Hand Carts to Zion!
Like most folks, my perception of the pioneers heading west in the mid-1800s is dominated by covered wagons pulled by oxen, certainly an uncomfortable way for a family to travel. Recently however I have come across an even more uncomfortable mode of transportation – walking and pulling a handcart. We have known for a long time that several branches of our Smith family ancestors had converted to Mormonism and moved to Utah. Their story turns out to be well worth relating. It begins in 1854 in Quincy, Pennsylvania, halfway between Waynesboro and Chambersburg, when Daniel Robison returned home from a…