In May of 1840 the family moved to a new home across the street from Joseph and Emma Smith and their family. For six years the family lived here in this bustling vibrant city that soon became the largest city in the state, more than doubling the size of Chicago. The church had also built a magnificent temple, which at the time was the largest and most expensive building west of Philadelphia. It could be seen for miles up and down the Mississippi River from approaching river boats, as it stood high upon a hill overlooking a large bend in the river.

During the bitter cold winter of 1846, in late February, the saints were forced by their enemies to leave this piece of paradise and cross the frozen Mississippi for the obscure West. At this time Orren's father was too ill to travel with Brigham Young and the majority of the saints. However, his father sent his three oldest sons, Noah III, Orren and Henry to help the saints move to the West. Orren and his brothers traveled with the saints as far west as Winter Quarters, Nebraska on the far side of the Missouri River. At Council Bluffs, Iowa, his younger brother Henry enlisted in the Mormon Battalion with 500 other men, in a campaign to secure California for the U.S. in the war with Mexico. Soon after, his older brother Noah III returned to Nauvoo to his wife and the rest of the family. Later in early summer the family moved up the Mississippi River to Hazel Green, Wisconsin. Later that summer or fall, after Orren learned the saints would spend the winter there on the Missouri, he rejoined his family in Wisconsin.

Here in Hazel Green, for four years the family worked in the lead mines earning enough money to outfit themselves with teams and provisions to make the trek to the Rocky Mountains. Probably here is where Orren met Matilda A. Stowell, and they married May 1, 1849, probably in Hazel Green, as the temple in Nauvoo had already been burned October 9, 1848, by J. B. Agnew, Judge Sharp and Squire McCauley. On February 27, 1850, while living in Hazel Green, their first child Orrin Ephriam was born.

On April 22, 1850, with a two month old baby in her arms, the family started the long trip by covered wagon to Salt Lake City, traveling from Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the Jonathan Foote Company. His sister Sophia Adelia and her husband William Henry Menary stayed in Wisconsin. His brother Noah III who had married Esther P. Phippen October 27, 1844, in Nauvoo, had their first child in Wisconsin. Their second child would be born in February of 1851 and their family ended up staying in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, until 1873 when they came to Utah. The rest of the family arrived in Salt Lake City on the 18th of September and were greeted by Henry who had returned from northern California and his earlier service with the Mormon Battalion. Noah and his sons immediately set to work building a mill race off of the Jordan River in southwest Salt Lake for Archibald Gardner, who was building a grist mill. That work was completed in late December or early January. On January 16, 1850, his brother Henry married Mary Mariah Chase in Salt Lake City, the younger sister of one of his fellow battalion soldiers.

They were then requested by Brigham Young to join a group of saints who had been sent to settle the Hobble Creek area of Utah Valley. They immediately left and arrived at Hobble Creek February 5, 1851, and set up camp with their tents and wagons. The town was soon called Springville and this was where their second son William Henry was born August 12, 1851. The delivery had not gone well in such primitive conditions and after the birth, Matilda was getting worse by the day. She knew that she was dying and asked her friend Lucy Pine to take care of her baby after she was gone. Matilda died on the 21st of August, leaving Orren with a two year old son and a new baby boy to take care of. The children were then farmed out to relatives.

On November 9, 1851, Orren married Matilda's close friend Thankful Lucy Pine and the family was once again reunited. She bore him a son named Joseph Dudley, born September 1, 1852.

As the pioneers began to construct homes in their new city, conflicts with the surrounding Indians began. The pioneers were unfamiliar with the ways of these Ute Indians. If the Indians saw something they wanted, they just took it. The Indians would sneak into town at night to steal livestock and anything that was not protected and secure. In 1853 these continuing conflicts escalated and grew into the Walker Indian War. Before this, the settlers had decided to build a stockade to protect their livestock and belongings from being stolen. In early November of 1852, Orren with a group of men went way up to the top of Hobble Creek Canyon to cut some large poles to complete this stockade. On his way back, Orren's wagon tipped off the crude roadway and he was crushed beneath the heavy load of logs. The other men carried him back to his home where he died November 3, 1852.

The children were once again farmed out and raised by relatives. This side canyon, located up in the top of Hobble Creek Canyon, was thereafter called Packard Canyon in memory of Orren.

Sources:
Noah Packard Computer Database Records, 1998, by Richard G. Packard.
Noah Packard Autobiography, by Noah Packard, BYU Library, Special Collections Dept.
The Packard Legacy, p. 125, 135-137, by Lowene P. Saxton, 1992, Saxton Press.
Nauvoo the Beautiful, p. 73, by E. Cecil McGavin, 1946, Bookcraft.
Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 3, p.422, Kate B. Carter, 1958-1977, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers.