The Mormon Pioneer Trail from Nauvoo, Ill., to the Salt Lake Valley was marked by tears for many who followed it and is today marked with a lasting legacy enjoyed by millions. In a scene repeated many times during the Mormon exodus, a grieving husband stood over the newly dug grave of his wife. He would soon walk on, leaving behind a piece of his heart as he helped build the kingdom of God and raise Zion in the tops of the mountains.
One such man was Hiram Winters, who was traveling with his wife, Rebecca Burdick Winters, aged 50. In June 1852, they crossed the Missouri River, and during the following month, cholera struck the camp. That group of pioneers stopped at Scottsbluff, Neb., where Rebecca soon reported to the hospital tent. She died there Aug. 15. One can picture that sad evening, when a family friend inscribed Rebecca's name on a wagon wheel iron, which marked her grave. According to the Sept. 16, 1995, Church News, Hiram was reported to have said, "Rebecca's name will remain there forever."
Rebecca's name was not lost, nor her grave, as so many others have been lost on the trail. In 1899, the Burlington Northern Railroad adjusted a planned route around the grave site and sent a notice of the discovery to Salt Lake City. A descendant, Augusta Winters Grant, wife of Elder Heber J. Grant then of the Quorum of the Twelve and later president of the Church, learned of the gravesite. In the early 1900s, descendants placed a granite headstone on the site, and later, a monument was added by Daughters of the American Revolution.
Then, 143 years after her death, descendants gathered at the site on Sept. 5, 1995, to relocate their ancestor's grave. With continual train traffic, it was becoming dangerous for tourists to visit the gravesite. On Oct. 14 of that same year, Rebecca Winters was again put to rest about 300 yards from the original gravesite — in the same Nebraska prairie where she had made the ultimate sacrifice so long ago. (Church News, Oct. 21, 1995.)
After visiting the original grave in 1942, while working with the Church Radio, Publicity and Mission Literature Committee, Gordon B. Hinckley called the site a "sacred spot, kept green and lovely by those who appreciated its significance," and "a token of the faith of men and women who sacrificed their all to reach and build that Zion."