Franklin D. Richards, just released as president of the LDS Church's European Mission, based in London, arrived in Salt Lake City in the company of several other returned missionaries on October 4, 1856. They immediately met with Brigham Young and other leaders and gave them the news that there were two more handcart companies on the plains en route to Utah. The Richards party had passed these companies on the trail in early September and realized that, because those with handcarts traveled much more slowly, they were still a long distance from Salt Lake City. The leaders in Salt Lake had no...