Sidney's Little White Cur Dog Saves a Life

Homer Duncan was in the same wagon train as Sidney Tanner and his family. He told this story. It is found on the Mormon Overland Travel Database and is carefully transcribed there, so rather challenging to read, but is still a great story, so I have removed strikethroughs, done some editing, and added paragraphs for readability. Please see the original for any serious use of the source material. (Link.) The two men with the guns were probably Crosby family slaves, most likely Toby and Grief.

We stopped at Florence about ten days, when, we left for the Elkhorn, and remained there until the 7th of July, 1848, when we started for the Valley, with Barney Adams captain of fifty, and Chapman Duncan Captain of ten.... nothing of intrest occured until we reached Deer Creek. ... Camping one night on the Platte River we drove our cattle over the bluffs Eastward into [to] Deer Creek to feed. 

The next morning, we went for our cattle, and Sidney Tanner’s little white cur dog went with me which he never done before nor afterwards. when we got to the timber, some one cried out ‘Bear.’ I was alone, except for the dog. I soon saw the bear, and the grizzly saw me He started for me. and I ran as fast as I could, but  the dog stayed where he was. …When I had run a few rods, I had to bend down to  get under a leaning tree, and as I bent down I looked back to see where the bear was. and When I looked back  I saw the little dog catching the grizzly by the ham, and run  in the opposite direction,  from me with the bear following after it

This was the last I knew for that I knew for  a long time  as  when I attempted to pass under the leaning tree, I struck my head  against it with great force and fell When I came too, I got up and went out of the timber, and met two negroes, who belonged to the Company. and they had their guns well loaded I borrowed a gun from them, took one and went back and when I reached  the place where I first saw the bear, the little dog, was there and as I looked I saw  the bear standing about ten rods from me.

I raised the gun, an old …flint Lock, waist high, leveled it at the grizzly and pressed the trigger, intending to run if I did not hit the animal The instant I shot the bear she jumped into the air, I think all of six feet, then ran around in a circle about ten or fifteen rods, fell dead. I have always considered this an act of Providence, the bear certainly would have killed me if the dog which never went with me before or since had not turned her in another direction.

...we reached the mouth of Emigration Canyon...October <16> 1848.

The picture of the grizzly bears, native to Wyoming, is from: "Grizzlybears ChrisServheenUSFWS" by Chris Servheen/USFWS - This image originates from the National Digital Library of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grizzlybears_ChrisServheenUSFWS.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Grizzlybears_ChrisServheenUSFWS.jpg

Crossing the Plains, 1848

Yesterday I was thinking about John Tanner's sources on FamilySearch and realized no one had added original pioneer overland travel documents, so I pulled up the Church History Library Catalog and pulled up the Camp of Israel Schedules and Reports and pulled up Willard Richard's 1848 emigration division.

The only revelation given to Brigham Young which is included in our scriptural canon is Doctrine and Covenants 136. He was told:

 2 Let all the people of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God. 

 3 Let the companies be organized with captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens, with a president and his two counselors at their head, under the direction of the Twelve Apostles. 

 4 And this shall be our covenant—that we will walk in all the ordinances of the Lord. 

 5 Let each company provide themselves with all the teams, wagons, provisions, clothing, and other necessaries for the journey, that they can....

 7 Let each company, with their captains and presidents, decide how many can go next spring; then choose out a sufficient number of able-bodied and expert men, to take teams, seeds, and farming utensils, to go as pioneers to prepare for putting in spring crops. 

 8 Let each company bear an equal proportion, according to the dividend of their property, in taking the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the families of those who have gone into the army, that the cries of the widow and the fatherless come not up into the ears of the Lord against this people....

As you look at the records of the first pioneer companies, you can see how the pioneers put revelation into practice. Here is the record of the Amasa Lyman group in the Willard Richards company.

On the first page note Amasa Lyman and his first wife Louisa Maria Tanner and her children along with his plural wives and a few other family members. On the second page note the Duncan, Clark, Hakes, Tanner, and Adams families. My youngest was fascinated to see the children listed with their ages, and was sad to learn that 6-year-old Sidney Tanner did not survive the journey.