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The memorialization of Winter Quarters Cemetery at Florence, Nebraska, is more than a monument; it is an expression of a people that the sufferings of their pioneer ancestors were not in vain nor will they be forgotten. Since three of the sculptor's great-grandparents lie huried in this cemetery, one can understand the great pains he has taken to create a tribute for those who lie resting in the hallowed ground. Many others who helped plan and work with him toward the same goal have ancestors interred in the same cemetery. Together the sculptor, the stonecarver, and the landscape designer have achieved a deep feeling of awe and reverence for this sacred ground. It has become an important historical site, attracting thousands of visitors each year.

The walkway to the cemetery passes between two sandstone masonry pillars flanking the gate. Beautiful bronze panels are placed on these pillars, one symholic of sorrow, the other of hope. The first has a figure clothed in a flowing robe, head bowed and partly c overed by a loose hood. The inscription states: 'Pioneer Mormon Cemetery" and 'In loving memory of the six thousand devoted pioneers who died on the plains hetween 1846-1869. The bodies of nearly six hundred of those brave souls were buried within this sacred enclosure.' The panel symbolizing hope is an inspired female figure looking upward, and the inscription states: 'I am the resurrection and the life.' 'This mortal body is raised to an immortal body.' (Alma 11:45.) 'The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.' (John 5:25.) 'For they shall rest from their labors here and shall continue their works." (Doctrine and Covenants 124: 86. )

Proceeding further up the path, one soon arrives at the monument centered in an amphitheater of shrubs and trees.

This great bronze statue of sorrowing parents was cast in heroic proportions and was erected in 1936 on the site of the Pioneer Mormon Cemetery. It is situated on a high hill commanding a view of Omaha and the Missouri River. It was placed on a pedestal cut from granite quarried in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the same granite used in the building of the Salt Lake Temple. Immediately around the monument is a sunken enclosure, or court, set off in Utah sandstone masonry. A few yards in front of the solemn figure is a great bronze panel nineteen feet wide on which are listed names of about four hundred of the known dead. In the center of the panel is the striking figure of a young man symbolic of the resurrection, stretching out his hands and giving the message: "Life is Eternal." Behind him are concentric radiant beams of the resurrected glory. These rays continue divergent from this figure between the pavement blocks of the court, crossed by concentric arcs. There are two areas where headstones of seven graves were found during the excavation. Spreading evergreen junipers were planted over the graves in place of concrete.

Immediately in front of the base of this monument, written in script, cast in bronze, and embedded in the pavement of the enclosure is a verse from the hymn, 'Come, Come Ye Saints." "Gird up your loins, fresh courage take, our God will never us forsake.' This hymn was written on the trek by William Clayton, who was inspired bv deeds of heroism amid suffering and deprivations.

Seen from behind, the monument is also impressive. As the wind whips the father's cape, a low, scraggly, leafless bush fans out over the cape, giving the impression of a great gnarled skeleton hand, a hand of the cold, the wind, the snow, the deprivations, and the diseases, reaching out to grasp those who falter. There on the pedestal is a plaque depicting the wagon caravan on the trail to the West with the inscription:

That the struggles, the sacrifices, and the sufferings of the faithful pioneers and the cause they represented shall never be forgotten, this monument is gratefully erected and dedicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Of personal interest is a story told of my maternal great-grandmother, whose oldest child would not stay in the wagon unless he could see his mother’s hand. While he was awake, she would walk alongside with her hand in the wagon box. On this plaque, to the observer’s left, one sees a young woman walking beside the wagon in this manner.

Flanking a path around the edge of the sunken enclosure are embedded bronze plaques with inscriptions of poetic and scriptural phrases, reassuring us that their works continue and that death is but a step in the overall plan of eternal progression. The bronze plaques read as follows:

Rest for the weary soul
Rest for the aching head.
Rest on the hillside, rest
With the great uncounted dead.
(Henry W. Naisbitt.)

They kept his commandments
In life and in death.
They were faithful
In tribulation.
(Doctrine and Covenants 58:2.)

For notwithstanding they die,
They also shall rise again,
A spiritual body.
(Doctrine and Covenants 88:27.)

O Lord, responsive to thy call.
In life or death what ever befall,
Our hopes for bliss on thee depend,
Thou art our everlasting friend.
(John Lyon.)

After much
Tribulation
Come the blessings.
(Doctrine and Covenants 58:4.)

Mourn not for those who peaceful lay
Their wearied bodies down,
Who leave this frail and mortal clay
To seek a fadeless crown.
Dry up the unavailing tear,
Repress the selfish sigh;
Know that the spirit ransomed here
Yet lives and never shall die.
(Edward Sloan.)

Because I live,
ye shall live
also.
(John 14:19.)

For though from out our bourne of time
And place—the flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
(Alfred Tennyson.)

Behold, all things
Have been done
In the wisdom of him
Who knoweth all things.
(2 Nephi 2:24.)

Yea, and blessed are the dead
That die in the Lord, . . .
They shall rise from the dead
And shall not die after.
(Doctrine and Covenants 63:49.)

He that believeth on
the Son
Hath everlasting life.
(John 3:36.)

For I know that my redeemer liveth,
And that he shall stand
At the latter day
Upon the earth.
(Job 19:25.)

If one should pause a moment and close his eyes, he might hear echoes returning out of the past, first a murmur, then a chant, and finally a chorus on the wind singing the last stanza of "Come, Come Ye Saints" bearing the courageous message: "But if our lives are spared again, To see the Saints, their rest obtain, O how we’ll make this chorus swell—All is well! All is well!"

One cannot leave this hallowed enclosure without a sense of reassurance that there is purpose to life, that death is not an end, and that the souls of those whose remains lie here have progressed into life eternal.

A group photograph following the dedication included a large number of important and interested persons. Immediately in front of the statue is seen President Heber J. Grant. On his right is David O. McKay and on his left is George Albert Smith. Both later served as Presidents of the Latter-day Saint Church. On the far left is Avard Fairbanks, Sculptor, and on the far right is an elderly gentleman with a goatee, John B. Fairbanks, the sculptor’s father, who three years before had created many paintings for the World Fair exhibit in Chicago. He proudly joined in the ceremonies.