They packed a wagon with the requisite supplies: rice, flour, salt, dried fruits, dried meats, tin cups and plates, fishhooks and lines, ropes and pulleys, nails, tents, sugar and gunpowder and bedding and more. Amos even found room for the rocking chair Agatha's father carved for their wedding. On the appointed morning, they set off in a company of some hundred families—all in clean wagons, starched bonnets, polished boots. An impromptu hymn swelled among their fellow travelers as the oxen jostled forward, kicking up dust. Like the bustlings of a grand parade, Agatha said to Amos. She had to raise her voice over clattering wheels. The journey was her husband's idea, but Agatha obliged Mr. Fletcher in most things. After Amos read the Mormons’ book aloud to her and their seven children, it took little persuading for her to agree to join the Saints.
They walked westward, to Zion. First...
