Isaac Chase-Evacuation Planner for Nauvoo Exodus of 1846

In the summer of 1845, preparations for the evacuation of Nauvoo were beginning.   The city's population was about 15,000, 90% were LDS and preparing to leave.  There was a shortage of wood, tents and foodstuffs.

Isaac Chase

Isaac Chase helped to coordinate the purchase and distribution of goods and resources as the Saints were preparing for their 1846 spring exodus.

In the manuscript found in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, the History of Rhoda Chase Stoddard Hinman, we read that wagon shops were all over the city and Isaac Chase was called upon by Brigham Young to supervise the wagon building and tent making efforts.

In The Iowa Mormon Trail by Black and Hartley (page 39), we read:

"Every available space, from the shop to the parlor, was used to assemble boxes, covers, wheels, and harnesses.  Nearly 1500 wagons were ready for the westward trek by Thanksgiving of 1845 and another 2000 were partially completed by midwinter.  Confident that most wagons would be ready by spring, Church appointed trustees advertised their need to purchase cattle for the journey."   There were 20,000 acres of good farm land offered in exchange for working cattle and mules.  

At the same time the Latter-day Saints were building wagons, buying teams, sewing canvas for tents and wagon tops, and stockpiling and drying the food for their journey west, they were trying to finish building the Nauvoo Temple.

In the Papers of Isaac Chase found in the LDS Church archives (Microfilm MS#1560) is this note from Brigham Young:  (Feb 1, 1846)  Brother Isaac Chase, you will please let Bro. Hanson and Bro. Ragan have access to the canvas as I have appointed them to make tents."  As he distributed the canvas cloth, Isaac made an inventory of the material issued to friends, neighbors, and relatives.  A handwritten record showing this distribution is in the Papers of Isaac Chase and also listed in the Isaac Chase biography written by William V. Sanders in May 2000 (p. 54):

2 pieces of canvas to Phineas Young

1 to Lorenzo Young

6 to Hosea Stout

1 to Willard Richards

John Scott for wagon and tent

John Lyttle 1 tent

Benjamin F. Johnson 1 tent

David Fulmer 1 tent

L.D. Miles 1 tent

David Sessions cloth for tent

Wm Huntington tent cloth

Stephen Markham 5 tent cloths

Isaac sold his city "lot number two in Block number sixty nine of the City of Nauvoo" (Hancock County, Illinois Deed Book) and received the money from the sale before leaving Nauvoo. 

William Sanders writes:  "Isaac Chase was lucky that he did find a buyer for his city lot.  He received about one tenth of the property's actually value.  ....Isaac originally paid $1200 for this city lot.  He sold the same lot with all of its improvements four years later for $150.00."  (Isaac Chase, p. 57.)

Phebe Ogden Chase

The official exodus began on Wednesday, February 4, 1846.  On that day many Saints were ferried across the Mississippi river on flat boats and camped in Iowa Territory on the banks of a small stream called Sugar Creek.  The Chases left about three weeks later.

There are two accounts of the exodus by the daughters of Isaac Chase.

Harriet Louisa Chase McLaughlin states:
"...we crossed the Mississippi River and made our way to Winter Quarters where father dug a hole in to raise of ground and covered it.  In this, we lived all that winter on corn that we parched and ground and packed into two barrels before we left Nauvoo.  This we ate with milk."  (See May McLaughlin Tanner's, Early History of Harriet Louisa Chase McLaughlin, LDS Church Microfilm MS#14442.)

Rhoda Chase Hinman

Rhoda Chase Stoddard Hinman recorded:
 "...we were complelled to leave Nauvoo in the spring of 1846, the first company leaving in February crossing the Mississipi River on the ice.  Clarissa, Desdemona, Sylvia and my father (Isaac Chase) were in this company.  I did not leave until the 20th of May."

It appears that the five Chase wagons crossed the river after February 26, 1846. (See Sanders, Isaac Chase, p. 59.)  "It was on the morning of Feb. 26 that the temperature dropped to twenty degrees below zero assuring a solidly frozen river so, even though it was unbelievably cold, many families who had been waiting for an opportunity to start west crossed the Mississippi.  They then joined the earlier pioneers who were already at the Sugar Creek encampment."

Clarissa Ross Young

The first 2 wagons transported the Isaac Chase family members (Isaac, Phebe, Clairssa Ross Young, George Ogden, and Harriet Louisa Chase) as well as food and household items.
The 3rd wagon carried the gristmill equipment, sawmill irons, a pump organ, farm tools, and black locust tree seeds.
The 4th wagon was Alanson and Sylvia Van Fleet and their family.
The 5th wagon belonged to John and Desdemona Gleason.

George Ogden Chase

Desdemona Gleason

Riding or walking alongside the five wagons in this Chase family group were:

Isaac Chase-age 55

Phebe Ogden Chase-age 52

Clarissa Ross Young-age 32 (Married to Brigham Young)

George Ogden Chase-age 14

Harriet Louisa Chase-age 12

Alanson Van Fleet-age 27

Sylvia Chase Van Fleet-age 27

Elias Van Fleet-age 9

Joseph Van Fleet-age 3

John Gleason-age 27

Desdemona Gleason-age 25

"My dear hollyhocks bowed their stately heads as if to bid me a farewell"-Rhoda Chase Stoddard Hinman

Rhoda, Isaac's daughter, shared her emotions in leaving behind her home:
"...never shall I forget my feelings as I took the last look at the once happy home (May 20, 1846).  As we descended the eastern slope of the Mississippi River before crossing over, my dear hollyhocks bowed their stately heads as if to bid me a farewell.  We loaded what we could in a single wagon bed, leaving the rest behind, then I bed adieu to Nauvoo the Beautiful."  (See Hinman, Early Reminiscences of the Isaac Chase Family, LDS Church Microfilm MS #8434)

This photograph of surviving pioneers of the 1847 trek was taken on 24 July 1897, the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. Most pioneers in this photo arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in September 1847. The portrait was taken on Temple Square.

"How difficult this experience must have been on the Chase family.  For the first time in many years they were forced to sleep in a tent or in the bed of their wagons and the temperatures rarely climbed above the zero mark.   The (Chase) family had been accustomed to comfortable, warm homes and camping on the banks of the Mississippi River in the dead of winter was the first of many, many physical challenges which they would be forced to endure in the next few years.  It was their baptism into pioneer life."    (See Sanders, Isaac Chase, p. 60.)

Stained glass window from the Salt Lake City Daughters of the Utah Pioneer Museum.