Debbie's Maternal Grandmother, Pleuntje Kraal

BIOGRAPHY: PLEUNTJE KRAAL SANDMAN

      (by Pearl Vander Waal Hunt as told to me by my mother, Anna Sandman Vander Waal, my sister Adriana V. Fuller, my Tante Nel and Oom Arie).

     Pleuntje Kraal was born on Nov. 10, 1877, in Papendrecht, a small town in So. Holland to Barend Kraal and Marigje Van Rossum. When she was a young child, she and her brother would sell candy on the river while ice-skating in order to help the family. The candies were square pieces which she and her mother had made. She didn't attend many years of school and didn't read that much according to Tante Nel. Grandmother would go from door to door selling oil to help her mother and father along since they were both sick.

Pleuntje Kraal Sandman

     When she was about sixteen, she worked for some rich people in Dordrecht. She stayed with them all the time and loved the people for whom she worked, especially their children. Here in Dordrecht, she met Albertus Sandman. They went with each other for five years before they were married May 22, 1902. They first lived in a small house in Dubbeldam. Then they moved to Krommedyk where my mother, Anna was born. When my mother was two years old, they moved to the Reeweg. On the Reeweg five children were born: Barend, Arie, Marigje, Neeltje, and Nellie.
     There are so many stories about the home on the Reeweg. Reeweg is the name of the street which means railway since the train tracks were near by. There are good memories and sad ones too, especially the difficult war years. This humble home was always a gathering place for the family. It meant safety and love. People didn't buy homes in Holland very often because they were usually poor, so our grandparents rented this house from my great-uncle Koos (Jacobus) Sandman. He and my great grandfather, Arie Sandman lived in #207 and my grandparents lived in #203. It was like a duplex with two homes together and then there was #205 in back of this house.
     Opa (Grandpa) also rented some land from Uncle koos and raised calves, pigs, rabbits, and pigeons. He also loved to work in his garden of beans, beets, endive, onions, strawberries and apple trees. My mother would always tell us how big and good his strawberries were. No one had strawberries like her Vader. You could slice one strawberry on a slice of bread, sprinkle it with sugar and it was a delicious treat. Oma (Grandma) and her son, Barend , went around with a small handcart selling the produce. They always sold everything. She loved to do this; she was a good business woman. She would order potatoes from the farmers, have them delivered to the ladies who wanted them and collect the money for the potatoes.
     Before joining the Church, she belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church. Elder LeGrand Richards was a missionary in Holland and taught the gospel to Oma's sister in law, Pieternella Sandman DeRyke. She and her husband immigrated to America but later came back to Holland for a visit and took Oma and the family to the Dutch Branch. On Oct. 15, 1921, Oma was baptized and the two elders to whom we are grateful are Elder Koming and Elder Freken for they came to the Reeweg and taught the family the gospel there. Once a week, Oma would feed the missionaries and they would say "Oh, Sister Sandman, what delicious beans you have."
      She stored beans in a big stone pot with salt and water for the winter. She and my mother also washed the clothes for the missionaries and in those days this was no easy task. On good days you could wash clothes outside with the tub, scrub board and brush, but in the winter this had to be done in the house. A potato bag was tied around the tub so that water would not get on the floor.  The home had a coal stove for cooking and heat and Oom Koos kept busy chopping wood all the time.
     Close to the home was a place called the Sport Park; this was a place for entertainment. There might be a carnival with rides like the merry go round, circus, horse racing or motor cycle racing, etc. going on there from time to time. To make extra money, Oma would have a place you might call Park and Play where she stored bikes while people went to the Sport Park. The rich farmers would say to her, "Do you have a goed plaats (good place )for my bike? Take good care of it." And for 10 cents she would park their bikes in the back room of the house. My mother and the other children would also help with this. At the end of the week, Oma would put all the coins in her apron, hold the apron up like a bowl and shake it and say, "Look at all the money we made this week."  Then this money was used to purchased needed underwear and nightgowns for the children.
     Oma loved to go to town every Saturday night on the bus with Widow Rose and her daughter. She would take Tante Mar but the youngest two girls, Neeltje and Nellie had to stay home, and they would cry, "How come you always take Mar but never us." You young mother can relate to this. How easy or fun is it to shop with the toddlers?  My mother, Anna, also loved to go shopping on Saturday after her home was spotless. We would take the bus and shop at the 5 and 10 for nick nacks for the house or whatever and sometimes we would walk home or Dad might pick us up.
     For recreation, once a year the family would get a cheap train ticket and ride to the Hook Van Holland (Corner of Holland) by the ocean and enjoy the beach and each other's company. Their neighbors, the Van De Merwes, went along too. They also would ride bikes to Breda (This was in the woods). How did they manage to ride their bikes in dresses? They never worn slacks.
     My Oma turned gray or white early; my Tante Nel never remembers her with any color except her white hair which she wore as a bun on the back or top of her head. Opa had red hair. So we have Oma to thank for this wonderful gene.
     She had a talent for knitting and would like to knit stockings. When she wanted to complete a project, she would often stand to knit and knit and knit. She and my mother would knit long stripes and then sew these together for mattress pads. What a lot of work!
     Her bed was in the wall and had doors which you would open to get into bed. Oma and Opa slept here and the six children slept upstairs in the attic with two to a bed. Oom Arie told how they used a candle for light in the attic and downstairs had an oil lamp with a mantle. There was a hole in the ceiling next to some pipe that went downstairs and he would drop the match they had used to light the candle down that hole. It would fall right on the mantle, break it, and out went his parent's light. Opa would come upstairs, mad, and said "Who did that?" Oom Arie would get in bed and act innocent and Barend would get the blame. Oom Barend liked to tease too and would squirt water out the window and yell to his mother, "Moeder, it's raining."
     Dec. 5 is Sinter Klaas Day in Holland. Oranges were a special treat and perhaps there may have been a few simple gifts. On Dec. 25", the family always went to Church where they had a program in the morning with the young children performing and Christmas songs would be sung like the carols which we do . The Branch President might have a box for each child with an orange and candy. The family would go home for lunch and then come back in the afternoon for a program put on by the adults. The family had no car, so this was about a half hour walk each way in the cold. Real candles were on the tree and Oma was afraid the candles might start the curtains on fire. The meat for the Christmas dinner was a rabbit, fried in its own grease.
     Birthdays were also celebrated simply, for one night at supper, Oma said to my Tante Neeltje. "On my goodness , it's your birthday." They had nearly forgotten.
     During World War I, Oma took in a Belgium couple and their baby for six weeks who were refugees. During World War II, Oma and some of the family remained in a cellar for three days. One time the kitchen windows of her home were shattered to pieces cause of a bombing nearby. No one in the family was hurt during the wars, but there were many hard times. Food was scare and it was rationed with coupons with the elderly and children getting priority. My mother and Tante Nel went to work at the Victoria  (a big Company). Here they scrubbed the steel stairs. The women were given nutrition crackers and some of the women stole them and hid them under their blouses as they left work. These were broken crackers and they also received wafflegruis which they made into a mush - not very tasty- but helps if you're starving. My mother had a suitcase which she would check each night. It was like a 72 hour emergency kit. She had items for us two girls, her and Oma in case we had to evacuate quickly. Each night she would open it and check it and say, "This is for Adri, this for Plonie, this is for Moeder, etc."  A few houses away from Oma there lived a family of Jews. Oma watched in sorrow as the S.S. (Nazis) took them away. My Oom Barend yelled to them "Have faith and hope." Oma never saw them again. My sister, Audrey said' "We were always told to stand next to the door and the wall in case of flying glass when we heard the planes overhead. After the war was over, the Allies were dropping packages of food from the sky. Mama told me to come outside and see, but I was still afraid of planes and stayed by the wall in the house."
     Audrey remembers that every Sunday Night everyone went to Oma's for dinner and visiting . It was the gathering place for Oma's children and grandchildren. "There is no place like home except for grandma's" could certainly have been her motto. It was ZESELLIG!
      After the war, my parents were planning to go to America, but the first time Oma cried so much that my mother couldn't bear to leave her. The second time (when we really did leave) Mama said to Oma "I'm going to work hard and I'll come and see you."
     Oma's health was not good at this time and she was in a T.B. hospital for a year. She was also having heart failure. She wanted to go home to her beloved Reeweg and begged Tante Nel to take her there. Tante Nel took her home on a Thursday and she passed away on the following Sunday, Aug. 28, 1948.
     She loved her grandchildren and would tend them often.  I am honored to be named after her.  One of her favorite sayings was "Elk huisje heb sen kruisje."  This means each house or family has their trials.  She had many trials during her life but showed by her love and actions that family came first.  She and my mother had a great love for each other.  I can only imagine how hard it was for my mother to leave her and come to America.
     My Tante Nel tells me that I was quite a stinker when I was young and I would call Grandma, "Op." It was "Op" this and "Op" that.  I am looking forward to meeting my dear "Op" someday.

