It was a sad disappointment, but only a temporary set back. With courage unabated, the family removed to St. Joseph, Mo., where living was cheap and work abundant, and in February of the following year, with a new team and supplies earned in Missouri, Mother Lambert and the children were sent forward to Winter Quarters, to be ready to undertake the journey westward, while Father Lambert remained in Missouri to work as long as possible before rejoining them.
That journey of 150 miles in that inclement season was a terrible one, but it was bravely accomplished. In crossing the river from Ferry Point to Winter Quarters, however, a new misfortune occurred. The river had been frozen over for a considerable period, and teams had passed over it on the ice with impunity. Even that very morning two heavily loaded wagons had gone over. Yet, when the Lambert wagon was being taken across, although the precaution had been resorted to of taking the team over first and drawing the wagon over from a distance with a rope, the ice gave way. There, in that bleak March weather, six weeks before her son George was born, Mother Lambert stood upon the bank of the Missouri river, with her child in her arms and her two young brothers and younger sister clinging to her skirts, and saw the wagon containing all the family's earthly substance sink through the ice to the bottom of the stream. Sister Jane Dutson, (afterwards Mrs. Alexander Melville, of Fillmore) who had accompanied Mother Lambert from Missouri, stood beside her when the wagon disappeared, and the catastrophe almost made their hearts cease beating.
They never expected to see the wagon or its contents again. The accident, however, didn't prove so serious as that. The occasion served to illustrate how spontaneously kind, sympathetic and resourceful Latter-day Saints are. Though Mother Lambert had few acquaintances in Winter Quarters, the news of her misfortune soon spread, and proffers of help and expressions of sympathy came from all quarters. Volunteers soon plunged into the ice-cold water and readily reappeared bearing in their hands articles recovered from the wagon, which in turn were seized by others standing near the edge of the ice and then loaded upon hand sleds and conveyed to the shore. Before night set in most of the contents of the wagon had been recovered—damaged, of course, but not completely spoiled, and all done without any intimation of a favor being conferred thereby, much less any kind of remuneration being expected. Depend upon it, though, Mother Lambert was not lacking in gratitude, and in her prayers that night as she enjoyed the shelter of Brother Harrington's hospitable roof, she thanked God with all the fervency of which she was capable that she was a Latter-day Saint, and for the fraternal spirit that abounded among her fellow members.
The next day, by some method not now remembered, the wagon also was recovered.
Very soon afterwards President Young, who was then at Winter Quarters, preparing to start on his second trip to the Salt Lake Valley, accompanied by his family, wrote to Father Lambert in Missouri, advising that he remain there another year, promising, as a condition of his doing so, that he should lose nothing, but be able to go with a much better outfit than he otherwise could. Mother Lambert and the children accordingly returned thither, and awaited the arrival of the spring of 1849.
The journey to the valley, which occupied six months, was full of vicissitudes and rich in the experience that tends most to develop character. The goal for which the family had longed and prayed, though a wild region, forbidding in appearance, was hailed with joy, as promising exemption from contact with a sinful world, and freedom from persecution.
One thing that was specially disappointing to Mother Lambert and her three proteges was, that their brother George Q., who, with his sister Ann had reached the valley in 1847, soon after the pioneers landed, had only the day before started on a mission to California, thence to proceed to the Sandwich Islands. This involved a separation, as it afterwards proved (counting from the time they parted in Winter Quarters,) of almost eight years. He had, in anticipation of the family's arrival, arranged for the purchase of a lot—the same lot which was the family's home for so many years, and still in their possession, and made some adobes from which they might construct a house.
As illustrative of Father Lambert's disposition to follow the counsel of the church leaders, it may here be mentioned that President Willard Richards, one of the pioneers, and second counselor to President Young, who entertained a very strong friendship for Father Lambert, had saved a corner lot on Main Street—that which Walker Bros. bank occupied for so many years—for his friend, and so informed him on his arrival. Father Lambert expressed his gratitude for the kindness, but said, as President Young's counsel was that no family should have more than one city lot, and his brother-in-law, George Q., had bargained for a lot for him a couple of blocks distant from Main Street (the price of which must be paid) and made some adobes with which to build thereon, he felt that he ought to decline Brother Richards' kind offer. One has only to recall the almost fabulous value of that Main Street lot at the present time to realize what he lost by that declination, and yet, if its possession would have made the family become worldly-minded and think less of their religion, Father Lambert must even now, if permitted to know anything of mundane affairs, thank God that he did not accept it.
Those early years in Salt Lake Valley were years of desperate toil, hardship and privation, of which the Lambert family had their full share—perhaps more than their share; not however, from want of effort on their part, for none were more industrious or frugal, but largely because of their willingness to help others.
A more generous man than Charles Lambert probably never lived. He found more pleasure in relieving the wants of others who were in need than self gratification ever could have afforded him, and his wife was a worthy partner in that same respect. The needy did not have to apply to them to obtain assistance; they were sought for and their wants relieved without ostentation. No family ever bore privation with less complaining. When the crops failed through the ravages of grasshoppers, weeks passed without even the children of the household and served first the were they and bread, tasting the last to go without.