EB: In the fall of 1852, I was called to go on a mission to England. There were some seventy Elders called at that time. We started on our mission immediately after the October semi-annual conference and took us to the nations of the earth.

At a special conference held August 28th, 1852 in Salt Lake City, one hundred and six men were called to go forward from Utah to sustain and replace returning missionaries from around the world. Edward Bunker and thirty-three others were assigned to go to England.

With little over two weeks to prepare, a wagon train of seventy three people left Salt Lake on September 15th bound for the east. Included in this number were missionaries and various others going east on business. Generally, there were three men assigned to each wagon: Edward Bunker was assigned to wagon number 20 along with Samuel Glasgow, also bound for England, and Washington L. Jolley, going on business.

It certainly must have been an emotional moment when Edward bid his wives and family farewell for what would be a four year separation. The train moved slowly along the well- traveled Mormon Trail. The first part of the trip passed through the western frontier of Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska. They mostly stayed together, encountering cool weather, trains of emigrants and soldiers, Indians and buffalo in great numbers, and the traditional geological landmarks. Provisions were procured at forts along the way.

Orson Pratt, heading east to Washington D.C. on assignment from President Brigham Young, accompanied the group and gave them almost daily instruction concerning the doctrine of the Church. William Clayton, clerk of the company, recorded: "Brother Pratt has given some very interesting discourses...and both by precept and example, has shed a salutary influence on the minds of the brethren. His course is steady, mild, and evidently full of sympathy."

Clayton wrote that they traveled "full of the spirit of their missions. ....I think it would be difficult to find a company of men....who ever journeyed together with a better spirit; or a set of missionaries who ever went with a more seated determina-tion, and firm ambition to do good...to gain intelligence--to treasure up doctrine--to learn truth, and be prepared to do good." On several occasions Apostle Pratt instructed the missionaries concerning the pre-existence of man, a topic for which he was preparing a text to be published. Besides the great instruction they were receiving, their faith was strength-ened by several incidents that seemed to miraculously save them from disaster.

On October 16th, a few days into Nebraska, they camped for the night leaving their horses guarded by six men. At midnight, a lone horse came galloping into camp with blankets flapping and a large tin cup banging from the saddle horn. Perrigrine Sessions wrote: "The horses took affright and away they went. The sound of their feet was like the roar of distant thunder. This left us with feelings that would be hard to describe, left without teams to pursue our journey. But as the providence of God would direct it, one of our company caught a horse as they passed him, mounted in a moment and went with the band, but could not stop them as the tin cup was rattling all the time. The company supposed that the Indians had got the horses and killed the man."

Edward and his brethren no doubt offered up sincere prayers of deliverance regarding the catastrophe that had just befallen them. Sessions summarized the events of the night: "About four o'clock in the morning he [the lone man] came into camp with all safe and the horse that caused the fright. The horses being in a state of excitement so that it was with much trouble that they could be left in camp until morning."

A second event of deliverance occurred about a week later, on October 24th. Sessions wrote in his diary: "Camped on the bank of the Platt. About dark there was a big fire discovered at a short distance, burning the grass down. With a fierce wind the fire came from five to six miles on down and before we had time hardly to do anything the fire came, the flames at least ten feet high and seemed as though nothing could save our horses and wagons. But as the Lord did direct it--we succeeded and got the horses into the river and as the fire came up when within a few feet the wind changed and blew directly from the wagons and caused it to check its speed and by the greatest exertion we kept it from our wagons and it forged on and left the plains black, yet the heavens lighted by the fire as it was dark and gloomy. Before morning it began to rain hard."

The next day darkness hung heavy in the heavens and the prairie was black as far as the eye could see. The company moved on but was low on provisions and the livestock began to suffer from lack of natural feed. Two days later they came upon almost two thousand Indians in what was called the Pawnee Nation. They passed without incident and the next day it began to snow and was cold. They were within a few days of the Missouri River, but were cold, weak, and hungry. Sessions wrote: "Left the river and camped in the bluffs. Here the camp thought best to divide and those that had good teams to get through as soon as possible as horses feed was scarce and provisions too. Here the teams of many became weak and the men were obliged to walk with poor shoes and blistered feet and not enough to eat. This was taken without a murmur. Here we had to divide the provisions in camp and make our best way to the Missouri River according as the teams could stand it. Left one wagon." Edward was in the slower group which arrived two days later at the Missouri and joined those who'd gone before.

The group had passed through the more treacherous western frontier, but still had Iowa and states east to traverse. How-ever, conditions were different from this point on. For some reason the group divided into smaller groups for traveling. Some hired stages and teamsters to take them across Iowa and others walked or continued with their outfits. From Sessions' diary it appears most of them were to rendezvous at St. Louis, Missouri a month later, by the first of December.

When they met in St. Louis, many listened with interest to the tales and experiences encountered during the prior month. No doubt Edward was curious to hear of Perrigrine Sessions' visit to Nauvoo along the way. Sessions recounted: "Took the stage to Burlington from thence to Montrose, crossed the river to Nauvoo and stayed at the Mansion with the Mother of the Prophet Joseph [Smith]."

