Other, : He wrote, "I was called at the general conference held in Nauvoo in April, 1844, to go on a mission to Pennsylvania to canvass that state and present to the people Joseph Smith's view on government and to advocate his candidacy for the president of the United States. During my absence, he was murdered in Carthage. I assisted in building the city of Nauvoo and the Temple and was among the defenders of our homes against the mob ... I crossed the Mississippi River May 15, 1846, on my way to the Rocky Mountains with a family of four, consisting of myself, wife and child and my mother ... On our arrival on the Missouri River we were counseled to locate for the winter on Pony Creek ... but on our arrival there we found the place very unhealthy and thus unfit for habitation. My mother Basmath Hutchens Whipple died Sept. 9, 1846. A few days later, Sept. 13, 1846, my wife died ... Of the whole camp consisting of 14 families all but two persons were sick, and while there were buried some whole families. My little girl, Maria Blanch, died Dec.8, 1846 ... Driven from our comfortable homes in Nauvoo to be exposed as we were to the heat and storms and deprived of all comforts of life, was more than the people could endure. Thus my whole family died as martyrs for the cause of Christ. In the spring of 1847, I was called, in company with 142 others, to lead the way to the wilderness in search for a new home ... I left winter quarters April 9, 1847, and traveled in the firs ten of the second division. I took my turn to guard the camp every third night ... I was a member of the first High Council organized in Salt Lake City. I next traveled back to the States for several months ... I had then been absent from the valley over two years. Soon after I arrived I married again, having remained single from the time I buried my companion in the Pottawattamie lands in 1846. I was then called to settle Iron County. Consequently, I left Salt Lake City Dec.9, 1850, with about a hundred wagons and we all arrived at the place where Parowan now stands in Jan, 1851. When Iron County was organized ... I was appointed associate justice. In the military organizations I was chosen as captain of the company organized to do home guard duty. George A. Smith requested the brethren to present plans for laying off a fort and for building our houses. I, among others, presented a plan, and mine was accepted and adopted, and Parowan was built up according to my plan ... When President Young and company visited Parowan in 1851, I was advised to move north, and consequently I settled in Provo."[ 12 ] Edson Whipple died 11 May 1894, at Colonia Juarez, Mexico. A descendant of Edson is Weldon Whipple of Orem, Utah. He writes, "What strikes me about Edson is that he seems to have been an ordinary sort of man. Yes, his name is on a plaque in the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, because he was one of the original group to enter the valley with Brigham Young in 1847.