to his prayers, for he had earnestly prayed for the return of his team so he could continue his journey. He prepared immediately to start for Utah. He arrived quite early that season.
While he was living in Winter Quarters. . . there arrived with one of the companies in late December or early January a young woman. Flora Clarinda Gleason Johnson, driving her own mule team (Flora Clarinda was born in Tolland, Massachusetts on 2 August 1819 to Joel and Lorena Williams Gleason. She was baptized 18 April 1834. On 23 January 1846, she became the second wife of Benjamin Franklin Johnson in Nauvoo. B.F. Johnson did not make the trip west with Flora, reportedly stopping often route to court a possible third wife). She had been married second wife to [Benjamin Franklin] Johnson in the Nauvoo Temple. She and his other family had started out from Nauvoo together, but he decided he wanted another woman so he lagged behind to keep in touch with that other woman, and let Clarinda go along with the company which they had started with, so she arrived at Winter Quarters alone, shortly before her child was born. Brother Washburn went to work preparing a house for her, but before the chimney was complete, on January 15, 1847, her baby, Clarinda Huetta, was born while she was living in her wagon.
A few months later, Tamer's last daughter, Artemisia Minerva, was born 17 June 1847. When the initial companies of Saints left for the Salt Lake Valley, Abraham's family remained behind. There was much work to do in Winter Quarters to prepare for those who would follow. As one autobiography records:
"After the companies had left, I joined with Brother Abraham Washburn in fencing, breaking up and planting some land. We planted considerable corn and buckwheat and garden where we raised turnips, cucumbers, beans, etc. I remember when the first fruits of our labor began to be gathered we had been over a year without green fruit or vegetables of any kind so it seemed that the first cucumbers that came to be eatable was the nicest thing that I ever tasted. In the fall we had sufficient to keep us through the winter, principally buckwheat and turnips. I gathered a quantity of hazel nuts which grew in abundance around Winter Quarters. My brothers herded cows through the summer and thus added to our comfort and Brother Washburn cut considerable hay for the winter. As winter came on we began to lay plans to get a fitout to go to the valley of the Great Salt Lake from which the pioneers had returned." (Benjamin Ashby Autobiograpy, copy of holograph, Brigham Young University, BYU-S, p. 20. 30;. Ordean Washburn, p. 12)
In January 1848, Church meetings were held in the Log Tabernacle in Miller's Hollow (the area subsequently to be known as both Kanesville and Council Bluffs), Pottawatami County, Iowa. There were instructions and a dance. A petition was signed and sent to the Iowa Legislature requesting that a post office be established at Miller's Hollow. Abraham and his son Daniel Abraham's signatures appear on the petition. There had not been time for temple sealings to be performed in the Nauvoo Temple. Tamer and Abraham were sealed as husband and wife by Brigham Young 30 March 1848 at their home in Winter Quarters.
Leaving for the Salt Lake Valley
The emigration from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake in 1848 was comprised of three divisions. Abraham and Tamer came in the third. It was 29 June 1848 when the Washburn family left Winter Quarters traveling as part of the Willard Richards' Company which included 502 Whites, 24 Negroes, 169 wagons, 50 horses, 20 mules, 515 oxen, 426 cows and loose cattle, 369 sheep, 63 pigs, 5 cats, 44 dogs, 170 chickens, 4 turkeys, 7 ducks, 5 doves, and 3 goats. (Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 31 Dec. 1848, Supplement, pp. 1, 17, and 20. Abraham, with his last name spelled Washbourne, is included in a partial list of the Third Division of Emigration of 1848. Abraham, age 41, Tamer 41, Mary Ann 18, Mary 15, Amy Jane 15, Daniel 9, and Susanna 3, are listed)
Those in the company were encouraged to be alert and vigilant both day and night. Finding the necessary provisions was a challenge. Elder George A. Smith, writing from Winter Quarters to Brigham Young said, "We have raked the country almost with a fine tooth comb for cattle and wagons for Bro. Richards and find that the brethren who are willing to help have done all they are able, consistent with the condition of their farms, and those who were liberal in the Spring remains so." (Journal History of the Church, 28 June 1848) The Willard Richards Company and the Amasa M. Lyman Company apparently traveled closely together, assisting each other as needed, and sometimes camping together.
The companies crossed the Elk Horn River by pulling the wagons with double teams. It was mid-July when they reached the Platte River. Here they found that wood was scarce, but deer and elk were abundant and feed for the animals was good. On August 2, they met a band of about 2000 Sioux Indians and gave them presents including sugar, coffee, beans, corn and a plug of tobacco in exchange for buffalo robes and buckskin. They reached Fort Laramie 18 August and camped on the Sweetwater on September 15. The travel to Salt Lake City took about 108 days. On 19 October 1848, the Willard Richards' Company traveled six miles into the Salt Lake Valley. The camp historian wrote, "The day was warm and sunny." (See J. Ordean Washburn, pp. 13-21, for more specific information from the Willard Richards and Amasa Lyman Company journals)
[Flora Clarinda] continued her journey alone with her baby, driving her mule team the entire distance from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City. On one occasion while crossing a river her baby came near falling in while she was managing the team. She became alienated from her husband on account of his behavior and laid her case before President Brigham Young, and he procured a divorce for her. She was married to Abraham Washburn 11 February 1849 by Brigham Young in his office in Salt Lake City (When Brigham Young heard of Benjamin Franklin Johnson's desertion of Flora Clarinda, he granted her a divorce. Abraham and Flora Clarinda were sealed by Brigham Young at Salt Lake City, 11 February 1849. Abraham then adopted Flora Clarinda's young daughter, Huetta Clarinda). Jedadiah Grant was married to his wife at the same time. The two couples were in the president's office together.
It is reported that Tamer did not adjust easily to Abraham's marriage to Flora Clarinda. "She was unhappy at first, but her prayers for understanding and for help in making the adjustment were apparently answered. She came to love Flora Clarinda, and they became the best of friends." (Beatrice B. Malouf, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers lesson, October 1988)
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