My Third Great Grandfather, Luman Andros Shurtliff.

Shurtliff family is shown in the Wilson Pedigree Family Line.

"Biographical Sketch of the Life of Luman Andros Shurtliff." 

To read his full autobiography (1807-1884). Click on this link: http://www.boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/LShurtliff.html

The following is his life's sketch from 1845-1846:

    On the 25th of November [1845] I married Altamira Gaylord, my first wife's sister. Brother Samuel Bent married us. Mother Gaylord, being unable to take care of herself, we moved into her house and bargained with her that we should have all of her property and take her with us wherever we went and take care of her as long as she lived. She had good household furniture and clothing, a cow, brick house, two lots, carpenter tools.

Luman Andros Shurtliff

     The (Nauvoo) temple now was nearly finished. On the 25th of December, 1845, Christmas, my wife and I received our endowments. On the 20th of January, 1846, my wife and I were called to labor in the temple in giving endowments and labored three weeks. On the 27th we received our sealings, my second wife acting as proxy for my first wife.

     I worked hard this winter in order to get my family away, but how I should accomplish it I did not know. Most of the authorities left Nauvoo in February.

We were left to carry on the wagon shop and get away the best we could.

     This spring, Thomas Gaylord, my wife's brother, not a member of the church, came to Nauvoo and persuaded his mother to go east with him instead of west with us and took her things with her. She soon died and her children had to bury her at their expense.

     My company was ready to start but I had no oxen or provisions. I went early one morning to my cousin Vincent's and told him how things were. He bought me some groceries and counted me out nearly 70 dollars which he said would buy me a yoke of oxen. I started home, thanking God and Vincent for what he had given me.

     I bought a fine yoke of oxen for 50 dollars and proceeded to leave Nauvoo.

     On the 6th of May, 1846, we crossed the Mississippi and camped on Devil Creek. Here we organized our company by choosing John Murdock, captain, and Levi Murdock and myself, counselors. From here we took a westerly direction without regard to road or path. Our way led through a prairie county and as we passed along I carried a heavy heart.

