With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we’ll make this chorus swell—
All is well! All is well!
[2. ] Elders Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor had been sent to England, after the exodus from Nauvoo, to set the British Mission in order. Elders Reuben Hedlock and Thomas Ward, who were in charge, had misappropriated the funds of “The Joint Stock Company,” an organization which had been formed for the purpose of assisting the Saints of the British Isles to emigrate. The three apostles took charge of affairs and soon had the mission again in a flourishing condition. Early in 1847, they again returned to the United States, Elders Pratt and Taylor preceding Elder Hyde, who remained to install Elder Orson Spencer as president of that mission. Elder Orson Spencer, a man of culture and superior education, performed an excellent work and under his ministry the mission flourished.
[3. ] Luke S. Johnson, formerly of the council of the apostles, came to Nauvoo in 1846 in a repentant spirit, and asked to be reinstated in the Church. He was baptized and was forced to leave that place with the body of the Saints. He was chosen as one of the pioneer band to come in advance to the Salt Lake Valley. In the year 1858, he settled at St. Johns, Tooele County, where he was ordained a bishop. He died in Salt Lake City, December 9, 1861.
[4. ] Congressional Globe, 27th Congress, 3rd Session, pp. 198–201.
[5. ] The Reed-Donner party, comprised seventy-eight men, women and children, under the direction of James F. Reed and George Donner, who left Independence in May, 1846, for California. They came via Fort Bridger, Echo and East Canyons through Emigration and westward through the Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys, around the south end of Salt Lake. Delayed by many misfortunes, they were caught in the snows in the Sierras in the winter of 1846, where many of them perished. Near the close of that year several of the ill-fated party put on snowshoes and crossed to the Sacramento Valley for relief. A relief expedition was sent back and found that the survivors had been living for weeks on the flesh of their dead, like cannibals. Thirty-nine of the original company had perished.