Happy Pioneer Day 2020 coloring pages

Today is Pioneer Day in Utah.  It is a state holiday. 

It commemorates the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers 

in the Salt Lake Valley, 173 years ago today. 

Amasa M. Lyman

(This is Amasa as a younger man.)

Amasa Mason Lyman
(This is Amasa as a middle-aged man.)

These drawings above are of Amasa Mason Lyman.  He is my great great grandfather.  He joined the church as a young man and was thrown out by his uncle for doing so.  He went on seveal missions and he was an Apostle and he was with Brigham Young and the first pioneer company that arrived in Salt Lake Valley 173 years ago.  Amasa actually arrived first.  He was here a day before the main company and he was planting potatoes.  I know this because I read his journal in the BYU or Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library - Special Collections.  Amasa had also gone south and picked up the sick people who had been with the Mormon Batallion.  Amasa Lyman went on to settle San Bernadino, California. 

Lydia Partridge Lyman

(She was Amasa's 8th wife.  I am descended from her.  

Lydia's father was the first bishop of the church.)

By the way, "Mormon" is a nickname, but the actual name of the church is:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I am a member of that church.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives me great comfort in my trials.  

So far this holiday I have not drawn any new Pioneer drawings.  But I am posting some older ones right now.  I am thinking about drawing Brigham Young.  But below is a drawing of him as he arrived at the Salt Lake Valley.  He was ill and riding in a bend in a wagon.  He sat up and saw the valley... that he had seen in vision previously... and he said, "This is the right place, drive on." 

Brigham Young enters the Salt Lake Valley

The Saints cross the Plains and the Valleys of Wyoming

Most of the Mormon Pioneers crossed the plains and the mountains and valleys of Wyoming with the aide of oxen and or horses or mules.  Some later immigrants from Europe and Great Britain crossed the plains using handcarts.

I had another ancestor, Lucy Ward, who was with a handcart company that was caught in the snow and had to be rescued by men who came from Salt Lake City by horseback and wagon.  She was 19 when, as an orphan, she came over to America to join the Saints.  She had to work for a while as a hatter in New York City.  She had a green veil that her father had given her before he died... back in England.  She also had a fur coat.  She cut the bottom of the long fur coat to make a kind of hat to keep her head warm... and she tied the piece of fur on with her green veil.  

One of the Latter-Day Saint rescuers named James Cole had a dream one night on the way to the rescue.  He dreamed that he saw a beautiful woman in a green veil... and she said to him, in the dream, "If you rescue me, I will be your bride."  

Jame's  Cole fellow rescuer, a man named Kimball, told him that there were no beautiful women in green veils, only starving saints.  

As it turned out, when James and Brother Kimball rode over the ridge and saw the trapped handcart pioneers... Lucy Ward saw them an stood up.  The wind caught the ends of the veil and it blew in the wind.  Brother Kimball said, "Well, Brother Cole, there's your dreamgirl."  

Jame and Lucy were married within two days and had to stay at Fort Bridger until the spring thaw, because Lucy had to have all her frozen toes amputated.  Lucy and James went on to settle in Utah and they had 11 children.  I am one of their descendants.  

James Barnett Cole rescues Lucy Ward
(the beautiful woman in the green veil)

Handcart Pioneers crossing the Plains

Handcart Pioneer Family

Handcart Pioneer in the Snow

NOTE:  All these drawings can be found, in printable form, by clicking on the top button labeled:  Pioneers.  You will need to scroll down an look for the drawings under "Pioneer Day."