     I had now been a member of this Church nearly ten years and had been compelled to move my family four times and start anew. I had lived in Nauvoo the longest by half of any other place since I belonged to the Church. This place was endeared to me for the sweet association I had enjoyed with the Prophet, patriarch and the apostles of the most high. Here I was leaving the body of my dear wife and child, never to behold those places again in the flesh. I turned my back to the west and took a last look at the Nauvoo Temple and its surroundings and bade them goodbye forever. Nothing of importance occurred on the journey and we arrived in Garden Grove, June 6, 1846. This is 170 miles west of Nauvoo and is the first stopping place of the Saints.

      We stopped in the edge of the timber land and here we agreed to put in a crop and if any of the company went west before the crop matured, the crop should fall to those that were left behind. We prepared our plows and harrows and planted part of our seeds. We cut and drew out the trees and made a tree fence around our field.

     While here, my wife, being somewhat out of health, thought they could not eat victuals cooked by my girls and wanted to eat with me alone, so I had to eat part of the time with her and part with my children.

     At this time Brothers Murdock and Nebeker thought they would go on to the Missouri River and join our brethren. They soon moved out and bequeathed unto us their part of the crop. Before Brother Levi Murdock left he gave me leather to fix up my family's shoes for the winter and a rifle. For this and many other favors I felt to bless him.

     Our camp appeared to be breaking up and I thought it best for me to build a house and prepare for winter. Accordingly, I went into the timber and commenced building a house. This was the month of August, the second day [1846]. I built my house of rough split logs. We had no lumber, glass, or nails. I had for my floor the earth, for carpet, hay and bark, for a door, split wood, for windows, holes between the logs, and for a partition, a wagon cover.

     Just as I finished my home, we got a letter from Brigham Young asking us to go back and bring away the poor Saints on the west bank of the Mississippi, having been driven from Nauvoo at the point of bayonets across the river in September.

     We furnished 18 yoke of oxen and wagons and teamsters. I was chosen to go as captain. A horse was furnished me to ride. The next morning when we came together to start, 75 cents was all the expense money raised to accomplish a journey of 340 miles.

     This was the best we could do so we loaded in some squashes and pumpkins for the teams and rolled out, thus equipped to gather home the poor Saints. This was the 18th of October, 1846.

     We traveled on cheerfully as though we had been rich and plenty of money at our command. All things prospered with us.-- I came onto the highland, in sight of the river and once again saw our lovely city, Nauvoo, I could not help weeping aloud with joy. Not that I wished my family living in Nauvoo, no, but thankful that my life was spared to me that I might again behold the city of the prophets.

     -- I came to the camp of the poor, sick and persecuted Saints. Many places where there had been camps were now desolate and without inhabitants. In others, a ragged blanket or quilt laid over a few sticks or brush comprised all the house a whole family owned on earth.

     Among the occupants lay stretched on the ground either sick or dying, others perhaps a little better off had a few boards laid up on something and had more sick than well. Others not well ones, took care of the sick. While looking about among these poor helpless people, I was not a little surprised to hear them relate the blessings of God in the deliverance from disease, death and starvation.

   -- I made up my mind to take the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick and only take well ones enough to care for the sick and cook for the company.

     Early the next day I crossed the river into Nauvoo, walked up through the thickest part of town, saw but few inhabitants. I went to the temple and took a view of the beautiful homes of the Saints, but are now a desolation. From here I walked to my former place of residence, viewing the premises, shed a few tears over the grave of the partner of my youth and mother of all my children, and bore my testimony that she was a good woman and a kind wife and mother.

     From here I walked east on Main Street to the east part of the city where the last battle had been fought and viewed the destruction of the mobs and the desolate, deserted village.

     When I had satisfied my feelings, I crossed the river into Iowa, and spent the next day helping those families I intended to take west.

    On the last day of October, 1846, we loaded in our loads, nearly 60 persons and all they owned in this world, and most of them sick. All the provisions put together would have made only one good meal and we were now about to start in November with this poor sick company on a journey of 170 miles through an uncivilized and mostly uninhabited wilderness. I felt like crying, "O, God, help us" as we left. I looked back and saw a few weeping Saints left behind; how to live through the winter I knew not, but God knew.

     The first night in camp our souls actually rejoiced like the children of Israel after their deliverance from the Egyptians. We had prayers morning and evening, and the Lord blessed us, and a flock of quail was sent like manna from heaven for food, which saved our lives.

      We arrived in Garden Grove, November 15, 1846. In 30 days we had accomplished a journey of 340 miles without means, except the Lord had furnished almost without exertion on our part. Our teams looked well and the teamsters had no sickness and the sick we brought were on the gain except one sister who died soon after we arrived.

     My wife Altamira gave birth to a son on the 25th of November, 1846, while I was away bringing in the poor Saints. My house was not comfortable for a sick woman and it took more of my time and attention than otherwise.

     Brother Bent, president of Garden Grove, died; he who had married my cousin Elisha Shurtliff's widow, Cynthia, and had four children by him and all living with their mother. Shortly before Brother Bent's death, his wife asked him what he wished her to do. He told Cynthia that his request was for me, Luman A. Shurtliff, to take care of her family and do the best I could for them and when we got to the authorities, for her, Cynthia, to be sealed to me for time, this life, and give her oldest daughter, Mellissa, to me for time and eternity if we could agree to marry.

     On examination we found that our numbers in the (Garden) grove amounted to between 500 and 600 and only provisions enough to last until April as prudent as we could possibly be and clothing very scant.

     From April to July we should be in suffering conditions.    

     -- ­­I reviewed in my mind all the events of the Saints and prophets and knew that I would be cast into all kinds of company, many of whom would hate the Mormons, and I felt like no other man could feel unless in similar circumstances. I felt lonely and alone.

Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847–1868

Easton Kelsey Company (1851) Departure: 29 June 1851 Arrival: 22 September - 7 October 1851 Company Information:  100 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs). They originally departed about June 10, but turned back due to Indian trouble. They left again June 29. Luman A. Shurtliff was captain of the 1st Fifty and Isaac Allred was captain of the 2nd Fifty.

     To learn further of Captain, Luman A. Shurtliff's pioneer company trail to the Great Salt Valley, read the following: Shurtliff, Luman Andros, Journal, 1841 May-1856 Apr., fd. 1, 282-91.   Read Trail Excerpt http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/source/1,18016,4976-5462,00.html

My Second Great Grandfather, Robert Wilson.

      I have no concrete source documents of Robert Wilson's birth, marriages, death records other than what has been shown in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 US Censuses. In the US 1880 Census it has his age as being 57 which he would be born in 1823 and in the Illinois Territory, USA. His children are listed in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses. His son, Robert Rich Wilson's death certificate lists his father as Robert Wilson and mother as Mary Elizabeth (no maiden name). -- Searched by Daniel E. Jacobsen, second great grandson.

Biography: Robert Wilson:

     Part of a letter written to Ilah Allgood Jacobsen from her Uncle Bernard John Wilson, about his father Robert Rich Wilson and grandfather, Robert Wilson:
     Dad's  father  (Robert Wilson) was a colonel having come west from the State of Virginia.  I'm not sure but somehow I seem to have it deep in mind that he eventually became a post trader at some western out-post and that was when dad (Robert Rich Wilson) was still a baby.
     Some history research by Ilah Allgood Jacobsen, great granddaughter of Robert Wilson:
1814-1821?
     Robert Wilson was a store-keeper in the army. He established the first post-office in Davis County in 1853.  He had daughter, Clara and son, Robert Rich.  The Newspaper-- the Smoky Hill and Republican Union, "states on 1 Apr 1871 a brief account of career of Robert Wilson.  At Fort Leavenworth from 1833 to 1842 as a sutler; in 1844 a sutler at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and also at Vancouver Island.  He was a sutler at Fort Kearney and Fort Riley,(Kansas).  Later years a superintendent of the Davis County, Poor Farm."
1862
     He was a Post-Trader at Fort Riley in Sep 1862 with his family with him.  He was a member of Pawnee Township association, organized 27 Sep 1854.  In 1844 he established a trading post in Salt Creek Valley near Salt Creek Bridge, and sold it in 1852 and became a sutler in Fort Riley.  With others he started a town in Humbolt in the summer of 1857.  In 1861 he was still a sutler in Western Kansas.  He was in Omaha, Nebraska in 1872.
1871
     Article written about Robert Wilson in the Union Paper, Saturday, April 15, 1871:
                                        A WESTERN CHARACTER:
     "We mentioned, not long since, that Robert Wilson, Esquire, was in Leavenworth, and took occasion to give some account of the varied life and experience of the man.  His first visit to Fort Leavenworth was in 1833, when Leavenworth was known only as a favorite retreat of coyotes and a good hunting ground.  He remained at the Fort til 1842, and then made a pleasant trip to the Rocky Mountains. Returning to the Missouri we find him next sutler at Council Bluffs in1844. He surrendered this position to join a party going to California, and soon reappeared on the surface as a sutler on Vancouver Island.  Once more he takes the back track and sutlerizeds at Fort Kearney, on the Plains.  He then returns again to Kansas, starts the town of "Pawnee," builds the first house at Fort Riley, and starts both the town and the first paper of Junction City.
      The sketch of Mr. Wilson's career is a mere skeleton outline of what he has really experienced.  One year he would be rolling in wealth and the next penniless, but his spirits never flagged, his heart never failed.  When things looked darkest he only worked harder.  He is still young, the picture of health and as full of new projects as an egg of substance. Although now located at Omaha we count him a 'Kansas man,' and a good type of those brave and intelligent pioneers to whom our country is so largely indebted for its rapid progress and development." - (Times and Bulletin.)

