Grub and Gear list for an 1840’s LDS family heading west to Utah
Back when the internet first was breaking into normal life, I was friends with a guy who was very much into Mountain Man and Buckskinning re-enacting. At one of the outings we talked about the TV series Centennial and how it was and wasn’t accurate.
One of the discussions led into talking about “just what was packed in one of those ‘Prairie Schooners” ?’. The next get together the following write up was brought and passed out to all of us.
As I noted above, this list was found back before people who posted stuff got prickly about copyrights and such. I do not have the URL of the place this was found. Salty’s Note: If you do know the source, please let us know and we will credit them accordingly.
Grub and Gear list – For an LDS family heading west to Utah
The following is a list of supplies that had to accompany a family (known as Mormon, LDS or Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints) heading west to Utah. It was a minimum with #40 adding more. At the bottom is a breakdown of what they packed and how it might match what we might take, if we had to start over (or bug out).
Each family consisting of five persons, is to be provided with:
1. Good strong wagon, well covered with a light box
2. 2 or 3 good yoke of oxen between the age of 4 and 10 years
3. 2 or more milk cows
4. 1 or more beeves (Beef cattle)
5. 3 sheep if they can be obtained
6. 1 good musket or rifle for each male over the age of 12 years
7. 1 lb of powder
8. 4 lbs of lead
9. 1 lb of tea
10. 1000 lbs of flour or other bread stuffs in good sacks
11. 5 lbs of coffee
12. 100 lbs of sugar
13. 1 lb of cayenne pepper
14. 2 lbs of Black pepper
15. ½ lb of mustard
16. 10 lbs of rice
17. 1 lb of cinnamon
18. A good tent and furniture for each 2 families
19. 1 dozen nutmegs
20. 25 lbs of salt
21. 5 lbs saleratus (Sodium Bicarbonate)
22. 10 lbs of dried apples
23. ½ bushel of beans
24. A few lbs of dried beef or bacon
25. 5 lbs of dried peaches
26. 20 lbs of dried pumpkin
27. 25 lbs of seed grain
28. Cooking utensils to consist of a bake kettle, frying pan, coffee pot and tea kettle, Tin cups, plates, knives, forks, spoons, and pans as few as will do
29. 1 gal. of alcohol
30. 20 lbs of soap for each family
31. 4 or 5 fish hooks and line
32. 15 lbs of iron or steel
33. A few lbs of wrought iron nails
34. One or more sets of saw or grist mill irons to company of 100 families
35. 2 sets of pulley blocks and ropes to each company for river crossings
36. 1 good seine and hook for each company
37. From 25 to 100 lbs of framing and mechanical tools
38. Clothing and bedding to each family not to exceed 500 lbs
39. 10 extra teams for each company of 100 families
40. In addition to the above list, horse and mule teams, can be used as well as oxen.
Many items of comfort and convenience will suggest themselves wise and provident people, and can be laid in the season; but none should start without filling the original bill.
How would this translate to today?
Transportation #1 and #2 we would use a car or truck.
An improved transport #40 we might improve with 4 wheel drive or trailer.
A way to repair it #32, #33 and #37 we might have extra water tire repair kit, spare tire.
A jack, wrenches, duct tape, ect.
A way to extricate it #35 we might use a winch or come-a-long.
Shelter #18 we might have a tent or camping trailer or tube tent or tarp.
Shelter once there #32, #33, #34 and #37 we might have tools to build a structure, if we did already have a place, but even if we do, it will need repair and improvements.
Food #3-#17, #20-#29, #31 and #36
Away to prepare #18
A way to preserve #12 and #21and #22
A way to get more #3-#5, #7-#9, #28, #31 and #36
Medical and hygiene #13, #21, #22, #29, and #30
The only things I have a little more prepared for then these pioneers is water, but they used to travel in such a way that they followed water, but I would have had at least one cask of water. Medical, I would like to have seen more medicinal supplies.
History behind the LDS trek from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah
Salty here to give you a brief history of the Mormon trek from Nauvoo, Illinois out to Utah, since you may not be familiar with it. It’s a REALLY fascinating part of American history, but the whole story is FAR beyond the scope of what we do here at 3BY so here’s the short version of the trek (at least the main migration).
Following the death of church founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyram at Carthage Courthouse in Illinois in 1844, the majority of the church members chose to follow Brigham Young to the great Utah basin to set up a new community, far away from the rest of the United States.
The Mormon Trail is the route of that trek, the main part of which started in 1846. In total, about 14,000 Mormons started the journey, and there were many deaths due to hardships along the way.
Again, it’s a fascinating story and I highly encourage you to read more about it. Since the Mormon Trail runs right through “my area” (I’m in North Missouri, the trail is just north of here in Southern Iowa), I know the story well. I’ve been to Nauvoo & Carthage many times (mostly when covering ball games for the media) as Carthage and West Hancock (Nauvoo’s school co-op) have many state championship teams.
This article hit close to home for me. I never came across this particular list, but one of the first things I found in my quest for preparedness was a list of supplies the Yukon Gold Rush folks had to have with them to be allowed to continue up the trail. My memory is the Mounties would check and turn folks back that were not properly prepared. I also remember that the gear and supplies weighed about 2,000 lbs. Think about hauling that on your back… in increments obviously. Carry a bunch, set it down, go back for more… again and again and again. Who would do that now-a-days?
It seemed to me that any list of supplies that would sustain a person for a year in the forbidding wilderness, was a good place to start. I also do not have any idea where I got the list. Likely, I got it from several sources.
Let me know if you want me to email you the list.
That would be great, please send it to salty at beansbulletsbandagesandyou dot com. Thanks!
Good stuff! I’m not LDS but have prepper contacts with them. Great people.
If I may add the LDS were fleeing religious persecution (death or prison) and leaving all they had behind to rebuild their faith communities beyond civilization’s reach.
I expect most of us do not have a true wilderness to go to. Even NH’s White Mountains are pretty well mapped and known to many. If your BOL is on the tax man’s books it’s not exactly untamed wilderness. ATV-Snowmobile folks know more interesting places than most and not all are honest I’m afraid. It would not be good to head over to your BOL during SHTF and discover some other armed folks are already living there. Be friend local police and learn what folks are trouble. Make a threat map if your so inclined. Wildfire and flood areas have happened before. Knowing where the meth heads and their kind roam is important. With a little thought you can reduce your previously unknown hazards with planning and prepping.
I suggest having a cache or three of start over needs and a solid way to find them when you must. Think what you might need NOW when you open it like shelter, medical, self protection on top. Make friends that you share your skills with as so you may have extra hands and eyes backing you up. The LDS then and now fully accept that Community is stronger than a lone wolf family.
Sometimes as the LDS story shows it’s better to flee with what you need to rebuild then die (or Prison) in place.
Good stuff!
Interesting read, I was amazed at only 1 pound of powder and 4 pounds of lead and each a rifle over 12 years of age for a MALE. Not very much for a trip to the unknown and not coming back. I wonder why the females were not mentioned as able to shoot?
Either they thought us incompetent…or they were afraid to give us guns because of all the scut work they shoved onto us. Maybe both…
You are correct in your thinking.
all I can say is if I was there, ALL females would be able to shoot. No such thing as subpar when death is over the next hill.
The writer of the list was not thinking about women or what they did. At. All. Did you notice he’d tell you how much tea you needed, but didn’t mention a single baby care item for a *family* moving out of civilization? How much iron stock you’d need to build a house, but not mention one of a sewing needle?
Different times back then. Women did not have the same rights nor were they thought of as capable in most cases. The women were often taught that they were not to do such things since they were unlady like. I heard that from my grandmother and great grandmother on many occasions. I don’t adhere to that train of thought and outfitted my daughter with her own 22, 20ga, SR9 and AR15 and had her shoot monthly competition with me till she was grown.
i see alcohol, tea and coffee on this list–which lds members do not use???
While this is true that those were discouraged, and it was church doctrine even then, these are actual recommendations for the 1846 trip, as verified by this source and elsewhere if you look.
“For example, Andrew Child’s Overland Route guidebook included foodstuff recommendation for three men to include 50 pounds of coffee and 2 pounds of tea, even the LDS leadership recommended packing coffee, tea, and alcohol for the 1846 overland journey.
But while they were packing the wagons, they may have contemplated the advantages of quitting any coffee or tea habit they had acquired while living in Illinois. They were fleeing religious persecution, after all, so they intended to minimize contact with non-believers, and coffee and tea won’t grow in Utah. So, to some extent, the rejection of tea and coffee amongst the Mormon Pioneers was a mechanism for building Mormon identity at the most basic, formative, constitutive level.”
OK, now having said that, we need to steer clear of any specific church based and doctrine discussions that are not about what historically happened in this survival situation (we don’t do religion of any kind at 3BY, we aren’t anti-religion in any way but we want to be inclusive).
The only reason the LDS church is mentioned is because this was a trip where people expected to go out beyond outside civilization and create their own, completely self-contained community.
I took the alcohol to be medicinal. That amount is too small to consider a foodstuff, but alcohol is necessary to make herbal tinctures.
I never paid much attention but was the chuck wagon the only one with a water barrel ? It’s the only one I noticed in the movie with a barrel on the outside.
From what I’ve read from histories, everybody took a water barrel. Oxen are strong, resilient, and cheap … but they don’t do well without water. One of the limits on the cross-desert routes was how far they could get the oxen with the onboard water.