My Pioneer Heritage
This July 24th, mark the 167th anniversary of the Mormon's entering into the Great Salt Lake Valley. This was there escape from religious prosecution. This was also know from this time as the great gathering of Zion. Mormon's from the Eastern States, from the British Isles, and Scandinavia, came Utah to be with like minded people. This was not an easy trip and many lost there lives on the sea and on the plains. For me I had several that made the trip. Here are a few stories.
Argyle, Joseph, Reminiscences and journal, 1870 May- 1894 Oct., 63. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
Ramsay, mary Ann Chesire, Sketch of Mary Ann Cheshire [1]. (Trail excerpt transcribed from "Pioneer History Collection" available at Pioneer Memorial Meseum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers Meseum], Salt Lake City, Utah. Some restrictions apply.)
On June 15, 1850 the David Evans Company left Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs), with 54 wagons. There were 109 men, women and children is this company. In this company was, Lorenzo Hill Hatch, my 2nd great grandfather. He writes about his experience:
We worked with Brother List three months, after which I bought him out and sent for Jeremiah. He came. We worked through the fall and winter of 1849-50. All that we mad was divided between the three of us. We made some fifty wagons in ten and a half months and sold them for $26.50 each. Then we gathered clothes, tools, and provisions for our outfit; thee yoke of steers, fourteen cows and all necessary things for our journey, repaired to the Bluffs, fitted our wagons up and on the 12th of June 1850, we crossed the Missouri River with three wagons, five yoked of oxen and seventeen cows.
My brother Jeremiah and his family consisted of his wife [Louisa Pool Alexander Hatch], two children and Elizabeth (our sister). My family consisted of Abram, Adeline (our sister) and myself. Thus m anticipations were more than realized. We had gathered much around us in this year and through the blessing of God whom we praise for ever and ever. We traveled in the Company of Captain David Evans. We had some cases of cholera and buried five or six of our numbers. However the trip was a pleasant one and we arrived the 17th of September, 1850. Jeremiah was very sick when we arrived but he soon reco2vered.
But not all of the Pioneer Companies left from Iowa. The Homer Duncan Company left from Texas. He was returning from a mission in that area. My relative John Henry Standifird, another 2nd great grandfather, was in this Company. They had 42 people in there company when they left in May 1857. John Henry talked about joining this company and is experience.
Thro the unwise course of Sister Pratt in publishing me as having assisted her with means the mob were looking for me; but thro the overruling hand of God their eyes were blinded so that the mob did not recognize me and I escaped their clutches. <next day> on the 14" June 1857 - I was baptised by Elder Wm. C. Moody, confirmed by Homer Duncan to <the> best (as I remember) of Independence [Independence] Mo. [Missouri] and on the following started for the Salt Lake Valley, where I arrived on the 9" of Sept.....
From 1856 to 1860 the church tried something new to bring Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, handcarts. Their were only 10 handcart companies during this time, and most of them were made up of members from Europe. Joseph Argyle, my 3rd great grandfather, come over here from England with his whole family. They were in Edmund Ellsworth Company, the first handcart company. They left Iowa City With 280 people, 56 handcarts and 3 wagons, on June 9, 1856. Joseph Argyle wrote:
...in the year 1856, I left my situation to go to Utah after working for Mr. Bent 16 years [.] on March the 19th I left Birmingham for Liverpool[.] went on the river on the 21st and set sale on the 23 easter Sunday on the sailing vesil Enoch Trane [Train]. and we arrived at Boston on the 30th[.] form there we went to New york thence to Iowa City thence about 4 miles to the camping ground were we staid 6 weakes and 3 days wating for Hand Carts being made for my self and Wife [Rebecca Jane Finch Argyle] and 6 children[.] tooke up our march with the first han[d]cart Company that ever Crost the planes[.] myself and two children pulled two carts for 14 fourteen hundred Miles[.] My Wife was confined soone after we got to Utah and she had to walk all the way with the exception of one half Day[.] this was a hard trip but I never complained but always made the best of it[.] we stade ten Days at Florance [Florence] then started to cross the planes and we arived in Utah on the 26 day of september with all of my family alive for which I thank God
Another one of my 2nd great grandfathers, Ralph Ramsay, was in the 2nd Handcart Company, the Daniel D. McArthur Company. This company left 2 days after the first one. This handcart company had 220 souls in it. Along the way he lost two children, two of the seven people that died in the journey. The McArthur Company made it to the Salt Lake Valley on 26th of September 1856.
