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The Folsom family suddenly found themselves with the Saints encamped on the marshy river bottom at Montrose, Iowa. There had been no time to assemble possessions. They were thankful to be alive and all together. People wandered about trying to decide what they should do. They were without clothing, bedding and food. Word was dispatched to Winter Quarters, but it took a long time for the word to be delivered and supplies to return. It was the ninth of October before the wagons with supplies arrived. For twenty days the Saints shared their meager food supply and tried to comfort one another. It was during this time that the Lord sent quail to sustain them. Harriet Amelia Folsom was eight years old at the time and often told of catching the quail for her mother to cook.
Evidently the William H. Folsom family had no means of transportation to continue to Winter Quarters or Council Bluffs where the Saints were located. With two or three other families they walked from Montrose to Farmington, Iowa. Upon arrival at this place, they and a Whitesides family were permitted to find shelter in an abandoned house on the outskirts of the town. The days and nights were growing colder and they had little in the way of protection from the cold. Proceeding into the town, Folsom was fortunate in convincing one of the merchants that his condition was serious. The merchant gave him an order for some washboards and horse nets in order to pay for food. What else he did to provide for his family while living here we do not know, but feel sure he did not remain idle.
In Benjamin F. Johnson's story of his life we read that the Des Moines
River, which flows through the town of Farmington, Iowa, freezes in the winter time. In order to catch fish for their food, inhabitants of the town cut holes in the ice, slid around on the ice to frighten the fish swimming underneath so they would swim to the open holes, where the people could then catch them. No doubt this was one way Folsom had of supplying food for his family.
It was in the fore part of February 1847 that William H. Folsom made his way into the town of Farmington. He walked as usual along the main thorough fare toward the mercantile establishment, where he passed a group of men talking in undertones. Recognizing no one of them, he attempted to proceed on his way. Suddenly he was caught in the arm, whirled around and asked if he was a "Mormon", and if he had participated in the Battle of Nauvoo. Folsom had no intention of denying his affiliation with the Church, consequently he answered in the affirmative. The ruffians soon had a rope ground his neck and roughly "strung him up" from the awning rod in front of the store.
Benjamin F. Johnson confirms this incident:
"...The final struggle in Nauvoo had ended in victory for the mob, and the driving of all the Saints --the aged, sick, and poor-- across the Mississippi River, left by hundreds in the hot midsummer sun upon the opposite bank, without shelter or food. Among others, my brother Joseph E., ... being obliged to leave Nauvoo, came to Bonaparte, in Lee County, Iowa, on the Des Moines River, and being earnestly invited to come back and wait for him, I began to yearn for his company At Bonaparte... I concluded to start a small business in saddlery...