"She was quite feeble but recollected me and seemed quite glad to see me. Emma, the Prophet's wife, though so well acquainted in days gone by, seemed to be a stranger to me. Everything looked gloomy about the mansion. The spirit of God had departed from Nauvoo and the home of the Prophet."

The next day Sessions wrote: "After breakfast I inspected the place where I had lived and hardly one thing to mark the place. The house moved away and the orchard destroyed. From thence to the temple of God. Found the west end of it standing some fifty feet high. The main body thrown down level with the ground. Now it is a heap of ruins crumbling to ruin and decay. Nothing but ruin and desolation attracts the eye in the city of the Prophet, where the Angels of God had visited the Saints and now the forces of evil haunt and have control over the inheritance of the city. Visited some old friends, found them cool and indifferent in the things of the kingdom of God." Perhaps this encounter gave Edward cause for concern about visiting his family in Maine. Would they be cool to him? From St. Louis most of the missionaries proceeded down the Mississippi in a boat to the tip of Illinois where the Ohio River empties into the Mississippi. Here the boat turned up the Ohio and proceeded to Louisville. Sessions' journal recorded on December 8th: "Fine weather, passed many fine and flourishing towns. Landed at Louisville. In the evening went and saw William Porter, the Giant, his height seven feet and eight inches."

The next day they continued up the river to Cincinnati. They could have stayed on the boat all the way up the Ohio to Pittsburgh, but instead disembarked at Cincinnati and took the rail "Cars" from there eastward. All of the missionaries did not travel the entire distance together. Some took a little different route and arrived in New York earlier. Edward probably accompanied Sessions, for they were on the same ship to England. The Sessions' group arrived in New York City on December 12th.

They booked their passage on the American Union sailing ship and prepared for departure on December 16th. In the intervening days purchases were made and letters written home. On one day Sessions wrote: "Traveled through the city, went to the museum and theater. This was a day of amusement to see naked women or nearly so and to see the activity of the actors."

Finally, the ship was loaded and a steamer ferried the ship out of the harbor on December 16th for the trip across the ocean. Sessions recorded in his journal entries such as: "Big wind and made the sea roll. This made me so sick that I hardly went on deck for the day." Another time he wrote: "A gale blowing and the sea rolling mountains high and some times it would roll over our ship, the gale seemed as though we were in the bowels of hell. We called upon the Lord and he heard us."

Sessions recorded how Christmas eve and night were spent aboard the vessel: "The sea looking like mountains covered with snow. The wind blowing the snow. We spent the day with some Catholics and all kinds of men and women. Lord and Master [of the ship] cursing and swearing. The men drinking. The night was spent in this way with the men drinking beer. Some sick and groaning. The vomiting so thick that the room smelt like a pig pen more than the home of human beings. I cannot describe my feelings, but suffice it to say that if Jonah was in the belly of hell, so am I with my brethren here. I am holding myself in my berth or else I should have been thrown out by the rolling of the vessel."

On the 28th a man died aboard ship. Sessions wrote: "Cool weather and a man died and in a few minutes was sewn up in a blanket and thrown over board by the sailors with no other ceremony. Then God knows he had gone to the sharks. It seems strange to me to see the spirit of mankind when out to sea.

Finally, on January 3rd the mountains of Ireland were sighted. At this time most of the men were in poor health. As the Irish Channel was approached many other vessels were seen along with five or six lighthouses. On the 4th a pilot came on board and directed the ship into Liverpool. On the 5th the missionaries went to the office of the Millennial Star. Edward had arrived in England and was ready for his missionary labors.

The history of the Mormon missionaries in England dates back to 1837 when the first missionaries landed in Liverpool, the same year Victoria became Queen. It was a time of great change in England and opportune for the introduction of Mormonism.

The Industrial Revolution was at its peak and great numbers of rural English subjects were moving to the cities. Many were poor and illiterate and unable to find employment. Charles Dickens' books, David Copperfield (1850) and Bleak House (1852), depict the conditions of the times. The working environment of the poor in the factories and mines was hard, dreary, and often unhealthy. Living conditions in the city slums were not much better. Many were searching for relief in a new and better life.

Old and new churches of the time saw a marked increase in attendance. It became fashionable for the wealthy to indulge in religion, but few religions appealed to the poor working class. In this context came the Mormon missionaries from America, preaching of a church with a lay ministry and a doctrinal approach to salvation for all irrespective of socio-economic class.

Europeans generally looked to the United States where abundant land and opportunity seemed to exist. Many were excited about the prospect of emigrating there. The Mormon Church not only preached a gathering to the American West and the building of a "godly and egalitarian" community, but was also active in facilitating members' emigration. Immediately Mormon missionaries found ready converts for their message, and large numbers of the working class were baptized.

On January 5th, 1853 the following missionaries arrived from New York on the ship American Union:

Mellen Atwood
Benjamin Brown
Edward Bunker
Sylvester H. Earl
Samuel Glasgow
David Grant
Daniel D. McArthur
John Oakley
Perrygrine Sessions
Charles Smith
Thomas W. Treat
James G. Willie