A Legacy of Survival – The Journey of Elizabeth Arnold Green

A big highlight of teaching within Mormonism is focused on learning about one’s ancestors' lives. Though I am no longer a member of the Mormon church, I am grateful that the connection to my past was such an important aspect of my life. Given the lens I see through now, I see many of my ancestors, especially the women, in a whole different light.

July 24th, a day where Mormons celebrate pioneers as a holiday known as Pioneer Day, is the day where I began my own public celebration of being able to escape from the clutches of Mormonism by posting on this blog.

In honor of my past, I want to share with you a story about one of my ancestors, who was an early member of the Mormon church and who walked over 1,300 miles to Salt Lake. I'd like to introduce to you my great, great, great grandmother Elizabeth Arnold Green.

Mormon pioneers pulling handcarts on their way to Utah.

Before I share a portion of Elizabeth’s story with you I want to publicly express my great love and appreciation for this ancestor of mine. She has always been a part of my life as I was fortunate to be told stories of her when I was young. What an example she has been of one who has grit and courage. I do not condemn her decision to join the Mormon church as I know how easy it is to fall victim to charismatic men who make promises that are exciting, especially when young.

I am grateful that her journey is one that we know about and she is a role model that I have used throughout my life as an example of a woman who had faith, determination, and a strong will to carry on, no matter the challenge.

Elizabeth was born nearly 200 years ago and was a pioneer in every sense of the word…

When Elizabeth immigrated to the United States most Mormons walked to Utah pulling a handcart. If you are one that is unfamiliar with a handcart, the image above depicts what they looked like. Each handcart weighed between 400 and 500 pounds when loaded with supplies.

Within the Mormon faith, there is much respect and reverence for those who travelled this way, especially for two groups that travelled to Utah. The two most well known groups (or companies, as they were called back then) that travelled by handcart are the Willie and the Martin handcart companies. The reason that these two companies are so well known is due to the fact that the groups left too late in the season and were required to reduce rations, ultimately leading towards starvation. It is estimated that over 200 people died in these two companies, with the majority of these deaths being in the Martin company. Both parties encountered winter storms that led to freezing conditions. I have female ancestors who travelled in both companies and barely survived. The subject of this post, Elizabeth, was a member of the Martin Handcart Company. 

I share with you now an excerpt about Elizabeth’s life that was written by her granddaughter, my great grandmother, of whom I have vivid memories of being around when I was a young girl. What follows is a legacy of survival.

Taken 1865, here Elizabeth is about the age of 32.

Here is a glimpse into Elizabeth’s journey pulling a handcart to Utah:

“It was in Liverpool that [Elizabeth] first heard [Mormonism] preached and her heart responded to the …message. She was about 18 years old at that time…

“It was about this time that she helped care for a friend afflicted with the terrible disease consumption (tuberculosis) and contracted the disease herself. Along with many of the other Saints she felt the urge to gather to Zion (a term used by Mormons that signaled going to Utah). This was undoubtedly made more urgent by the fact that [her aunt who was her caretaker], who had been very kind to her up to that time, turned bitterly against her for joining the hated Mormons. (Elizabeth’s parents died when she was 10 years old and she was placed in the care of this aunt.)

“She asked for a Blessing from one of the Elders and he gave her a very lovely blessing-promising her that if she went to Zion the terrible consumption should be cast from her. She believed implicitly in this and started the long hard journey to Zion. She was then 23 years old….they were six weeks on the water landing at Boston. She was very seasick on the water and the consumption was cast from her…

“The company she was in traveled to Iowa City, Iowa, where they were fitted out with handcarts and provisions and on July 28, 1856 they started out on the long walk to the valley (Utah)....Their hearts were light and they sang as they travelled. 

“Their rations called for 1 pound of flour a day and even when they were receiving this amount they hardly ever felt satisfied, as the fresh air and exercise whetted appetites. Things went fairly well until they reached Laramie, Wyoming, where it was found necessary to reduce the rations to ¾ of a pound per day and the rough, rocky road proved to be very hard on the lightly made handcarts, causing them to need many repairs. There had been no room on the handcarts for many of the things we consider essentials. For weeks Elizabeth had no salt, till the craving grew to where she felt she could not stand it. One day she was standing by a rock crying and a man asked her what the matter was. She told him of her craving for salt. He told her to go to a certain wagon in a wagon train which was passing and he knew there was some salt down in one corner of the wagon. She could have it if she would get it. She found the wagon loaded with bags of wheat and she moved the bags till down in one corner she found about a cup full of salt. She carefully scooped it up into a cloth and very carefully used it as she went along to make her food more palatable. To her dying day she could not bear to see anyone waste a grain of salt. She would say, ‘If you had been as hungry for salt as I have been you would never waste it.’

