Life of Capt. Willie remembered
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MENDON, Utah — Paul R. Willie, president of the Mendon Utah Stake, has gone to great lengths to memorialize the pioneer stone home of his great-great-grandfather, James G. Willie, who led the ill-fated handcart company of 1856.
In 2001, President Willie purchased the building that had been vacant for 20 years. The north wall of the structure had crumbled. Rocks and rubble left a gaping hole in the structure.
Using a 1908 photograph as a guide, he has restored the building as close as possible to the original.
James G. Willie was the leader of the Willie Handcart Company. Willie first arrived in Salt Lake with the saints in 1847, not long after Brigham Young's original group. He was then called to serve a mission to England. After serving three years he returned and was given the assignment to bring a company of saints to Utah from Missouri.
The heroic story of the saints and their long and troubled journey has become well-known in the past 10 to 20 years, President Willie said.
He explained that the handcart train was caught in an early blizzard. They were on the brink of disaster when Brigham Young sent a search party and volunteers to find and rescue the stranded saints. James Willie left his group and found the search party. He showed the way back to the cold and hungry saints.
Willie settled his family in Salt Lake City and was serving as a bishop when his family, along with eight other families, was assigned by Brigham Young to go north to settle what is now Mendon.
The families lived in a fort made from lumber gathered from the nearby forests and wagon boxes of the early wagons.
Brigham Young told them they had moved for the last time and encouraged them to build substantial structures. They were obedient and gathered rocks from the fields to build homes. Only about a dozen remain of the original 40 homes.
Paul Willie said he hopes the houses will stand as monuments not only to represent the pioneer heritage of Cache Valley, but will also be a reminder of the many handcart stories of the early Church. Father of five children, he is vice president of a property management company.
His children are the sixth generation of the pioneers assigned to come to Cache Valley in 1857 and settle Mendon. Today, Mendon is a bedroom community west of Logan.
