[Lucy Mack Smith] Lucy dies on the Smith farm just outside Nauvoo. (1)
-- May 25, 1856
The Ship 'Thornton' leaves Liverpool, England carrying 856 saints. They were all being led by Edward Martin. (2)
-- Jun 6, 1856
[Utah War] The Democratic Party Platform adopted "squatter sovereignty," the position that when territories become states they enter as slave or non-slave as elected by the people. (3)
-- Jun 9, 1856
[Deseret] the first handcart company left Iowa City, Iowa, followed by two handcart companies later that year the James G. Willie and Edward Martin Handcart Companies. Due to an early winter more than 200 people died along the trail. (4)
-- Jun 17, 1856
[Utah War] The new Republican Party Platform brought polygamy into the national political debate regarding slavery. It argued that since the Constitution gives Congress sovereign power over the territories it was "right and imperative" that Congress prohibit both slavery and polygamy in the territories. This created a dilemma the Democrats. Virtually all were offended at Mormon polygamy. The Republican Platform put the Democrats in the awkward position of explaining why a territory could become a slave state by the determination of the people, but could not self-determine the legality of polygamy. (3)
-- Jun 29, 1856-30 The platform of the new Republican Party maintained that Congress had the right and duty to prohibit polygamy and slavery in the territories
[Utah War] (3)
-- Jul 5, 1856
[Lucy Mack Smith] George A. Smith writes an obituary of Lucy for The Mormon, then being published in New York City, in which he praises Lucy and criticizes her book as inaccurate. (1)
-- Aug 25, 1856
[Utah War] Col. Almon W. Babbitt's train loaded with government property and traveling west, was plundered by Cheyenne Indians in Nebraska. Three were killed and one carried away. (3)
-- Sep 18, 1856
[Apostle John Henry Smith] Baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). (5)
-- Sep 26, 1856
First two handcart companies arrived at Salt Lake City, led by Edmund L. Ellsworth and Daniel D. McArthur. (6)
First handcart company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. (7)
The first company of Saints, who crossed the plains with handcarts, arrived. (8)
-- During 1856 September
[Utah War] Col. Babbitt and others were killed by Cheyenne Indians east of Fort Laramie. (3)
-- Oct 17, 1856,
[Deseret] an ordinance was passed by the Great Salt Lake City council, to organize a fire department. (4)
-- Oct 28, 1856
Handcart Company of Captain Edward Martin detained by early snow storms. Found by members of rescue company from Salt Lake Valley. (6)
-- 1856 October-November
Willie and Martin Handcart Companies rescued from early winter storms in Wyoming; more than 200 had died. (7)
Footnotes:
1 - Anderson, Lavina Fielding, Editor, Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir, 2001, Signature Books
2 - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, United Kingdom, "On This Day," https://www.lds.org.uk/show_oda.php
3 - Hale, Van, Mormon Miscellaneous, Utah War Chronology, http://www.mormonmiscellaneous.com/utahwar/id2.html
4 - History to Go, Pioneers and Cowboys, http://historytogo.utah.gov/timeline/pioneersandcowboys.html
5 - White, Jean Bickmore, Church, State, and Politics, p.xviii, A John Henry Smith Chronology
6 - Ludlow, Daniel H. editor, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Macmillan Publishing, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4, Appendix 2: A Chronology of Church History
7 - Hemidakaota, "Church Chronology from 1800-2000," http://www.lds.net/forums/scripture-study-forum/12108-church-chronology-1800-2000-part-1-a.html#post214550
8 - Richards, Franklin Dewey and Little, James A., Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, Church Chronology, Ch.66, p.306
Mormon History Timeline /Chronology
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
