Pioneer Stories - The Reeder & Hurren Families (Sister Anderson's Ancestors!)

With hands rough and callused from a lifetime of farming, David Reeder closed the cottage door for the last time. As he walked away, he reflected on the 27 years he had lived in that little home. He and Lydia had moved there soon after they were married, when David was hired to be the chief farmer on a large estate. Their children had been born and raised there, and Lydia had died there 16 years earlier, just weeks after their last child was born. David and his sons had found respite there after long days of plowing, planting, and harvesting. The family had enjoyed many happy evenings around the hearth.For most of those years, David Reeder thought he would never leave the green hills of Suffolk, England. Then in the spring of 1851, two missionaries came teaching the restored gospel. Among the first people to accept their message were David’s oldest son, George Reeder, and his son-in-law, James Hurren. Before long, David and his other children were also baptized. A branch of the Church was organized with James Hurren as president.Two of David’s children, George and Mary, journeyed to Utah in 1853. Three years later, David and his two youngest children left England to join them. Traveling with David were James and ElizaHurren and their three children. Eliza was David’s oldest daughter. She and James were expecting another baby in less than three months.The story of the Reeder family’s journey to Zion comes primarily from a memoir written by Robert Reeder, David’s youngest son, who was 19 when he emigrated. Describing the voyage from Liverpool to New York City, Robert wrote, “I was sick on the way over and could not eat much. Such food as they had on sea fare consisted of what they called sea biscuits, salt pork, beef, and brown sugar and vinegar.” Eating very little, Robert became so weak that he needed help walking. When the ship finally reached New York after six weeks at sea, he was most grateful for one simple thing: “I was very glad [to] get a piece of bread once more.”Robert regained his strength during the 10-day journey by rail and steamboat to Iowa City. The Saints camped there for three weeks while finishing handcarts and making other preparations for their trek west. During that time, Robert’s work consisted mostly of guarding cattle. With two handcart companies and two wagon companies still being outfitted, emigration leaders had amassed a sizable herd—at least 900 oxen, beef cattle, and milk cows. “While waiting there we had to herd those cattle night and day,” Robert said.
In Iowa City, the most important event for the Reeder and Hurren families was the birth of Eliza’s baby, a daughter named Selena. The next day, the Willie company set out with their handcarts. Eliza and Selena remained behind another day and then were “put ... into a wagon drawn by a span of wild mules.” Two weeks later, Selena died near Newton, Iowa. Her body was covered with a small cloth and buried in a grave that her family would never see again. Four-year-old Emma Hurren recalled her father lifting her up to see the burial of her baby sister.The Willie company reached Florence, Nebraska Territory, on August 11. Although the season was late, the Reeder and Hurren families were among the approximately 400 members of the company who left Florence on August 16 for the final 1,000 miles of the journey.Robert vividly recalled the night of September 3, when 30 of the oxen that pulled the supply wagons were drawn away during or after a buffalo stampede. Because the wagons were too heavy for the oxen that remained, “some of the flour was taken out of the wagons and put on the handcarts according to the strength of the party drawing them.” Robert said that James Hurren was “considered one of the strongest men in the company [and] had five sacks put on his cart besides two small girls that were not able to walk."  ...Eliza, who was still grieving for their baby’s death, helped her husband pull the cart.
Diminished wagon teams and heavier handcarts slowed the Willie company’s progress. “Our provisions were going fast and we were making little headway,” Robert recalled.  Sometime during the long pull across Nebraska, Robert’s father began to falter. Robert wrote poignantly about his father’s determination—and his death near Fort Laramie after he had pulled his handcart 800 miles:"My father, David Reeder, would start out in the morning and pull his cart until he would drop on the road. He did this day after day until he did not arise early on October [1], 1856. He was found dead in his bed. ... [My] Sister Eliza wrapped a cherished sheet around him, and we placed him in a shallow grave, hoping the wolves would not disturb. We must go on our way in silent mourning and in a weakened condition."
