History
Quoting Richard E.
Bennett from his book, "Mormons at the Missouri - Winter Quarters,
1846-1852."
Cemetery
Plot Map Click Here |
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"Between February and
June 1846, the period between the initial Nauvoo departures and the
arrival at the Missouri, comparatively few died. The first
rush of deaths broke out at Mt. Pisgah and Garden Grove starting in
June, |
lasting
through the summer, and climaxing in the fall... |
The best starting
point for mortality studies at Cutler's Park and Winter Quarters is
the sexton records of both places. Three hundred sixty-one people
were buried in the Cutler's Park burial ground and later in the
nearby Winter Quarters cemetery (or cemeteries) between August 1846
and May 1848... more than twice as many people (248) died in the
first year as in the succeeding year at Winter Quarters --- evidence
that they were better prepared , better provisioned, and better
sheltered as time passed...
For several reasons, the
figure of 248 deaths can be used only as a starting point, as it is
the number of known and recorded deaths and not the
actual total. First, if the sexton's complaints are to be
believed, many died without proper records."
Bennett
explains that the sexton said that many would go and bury their dead
in |
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Maps
Click
HERE for a Google map giving
directions to the
Mormon Trail Center
at Historic Winter Quarters
adjacent to the
Winter Quarters Cemetery
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the
grave yard without reporting the burial and that they would
"sometimes bury between the graves thus altering the number of those
already reported." He, the sexton, said, "that he did not know who
were buried thus."1
"Although some of these may have been recorded eventually, the
problem of non-reporting and undercounting constantly plagued
officials. It is probable, therefore, that a large number of
deceased were never officially tabulated"
1.
Winter Quarters High Council Minutes, 8 November 1846.
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