     Additional History research of Robert Wilson by great-great grandson, Daniel E. Jacobsen:
                   Leavenworth - Beginning to Bicentennial, By J. H. Johnson III:
                         KICKAPOO AND THE "OLD KICKAPOO" CANNON
      "Kickapoo was the outgrowth of disappointed town speculators who failed to get an original foothold in Leavenworth, and only partially so in Atchison," wrote H. Miles Moore in his "Early History of  Leavenworth City and County."
      "The truth was, Leavenworth was thought to be a little too strongly tinctured with Free Soilism and Atchison was already supplied with a full measure of the opposite extreme; and it required a fresh outbreak, a special geyser of their own, from which their super-abundant amount of gas, wind, froth, steam and mud might be emitted; for that reason Kickapoo was hatched or incubated from the mental and physical womb of old Mrs. West on, and which last effort threw the old lady into a decline from which she never rallied."
      Moore's reference was to the town of Weston, Missouri, from where pro-slavery adherents crossed the Missouri River with the objective of colonizing the Kansas Territory along slave state principles.
      Kickapoo township, situated in northeast Leavenworth County, was home first to the Kickapoo Indians, and beginning in 1844, a homestead for white settlers.
      Andreas places Major Robert Wilson as the first white resident of Salt Creek Valley and keeper of a trading post a short distance west of Salt Creek Bridge.
      On June 10, 1854, the first squatter meeting in the Territory was conducted in that trading post, Wilson having sold it to Major M. P. Rively.
      "It is generally admitted that Kickapoo City was laid out as a premeditated rival of Leavenworth, by citizens of Weston and Platte County, Mo.," stated Andreas."
      A large portion of the township, including the town site, was open to preemption, under the laws of the United States, and for this reason it was supposed that Leavenworth would find it hard to compete with her rival. And Kickapoo was, for some time, a bitter political as well as business rival." Emigration to Kickapoo was lively by November of 1854. with town lots being sold for up to one hundred and ten dollars each.      [page 47].
     These are a few statements or paragraphs I found in the book "The History of Fort Riley," about Robert Wilson:
     "Fifteen in all died on the third of August - Major Ogden, Mrs. Armistead, Mrs. Wood and two children, the major's orderly, and nine workmen. A few men were at work all the time and Mr. Sawyer encouraged them to continue, but their surroundings were distracting. A delegation waited on Mr. Sawyer and earnestly insisted that the balance due them should be paid and they allowed to go. Sawyer explained to them that, even if they were entitled to more pay, it would not be given to them, as there was no one to pay them, and the money was locked up in the safe, which could not be opened. A little after noon I galloped off to my camp on the Republican, found everything all right and no sickness among the fifty men there. I did not dismount, nor did I allow anyone to come near me. I returned to the cost about three o'clock and saw Mr. Sawyer and Reverend Mr. Clarkson sitting on the latter's front porch looking at a band of men in the middle of the parade ground. Sawyer called to me, and I hitched my horse and joined them on the porch. Mr. Clarkson made the following statement; Mr. Robert Wilson, the post sutler, who had a very large stock of goods in his store, had locked up everything and taken his family away in the morning accompanied by one of Major Ogden's clerks. Soon after I left, about one o'clock, the store was broken into by a gang of men, some goods scattered about, a barrel of whiskey rolled out, the head knocked in and, with tin cups, the men helped themselves. When well liquored up, led by a big stone mason, some of them broke open the building used for the ordnance department and armed themselves with guns, pistols and ammunition."     [pages 68 and 69].
1862
     There were no troops at the post at the time. Mr. Robert Wilson was post trader. Sept. 1862.    [page 84].
     The Chaplain's quarters, occupied by Chaplain Clarkson of Mr. Low's narrative, for several years and utilized as the chaplain's quarters until the rebuilding of the post in the eighties, is now building Ho. 123 and is occupied as a dwelling by southwest of the old chaplain's quarters, now designated as building No. 124, and occupied by a warrant officer of the school staff, was originally occupied by the post trader or sutler. It was built by Bob Wilson, the first sutler. Back of this building are two or three graves and there is a story to the effect that one of them is that of a woman who drowned herself In a deep well because of unrequited love. This house got the name of being haunted from that fact. In regard to this Mr. Faright states: " I told Mrs. Waters (wife of Mose Waters, who was then occupying the quarters) of this and asked her if she ever heard anything to annoy her. She did not know the house as the haunted house until I told her. She answered that when they went to live in it they heard terrible noises at night like a log chain being dragged. [page 88].
1854
     September 27, 1854, the Pawnee Town Site Association was organized, consisting of Major Montomery, Second Infantry, Commanding Officer at Fort Riley; W. A. Hammond, afterward Surgeon-General of the Arny; C. S. Lovall; Ed Johnson; Nathaniel Lyon; M. T. Polk; R. F. Hunter; R. S. Ogden; M. Mills; G. McR. Hudson; Janes Simons; D. H. Vinton; Alden Sargent; J. T. Shaaff; H. Rich; W. S. Murphy; Robert Wilson; J. M. Dyer; R. C. Miller; A. H. Reeder; A. J. Isaacks; J. B. Donalson; Rush Elmore, and L. W. Johnson.
1861
     Mr. George V. Martin in his article, "The Territorial and Military Combine at Fort Riley," states that fourteen of the above were officers of the army and five were territorial officials. Lyon, a captain in the 2nd Infantry, was afterward quite intimately connected with the history of Fort Riley and Kansas and was known as the "Hero of the Battle of Wilson Creek" where he was killed August 10, 1861.
1844
     Andrew Jackson Isacks was a lieutenant of infantry in the Mexican War and was honorably mustered out July 25, 1848. Robert Wilson was a military storekeeper in the army from 1814 to 1821. In l844 he established a trading post in Salt Creek valley near Salt Creek bridge. This he sold out in 1852 to Major M. P. Rively and became sutler at Fort Riley. Johnson, Ruch Elmore, Donaldson, Isaacks and Reeder ware territorial officers,  [page 102 and 103].

1853 

     Robert Wilson was the first sutler and post trader at Fort Riley. He served from 1853 when the post was originally esablished, until June 27, 1863. He built the first house there, and operated a large dry goods establishment, which supplied soldiers and civilians at the fort. Wilson had been a military storekeeper and sutler at other military posts, including Fort Leavenworth and Council Bluffs, Iowa.

1855
     By order of Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, the boundaries of the reservation of Fort Riley were enlarged to include Pawnee. This order was not executed until the fall of 1855 when Colonel Philip St. George Cooke arrived from Texas with the Second Dragoons and pulled the houses down. At its height, Pawnee had about five hundred  inhabitants. Most accounts state that the capital building and Pawnee was planned for that purpose by Robert Wilson. Mr. George W. Knapp who was a settler in old Pawnee, stated that as near as he could remember the building was about 150 feet from the river bank, as the military road ran between the building and the river,      [page 108].
1857
     In the summer of l857 a town company was organized by Thomas Reynolds, A. J. Mead, J. R, McClure, Robert Wilson and Abram Barry. The company started a town, or rather selected a site, to which they gave the name of Humboldt. The object of the organizers was to locate their town on the abandoned town site of Mlllard but the attempt was a failure.   The history of Junction City actually began with the organization of the Junction City Town Company in the fall of 1857. The name Junction City was derived from the location proposed townsite at the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill forks of the Kansas River. The nickname "Junktown"  was first applied to the town by plainsmen in the early  days and was not first used in derision by military offers at Fort Riley, as has been commonly supposed J. R. McClure was president of this company. Daniel Mitchell secretary and Robert Wilson, treasurer. Other members were F. N. Blake,  John T. Price and P. Z. Taylor. The survey of the town site was begun in the latter part of December and finished in the summer of 1858. Work on the first building in Junction City began in May 1858. It was near the intersection of  Washington and Seventh Streets."    [pages 121 & 122].
1853
     The first post office in Davis County was that established by Robert Wilson, the sutler, at Fort Riley In 1853.  [page 126].