My 2nd great grandmother, Mary Ann Cheshire, came across in a company in 1863. She Wrote:
On the fourth of June (1863) father, mother and six children beside me left England for America. My oldest brother was in the army when we left. but he came to the Valley a year later. I spent my twenty-second birthday on the plains. We arrived in Salt Lake on the fourth of October 1863. I traveled part way cross the plains on a thrashing machine.
I have more stories and more relatives that crossed the plains seeking out religious freedom. So for many Mormons, July 24, is just as important to us as July 4. It was the day the first Wagon Company made it to Salt Lake. The place that drew so many to this place. A place they could worship there God in peace. This was the Mormon's Independence Day. A day that we celebrate the faith and sacrifice our ancestries made.
Familysearch.org
Hatch, Lorenzo Hill, Lorenzo Hill Hatch Journal [1858], 12-13. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
Thro the unwise course of Sister Pratt in publishing me as having assisted her with means the mob were looking for me; but thro the overruling hand of God their eyes were blinded so that the mob did not recognize me and I escaped their clutches. <next day> on the 14" June 1857 - I was baptised by Elder Wm. C. Moody, confirmed by Homer Duncan to <the> best (as I remember) of Independence [Independence] Mo. [Missouri] and on the following started for the Salt Lake Valley, where I arrived on the 9" of Sept.....
From 1856 to 1860 the church tried something new to bring Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, handcarts. Their were only 10 handcart companies during this time, and most of them were made up of members from Europe. Joseph Argyle, my 3rd great grandfather, come over here from England with his whole family. They were in Edmund Ellsworth Company, the first handcart company. They left Iowa City With 280 people, 56 handcarts and 3 wagons, on June 9, 1856. Joseph Argyle wrote:
...in the year 1856, I left my situation to go to Utah after working for Mr. Bent 16 years [.] on March the 19th I left Birmingham for Liverpool[.] went on the river on the 21st and set sale on the 23 easter Sunday on the sailing vesil Enoch Trane [Train]. and we arrived at Boston on the 30th[.] form there we went to New york thence to Iowa City thence about 4 miles to the camping ground were we staid 6 weakes and 3 days wating for Hand Carts being made for my self and Wife [Rebecca Jane Finch Argyle] and 6 children[.] tooke up our march with the first han[d]cart Company that ever Crost the planes[.] myself and two children pulled two carts for 14 fourteen hundred Miles[.] My Wife was confined soone after we got to Utah and she had to walk all the way with the exception of one half Day[.] this was a hard trip but I never complained but always made the best of it[.] we stade ten Days at Florance [Florence] then started to cross the planes and we arived in Utah on the 26 day of september with all of my family alive for which I thank God
Another one of my 2nd great grandfathers, Ralph Ramsay, was in the 2nd Handcart Company, the Daniel D. McArthur Company. This company left 2 days after the first one. This handcart company had 220 souls in it. Along the way he lost two children, two of the seven people that died in the journey. The McArthur Company made it to the Salt Lake Valley on 26th of September 1856.
My 2nd great grandmother, Mary Ann Cheshire, came across in a company in 1863. She Wrote:
On the fourth of June (1863) father, mother and six children beside me left England for America. My oldest brother was in the army when we left. but he came to the Valley a year later. I spent my twenty-second birthday on the plains. We arrived in Salt Lake on the fourth of October 1863. I traveled part way cross the plains on a thrashing machine.
I have more stories and more relatives that crossed the plains seeking out religious freedom. So for many Mormons, July 24, is just as important to us as July 4. It was the day the first Wagon Company made it to Salt Lake. The place that drew so many to this place. A place they could worship there God in peace. This was the Mormon's Independence Day. A day that we celebrate the faith and sacrifice our ancestries made.
Familysearch.org
Hatch, Lorenzo Hill, Lorenzo Hill Hatch Journal [1858], 12-13. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
Standifird, John Henry, Autobiographical sketch, fd. 2, p. 3-4, in John Henry Standifird, Correspondence [ca. 1857-1921]. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
Argyle, Joseph, Reminiscences and journal, 1870 May- 1894 Oct., 63. Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
Ramsay, mary Ann Chesire, Sketch of Mary Ann Cheshire [1]. (Trail excerpt transcribed from "Pioneer History Collection" available at Pioneer Memorial Meseum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers Meseum], Salt Lake City, Utah. Some restrictions apply.)
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