George W. Grant

George W. Grant was one of the young men who carried members of the Martin Handcart Company across the Sweetwater River. While the handcart companies traveled across the plains, the Saints were carried across rivers many times, but what is notable about the service of George and others is the extreme conditions of cold and wind and the time of year that the Saints labored under while they traveled toward Salt Lake City.

George Wilson Grant was born on December 12, 1839, in Far West, Missouri to George D. Grant and Elizabeth Wilson. His father’s brother was Jedediah M. Grant; his first cousin was Heber J. Grant. The family went with the Saints to Nauvoo, Illinois. His family immigrated to Salt Lake with Brigham Young in 1848.

George, now age 16, joined his father, Captain George D. Grant, in October 1856, to find the stranded handcart companies. When the rescuers came upon the Willie company, part of the rescuers stayed with them to assist them under the direction of Captain Heber C. Kimball. Captain Grant and his group pressed on to find the Martin Company.

As the people from the Martin Company slowly made their way to the Devil’s Gate fort, George saw freezing and starving women, children, and men all around him. There were about five hundred people in this group left from the six hundred and twenty-two who had started out from Iowa. Whatever needed to be done had to be done quickly as the food supply was nearly exhausted. The men chopped up some of the wood from the stockade for firewood.

After several nights at Devil’s Gate, the handcart people were told they needed to walk three more miles where there was a cove that would provide wood and shelter for them. They needed to cross the Sweetwater River to get to the cove. Although they knew the order was for their good, crossing seemed an impossible effort to most of the emigrants. The Sweetwater River was not more than two feet deep, but was around 90 to 120 feet across. Ice caked the banks and floated in the river. When they reached the river, George saw men and women weeping as they gathered around the riverbank not knowing what to do. They had lost their courage and will.[1]

On November 4, 1856, George, two of his friends, C. Allen Huntington and David P. Kimball,[2] and other men in the rescue company carried women and children, and some of the weaker men, across the Sweetwater.

Patience Loader Archer of the Martin company wrote: “We came to the Sweetwater River and there we had to cross. We thought we should have to wade[,] as the cattle had been crossing with the wagons with the tents and what little flour we had and had broken the ice. But there were brave men there in the water, packing the women and children over on their backs. Those poor brethren were in the water all day. We wanted to thank them, but they would not listen.”[3]

George married Lucy Curtis Spencer on January 2, 1867. He was called to serve a mission, and while he was gone, his young wife delivered their first child but soon died. She died on their first anniversary. When George learned of her death, he returned immediately from his mission. He died four years later on August 5, 1872, at the age of 33. His daughter, also named Lucy, was raised by her grandmother.

He is represented in one of the two bronze statues of the rescuers near Martin's Cove.