     William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Davis County. Part 4.
J Smoky Hill Township.--This township was organized August 7,1872. The first settler in the township was Thomas Reynolds, who settled there in 1853. The township embraces  all that portion of the county lying between the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers from their point of junction to the west line of the county. Fort Riley is within the limits of this township. It was also is this township that the old town of Pawnee was situated, the  founders of which were Col. Montgomery; U. S. A.; Surgeon W. A. Hammond, U. S. A.; Capt Nathaniel Lyon, U. S. A.; Robert Wilson, Post Sutler, and Robert Klotz. The town was founded in the fall of the year 1854, but was destroyed by the military in 1855, owing to its being located on the military reservation. In 1854, J. R.. McClure  located at Pawnee, followed m March, 1855, by G. F. Gordon and Abram and Marshal  Barry.
     A family by name of  Fleming also resided in. the township in 1854, as to this family is accredited the birth of the first child . which was born on December 20,1854, and to which was given the name of John. The first merchant in the township was John T. Price, who established a grocery store at Pawnee in 1854. The first couple married in the township were Thomas Jenkins and Ella Wicks, October 1, 1855. The first post office was established at Fort Riley in 1853, with Robert Wilson as postmaster.
1861
     The Smoky Hill and Republican Union informs us that in-November 1861, Robert Wilson was still sutler, as he was then advertising 1st paper at the "Oldest Established Trading Depot In Western Kansas." Under date of January 30, 1862, we find that the garrison of Riley consisted of two companies of volunteers.                                                               [page 144].
     On  page 155, it state: "During the years immediately following the Civil War, Wild Bill Hickcock, Buffalo Bill. California Joe, Comstock, Charlie Reynolds and other men later famous for their prowess with firearms were employed by the government as scouts. Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill were frequent visitors at Fort Riley and Junction City and, at least once or twice, Hickcock was at the Post in his capacity as scout. Mr. Henry Thiele told the writer he had seen Wild Bill stand on the corner of Sixth and Washington Streets in town, and with a six-shooter, shoot silver half dollars out of the cleft."  These scouts were often visitors to Robert Wilson's trading post in Fort Riley.
     Robert Wilson's grandson, Bernard John Wilson had giving a incident in his life, as follows: "Although very young, I still remember when Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) visited Dad (Robert Rich Wilson) in Ogden at Grandfather's Lamoreaux's place, and they talked over old scenes of the battlefield.
1867
    Forgoing is a statement by (President) Ulysses Simpson Grant of Robert Wilson's application to become a sutler:
On April 15, , Robert Wilson, Denver, Colorado Territory, wrote to USG. "Understanding that a Military Post is about being established at or near Pueblo, on Arkansas River Colorado Ter. I respectfully apply to you for the position of Sutler. I have been Sutler at Fort Kerney Neb Ter. Fort Hall Utah, Forts Dalls & Vancouver in Orgon, and for ten years previous in 1864 at Fort Riley Kansas--I have addressed Letters to General I N Palmer, General P. St. Geo Cook, Genl James Totten, Genl Sturgess, Genl Sackett and Genl Denver---asking their recommendations to you.  All these Offices were acquainted with me during my Sutlership and I feel confident will endorse me favourably. As soon as these documents are returned, with endorsements, I will forward them to you, Soliciting your favourable consderation of this application..." ALS, ibid. On the same day, Wilson wrote to James W. Denver converning the appointment. ALS, Abid. On Apri 30, Denver, Washington, D. C. endorsed this letter. "Respectfull submitted to Gen. U. S. Grant with the remark that if Mr. Wilson is correct as to the law, the undersigned would regard it as a personal favor if he will grant Mr. Wilson his request. PayMaster Gen. Brice is well acquainted with Mr. Wilson." AFS, ibid.         
1871
    The Junction City Union of April 1, l87l, had a brief account of the career of Robert Wilson. "He was originally a Military Storekeeper in the army, serving as such from 1814 to 1821. He was a member of the Junction City Land Company and a member of the Pawnee Association, and brought the first paper press to Junction City. During his career he made and lost - several conformable fortunes for those days. He was at Ft Leavenworth from 1833 to 1842, presumably as sutler.  In 1844 he was sutler at Council Bluffs.  He was also sutler for a while at Vancouver Island and was the first sutler at Fort Kearney, as well as the first at Fort Riley. He built the first houses at the last posts. In later years he was Superintendent of the Davis County Poor Farm."           [pages 166 and l67].

My Second Great Grandfather, Thomas Rees.

Rees Family is in the Allgood Pedigree Family Line.

Thomas and Rebecca Rees Children

Thomas Rees

Rebecca Williams Rees

THOMAS REES - POOR WELCH IMMIGRANT
Submitted By:   LaRon Taylor  
Thomas Rees, b 4 Jan, 1820, Pembroke, South Wales, md Rebecca Williams 8 Apr, 1841, d 8 Sept, 1892, Wayne County, Utah. 