The day after David Reeder died, the Willie company voted to reduce their rations, hoping to stretch their flour until help arrived. During the next two weeks, they traveled 177 miles to Independence Rock. Already worn down, the people became even weaker on reduced rations. “Some would sit down by the roadside and die,” Robert recalled. Near Independence Rock, such a loss was again personal to Robert:"My younger sister, Caroline, 17 years old, after traveling all day and seeing the camp being made for the night, took off her apron to tie some sagebrush in to bring into the camp. She sat down to rest, leaning on her bundle, exhausted. They found her chilled and dying and carried her to camp. She died without gaining consciousness. She, too, was placed in an unmarked grave. ... Her death was another real loss to us, but we must hurry on."
They traveled 16 miles that day, racing against their diminishing flour supply, racing against the season. But only three days later, on October 19, their flour was gone and the winter storms began. That day they pressed forward against these adversities to travel another 16 miles, finally reaching the sixth crossing of the Sweetwater River at dark. For the first of 21 consecutive nights, they made their camp in the snow. Subcaptain William Woodward wrote: “It was a sorry sight, ... 400 people with handcarts, short of bedding, and to sleep on the cold ground. One thought is enough for a lifetime.”The next day, Captain Willie and Joseph Elder went searching for rescue wagons that they hoped were nearby. With “not a morsel of food in camp” while they were gone, Robert scavenged for whatever he could find:"I myself have sat by the fireside with Brother Hurren and scraped and singed hair off a piece of rawhide which had been taken off discarded handcarts that had been pulled through the sand hundreds of miles. It was hard, but we would boil and soften it and cut it up into little pieces and put it in our pockets to chew. ... It helped to keep life in us."
Captain Willie and Joseph Elder found the rescuers that evening but couldn’t get back to camp until the next day. The rescuers had stopped to wait out the storm, not knowing the desperate circumstances of the Willie company. Robert said that when “they heard the report, [they] came to us as quickly as possible [and] reached us after we had been in camp forty-eight hours.” Decades later, Mary Hurren, Robert’s niece who was eight years old during the journey, could still hear the sounds and feel the joy of the rescuers’ arrival:"Captain Willie went ahead through the snow to meet the relief wagons and urge them to hurry as the people were freezing and starving to death. If help had not come when it did, there would have been no one left to tell the tale. As a small girl I could hear the squeaking of the wagons as they came through the snow before I was able to see them. Tears streamed down the cheeks of the men, and the children danced for joy. As soon as the people could control their feelings, they all knelt down in the snow and gave thanks to God for his kindness and goodness unto them. The last supply of food in the camp had been given out two days before the relief wagons came. They came just in time to save our lives."
On October 23, two days after the rescuers arrived, the Willie company faced the longest, most difficult day of their journey: the ascent of Rocky Ridge. Robert’s history says, “We pulled our carts sixteen miles in a blinding snow storm and arrived at Rock Creek, where we sheltered against the hill as best we could.” Thirteen people died from this ordeal and were buried in one large grave. Eight-year-old Mary Hurren recalled a man lifting her up so she could see one of her friends (Bodil Mortensen) who was among the dead.On November 9 the Willie company finally arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Robert Reeder, James and Eliza Hurren, and the Hurrens’ three oldest daughters all survived the journey. They were met by Robert and Eliza’s oldest brother, George, who had emigrated in 1853. After greeting them, George asked, “Where are Father and Caroline?” James Hurren explained the circumstances of both of their deaths. George had no time to dwell on his grief because young Mary Hurren’s legs were so badly frozen that he needed to seek medical help immediately.The Reeder and Hurren families experienced tragic losses on their journey to Zion, and their difficulties were not over. But all of those who survived went on to live long, productive lives devoted to their families and their religion. In doing so, they left a priceless legacy for their posterity.
Mary's parents, James and Eliza, both lived to be 82, dying in Hyde Park, Cache County. Her two sisters who survived the journey, Emma and Sarah, lived to be 85 and 94. Although the family had suffered greatly, Eliza Hurren is reported to have often said, "With all our trials, [our] weary traveling, burying our loved ones, we have never felt to murmur or complain or regret the steps we have taken."

I really marvel at the ability of these pioneers in the face is so much grief as they had loved ones die along the way, and in the midst of extreme hardship, to carry on and remain firm in their faith. The Reeder and Hurren families stuck together helping each other along, and holding each other up through their grief. They really are stalwart examples of "reaching to rescue", and we are blessed because of their faith to have Sister Anderson as an example to us, as she is a direct ancestor of the Hurren's.  

Have a great week!
Sister McHood