“On October 19, they found their beds covered with snow which had drifted in from the outside. About four inches of snow had fallen during the night. The air was bitterly cold and a high wind was blowing. They were camping near the Platte River and that river had to be crossed that day. The water was exceedingly cold and up to the wagon beds and the current was strong. The weaker ones were carried across by the men, but the younger women tied up their skirts and waded through. The storm continued and the roads became rougher and steeper. The rations were cut first to ¾ pound and then to ½ pound and later to less. It had been necessary to lighten the load on the carts and some valuable bedding and clothing had been thrown away which was now sorely needed.

“Elizabeth had saved her flour from one day to the next so she would have enough to make a cake to eat. As she was baking her cake over the campfire, her attention was attracted to something for a moment and she looked back just in time to see a clawlike hand snatch her cake from the fire and stuff it into his mouth. The next morning this man who had stolen her cake was dead of starvation. She said they all looked more like monkeys than human beings by that time.

“At the start of the journey the younger members of the company were put with older members and Elizabeth had been given an elderly lady by the name of Mary Harper. Sister Harper had money enough to take her to the valley in a wagon company, but was persuaded by some over enthusiastic people that she could make it all right with the handcart company. The journey was exceedingly hard for this poor old soul and she got weaker and weaker and finally became too weak to walk. Elizabeth put her on the handcart and pulled her several days. One day Elizabeth was late coming into camp and when she arrived she had the body of her dead companion.

“...One third of [the travelers in the Martin Handcart Company] died on the road and when the rescue party, which was sent out by Brigham Young, found them they were strung along for miles, too weak to go further - their food practically gone. It is said the men in the rescue party wept like babies when they saw the pitiful condition they were in.

“Finally, with the help of the relief trains sent out, they arrived in Salt Lake, November 30, 1856, after more than four months of toiling across the plains. When they camped on the tithing office square, Saints who had relatives or friends in the company came there for them. Among those who came was Henry Arnold. He came for his Aunt Mary Harper and there learned of her death on the plains.

“He found the young woman, Elizabeth Green who had been his Aunt’s travelling companion. He took Elizabeth to his home and there his wife, Emma, took the girl in and befriended her and mothered her till she was well and strong again. She lived at the Arnold home from then on, and on February 20, 1857, she married Henry Arnold, as a plural wife, in the old Endowment House.”

When Elizabeth was aging, a writer for a Mormon church magazine tried to interview Elizabeth about her journey pulling a handcart. “After trying some time to get her to go into detail, the [interviewer] said, “Sister Arnold, why don’t you give me your story?” [Elizabeth] said, “I have lived it once, I don’t want to live it again. I want to forget it.”

I want us to pause for a moment to take in the events of what took place. What an incredible, terrifying life Elizabeth lived. As one of her descendants, I am in awe of what she endured and survived. When I was a Mormon I would often share her story during religious events that were centered around the pioneers. I did not ever really sit back and analyze the reality of what  happened to my ancestor. Now that I no longer believe or belong to the Mormon church, I have spent a lot of time thinking about her journey and have come to see it in a completely different light. Where once I was only looking through the Mormon “faith lens”, I now, with new eyes, see serious trauma. I cannot imagine her predicament and utter terror as she walked and pulled that handcart; and then, once in Utah being placed in a polygamous relationship not many months after arriving there. Talk about unbelievable and to me, nearly unsurvivable. I do not know how she did it! 

Elizabeth’s story has stayed with me my entire life, but only now am I truly beginning to understand it—not through the lens of religious reverence, but through the lens of survival and trauma.

What she endured was unimaginable, and while I honor her strength, I also grieve the pain she carried silently. Her life—and the lives of so many women like hers—deserves to be seen with truth and compassion.

In the next post, I’ll share how Elizabeth’s legacy, combined with my own lived experience, has fueled my decision to break generational patterns and forge a new path. I’ll talk about the deep impact of spiritual control, and what it’s taken to reclaim my voice and live free.

~ The Modern Day Pioneer™