     This biography is a story of conversion and of a struggle to come to Utah that took years and cooperation of a faithful son. 
     Just 8 days before the Royal Astronomical Society was formed in England (1), heaven sent a choice spirit to earth to experience mortality under the tutelage of Thomas Rees Sr., and Eleanor Furlong, his parents. Thomas was born in humble circumstances and remained poor throughout his life, yet he was rich in spirit. 
       As Thomas grew into adulthood he was raised in the farming community of Talbenny until he met Rebecca Williams from the neighboring town of Walton West. The two fell in love and were married. They remained in Talbenny on a farm while raising their family, which eventually grew to twelve children. It was difficult to make a living on a farm, so the children had to help their father scratch out their meager living. Thomas Matthew Rees (Brigham Rees’s son) wrote that the children began working the farm from sunrise until sunset when they were 6 years old, so they didn’t have time for school. 
      The physical description and character of Thomas Rees and Rebecca Williams was given by their grandson, Thomas Parley John: “Grandfather was a fine looking man. I have heard it said that he was six feet , two inches in his stocking feet. No one had a better friend than grandfather Rees was. When he was a young man in the old country, he was mowing hay with a scythe and in going from one field to another with the scythe over his shoulder, fell and cut his back. From this time until the day he died he walked bent over, using two walking sticks…Grandmother was a rather small woman not so short but quite thin. She loved her bible and knew its contents well. Her patients [patience] was much more limited than grandfather’s. She made the best biscuits and butter that I have ever tasted (3).”  
     The twelve children of Thomas and Rebecca were Mary b 15 Sep, 1841, Rebecca b 11 Dec, 1842, Elizabeth, b June 1844, Betsey, b 25 Mar, 1845, Brigham, b 9 Apr, 1851, Heber, b 1852-3, Ellen, b, 22 June, 1854, Noah, 14 Aug, 1857, Margaret, b 15 Nov, 1859, Lettice, b 29 Dec, 1860, and Thomas Parley, b 2 June 1864. The family struggled to maintain a living on the farm, which was referred to as the “North Crocket Farm”. In 1865, Thomas sent Brigham (then 14 yrs old) to the home of a stone mason so he could learn to cut and lay stones because he wanted Brigham to have a better life than he. This would later prove a great blessing for the entire family (4). 
     Thomas didn’t believe in the teachings of the church that was forced upon them by England when they conquered Wales, but he had a strong belief in God. He believed that God had saved his life when he had fallen on the scythe because he was bleeding profusely until he prayed, and the bleeding stopped after the prayer. This probably set the stage for his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the missionaries came, he and his family readily accepted the gospel. 
     After they were baptized in 1866, Thomas and his family wanted to go to Utah with the saints, but he didn’t have the money to do so. Thus, their pioneer pilgrimage began on their destitute little farm in Wales with an effort to save money for the journey. It took until 1868 for them to save enough to send Brigham and one of his older sisters to Utah. They sent them off with instructions to save money and help the rest of the family to come. Brigham sailed to the states on the steamship Colorado. If his sister traveled on the same ship with him, it was Elizabeth because she is the only one to closely match name and age (5). The ship carried 600 saints bound for Utah, and was the last of the year. It departed Liverpool on 14 July, 1868 (6), and arrived at the Castle Garden Immigration center of New York on 7 August, 1868 (7) They traveled by train to Florence, Nebraska (another account says the train took him to Wyoming), then walked the last 800 miles from there to Utah because the rail hadn’t been completed to Ogden yet. Records record him arriving in Utah in 1869, so he must have been delayed en-route. Brigham would have been one of the last of the pioneers to walk to Utah before the Golden Spike was driven in Ogden.  A Compilation of notes of the Ship Minnesota's Passage Liverpool to New York.

Brigham Rees

     When he arrived in Salt Lake City, he was told the only work was at the new mine on the west side of the valley, so he threw his blanket back over his shoulder and crossed the valley on foot in search of employment. His skills were needed, so he was hired by the Bingham Copper Mine and began saving money for his family back in Wales. It only took two years for Brigham to save enough money to bring the rest of his family to Utah. By that time, they were able to come all of the way overland on the train, so the journey was much easier for them. One puzzlement was that the Castle Garden Immigration list didn’t contain the names of Thomas or his family members coming to New York in 1871 or 1872.  Perhaps they landed at a port to the south. Read: A Compilation of notes of the Steamship Colorado.
     At some point, Thomas Rees learned to be a shoe cobbler because his grandson said he did this type of work in Utah. They lived in Salt Lake City for a time before moving to Portage, Utah. They moved S-S-W a few miles from Portage to the location now listed as Washakie and lived in a one room log house with a dirt roof. Some Shoshone Indians were probably there at the same time with Chief Washakie leading them. Nothing has been found of their relationships with Thomas Rees and family, but Brigham Young later established that town as the first Indian farming community in 1881 (8). Thomas Rees and family may have moved back into Portage, or may have continued in Washakie with the Indians for a time. The next record is one showing Thomas Rees dying on 22 Nov, 1885 but no details surrounding his death have been found. Nevertheless, his youngest son, Thomas Parley Rees moved to Rabbit Valley (Loa & Bicknell, Utah) in 1892 and farmed there. Rebecca moved with him because she passed away in Thurber (now Bicknell), Utah on 8 Sep, 1892. 
     This family lived a life of poverty as they worked to establish themselves in fellowship with the saints in Utah. Though poor in worldly possessions, they were truly rich in faith and were familiar with the peace that comes through obedience and love. 

