Elizabeth Whittear Sermon was one of hundreds of people who found themselves in a struggle for life in the fall of 1856 as they walked toward Utah as part of the Mormon handcart companies.
Many in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used provisions of a program instituted in 1849 when the church allocated $5,000 to create the Perpetual Emigration Fund, or PEF.
The goal was to pay for the transportation costs for the converts to help them reach Utah.
-Edward
