Amy Loader

Amy Loader was a strong and faithful woman.  She and her husband, James lived in England where James worked for a wealthy gentleman as his head gardener and foreman of his estate.  They had 13 children together.  When they were converted to the gospel and baptized as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, James was fired from his job as a consequence.  In November of 1855 they left for America.  They arrived first in New York where all of them, even the children worked for a time.  In June of 1856 they traveled to Iowa where they met their grown daughter Zilpah, who had arrived previously with her husband, John and her one-year-old daughter Flora.   

The days and weeks ahead were not to be easy ones for Amy and her family.  At one point in their journey, her daughter described how little they had to eat: “We did not get but very little meat as the bone had been picked the night before and we did not have only the half of a small biscuit as we only was having four ounces of flour a day.  This we divided into portions so we could have a small piece three times a day.” 

We know that many pioneer families started for Zion together, but arrived in the valley having buried and left precious loved ones on the trail behind them.  Amy’s family was no exception to this.   Her husband, James died fairly early in the trek, leaving her and her children to finish the journey without him.  Her young granddaughter, Flora, also died, one week before they reached the valley. 

Trying times for sure, but instead of crumbling under the weight of these burdens, Amy rose to the challenges she faced.  It has been said of her that “She protected, sustained and cheered her children as well as others without complaining, and manifested great faith in God.”  She was a wonderful mother.  It has also been said of her that, “She put on all the extra clothing she could carry under her own, so when the children needed dry clothing, she always had it.  As the weather became colder and provisions shorter, they were given four ounces of flour a day for each person.” While others made gruel, Amy made her small rations of flour into biscuits so that she and her family could have a bite or two throughout the day and she could share with her children when they were tired and faint. 

After one exceptionally cold night, Amy (whose health was also very fragile), could not get her daughters to arise.  I imagine that she felt fear rising in her chest, when she finally said, “Come girls, this will not do.  I believe I will have to dance to you and try to make you feel better.”  Amy struggled to her feet, hair falling about her face as she filled the air with song.  Louder and louder she sang, her wasted frame swaying as she finally danced waving her skirts back and forth.  The girls laughed, and momentarily forgot their frozen toes and snow-covered blankets, as their mother danced and sang and twirled until she stepped on an icy patch and fell in a heap to the ground.  Then, her daughter wrote, ‘…in a moment we was all up to help our dear Mother up for we was afraid she was hurt.  She laughed and said ‘I thought I could soon make you all jump up if I danced to you.’  Then (her daughter said) we found that she fell down purposely for she knew we would all get up to see if she was hurt.  She said that she was afraid her girls was going to give out and get discouraged and she said that would never do to give up.”

I stand in awe of pioneer women like, Amy Loader; women who sacrificed their comfort, their homes, their health and sometimes their lives for a God that they loved and a gospel that they knew to be true; women who buried their husbands and their babies on the dusty or the frozen or the muddy plains and then picked themselves and kept on walking; women who fed their children from their own rations while their own stomachs surely ached with hunger; women who danced and sang and twirled their frail and ravaged bodies on cold winter mornings to lift their children’s spirits and ensure that they did not give up.  While Amy lost much on her journey, she never lost her faith.  Her daughter said “Heavenly Father heard and answered our prayers and we was blessed with health and strength day by day to endure the severe trials we had to pass through on that terrible journey.  We know that if God had not been with us that our strength would have failed us…I can say we put our trust in God and he heard and answered our prayers and brought us to the valley.” 

Amy Loader will not be far from my mind or my heart as we embark on our trek this summer in honor of her and so many others that walked and walked and walked across the plains.  I pray that I and we will not miss any opportunity to learn from the past, lessons that will surely bless us today and tomorrow and for years to come.