Keywords

Charles Good, handcart brigade, church history

Abstract

On a hot July afternoon in 1856, businessman Charles Good paid an unannounced visit to a crowded campground west of Fort Des Moines. There he found nearly 500 tired travelers--Mormon emigrants who had pulled their handcarts earlier that day through the small business district of Fort Dex Moines where Good lived. This was the fourth handcart company to pull through the city in two months. Good's visit would be noted in the company's official journal, but subsequent histories have overlooked his charitable gesture--a simple act of kindness--while at the camp.

Original Publication Citation

William G. Hartley and Fred E. Woods, "Charles Good's Act of Kindness and the Handcart Children," Iowa Heritage Illustrated 87, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 88-91. http://www.iowahistory.org/publications/iowa-heritage-illustrated/