Pioneers In Motion

Nellie & Margretta - A Novel of the Martin Handcart Company

Ten-year-old Nellie leaves Iowa City in 1856 with a handcart, a hymn, and a heart full of hope. When grief strikes on the trail, a fearless young immigrant, Margretta Unwin, steps in with a laugh that beats back the wind—and a promise that will cost her everything. From blistering heat to knife-cold rivers, from storm-blown Nebraska to the white fury of Wyoming, the two forge a bond of fierce, ordinary sainthood as rescue riders race to find them and Zion rises like a miracle beyond the mountains.

Inspired by true events of the Martin Handcart Company, this sweeping historical novel celebrates the women who pulled when strength was gone, the hymns that steadied weary feet, and the covenant to “keep walking” no matter the storm. Tender, harrowing, and ultimately triumphant, it follows Nellie from the trail to Salt Lake—and through the years—as letters, love, and memory stitch loss into a life worth living.