My Great Grandfather, George Allgood

Some Interesting Facts Concerning George Allgood:
     George Allgood is the son of John Allgood and Lucy Platts Allgood, all of their family were born in Lestershire, England. George Allgood was born April 10, 1846.
     Lucy Platts Allgood and her three children, John, George and Jane immigrated to America, USA. They left and departed Liverpool, England, on 21 May 1864 and arrived to New York on the 23 Jun 1864 on the ship General McClellan. Read the Voyage Notes of the Ship General McCellan.

George was 18 when they immigrated. His father, John did not immigrate at this time.
     In 1864, Lucy Platts Allgood, her sons, John, George; daughter, Jane; came to Utah from England.  They came by rail as far as the Missouri River, and then joined Captain Rawlin's company and walked to the Salt Lake Valley. Lucy's son George was ill with pneumonia when they entered the valley. There was nothing of great interest that happened to the company as they traveled to the Valley. They entered the Salt Lake Valley in the month of September of that year. Read a Trail Excerpt of the John S. Rawlins Pioneer Company.

     George Allgood fought in the Black Hawk War.  He was one of the first to open a coal mine in Coalville, Utah  in 1872.  In 1874 there was a blast that had gone off in the the mine and all of the men couldn't be accounted for; George then went into the mine to warn the others and was the last out and just before he got out a blast went off and pinned him to the ground under a large lump of coal, crushing  his left leg. He spent 2 years in and out of hospital and nursing care and finally had to have the leg amputated. He was 30 years old.

      In 1876 he met and married Letty Rees who was 16 years of age, and they were married on the 3rd of July of that year.  After the loss of his leg and the bitter dissappointment of loosing the mine to unscrupulous partners and unable to work in the mine, he entered into the lime business for many years until his health failed, suffering great pain from ulcers.  He did odd jobs. The last two years of his life he was an invalid. His death came March, 12, 1909.
     He was also known as being an accomplished violinist, and spent many hours playing for the pleasure of others. He was the father of eight children.
     This was written by Letty Rees Allgood his wife.

My Great Grandfather, Robert Rich Wilson

BIOGRAPHY: ROBERT RICH WILSON

          A letter written to Ilah Allgood Jacobsen from her Uncle Bernard John Wilson about his father, Robert Rich Wilson:

Robert Rich Wilson

       "My father had his first marriage beyond which the door was locked  as far as we children were concerned and I believe also to great extent as far as mother too was concerned.  I'm sure this was intentional in respect for his new family. From scraps of information from different sources I ascertain the following:
       Dad's father (Robert Wilson) was a colonel having come west from the State of Virginia.  I'm not sure but somehow I seem to have it deep in mind that he eventually became a post trader as some western out-post and that was when dad was still a baby.
       It has been said, I don't remember the source, that Dad when a sucking baby was kidnapped and turned off an indian women's breast and later retrieved by his parents.
       I ascertain that Dad was a scout for General Custer, and was the first, or one of the first on the battlefield after the Little Bighorn massacre. He would have been in the battle had he not been away to the bedside of his sick sister in Chicago, Illinois.
      Although very young, I still  remember when Bill Cody (Buffalo Bill) visited Dad in Ogden at Grandfather's Lamoreaux's place, and they talked over old scenes of the battlefield.
       Dad's prior marriage was to a Carter girl of a very reputable family. By their marriage Dad had a son named Devoe, who after his mother passed away, was raised  by  the  Carter family. Devoe, my half brother, although possibly still alive, I've never seen.
      I'm finding it increasingly difficult to reveal any certainties of my father's life or of my mother's life prior to my childhood. All I know are wee bits of truths and possible some untruths which I've never given any serious consideration."

My 3rd Great Grandfather, Andrew Lacey Lamoreaux

Lamoraux Family is in the Wilson Pedigree Family Line.
     Andrew was born in Green Bay, Ontario, Canada. He became an Educated Physician by vocation, stalwart convert to Mormonism, and became Mission President to France.
     He fulfills prophecy given by Joseph Smith., "Missionary Not to Return."   Elder Erastus Snow, in writing to George A. Smith on 3 September 1865, related that in 1839 the Prophet (Joseph) had uttered a prophecy as he pronounced a blessing upon Andrew L. Lamoreaux, who was about ro depart on a mission within the United States.
        The Prophet "laid his hands on Elder Lamoreaux and blessed him, and prophesied upon his head, that he would go on a mission to France, learn another tongue and do much good." This did, in fact, occur when Andrew was called as the President of the French Mission on 15 September 1852.
         But Joseph Smith also said something during this blessing that caused him great sadness. The Prophet stated that Andrew 'would not live to return to his family.' Upon saying these words Joseph wept, but he said that "it was pressed upon him and he could not refrain from giving utterance to it.
        Elder Lamoreaux talked with his family about [the prophecy] when he left them in 1852, and endeavored to persuade them that this was not the time and mission upon which he should fall, but to believe that he would at this time be permitted to return again. When, he [Church periodical called the Luminary] brought the tidings of his death [on 13 June 1855 from cholera] they exclaimed, "Surely, Brother Joseph was a prophet, for all his words have come to pass.'"
      Andrew Jenson, Latter-day Saing Biographical Encyclopedia ( Salt Lake City:  Deseret News press, 1901), 3:667.

     Andrew Lamoreaux came with his family (included was my 2nd Great Grandfather, William George Lamoreaux) and emigrated to mountains of Zion in the Salt Lake Valley. They departed with the Willard Richards Pioneer Company on the 3 July and arrived there from 10-19 Oct 1848. There were 526 individuals in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Winter Quarters, Nebraska. Read Trail Excerpt: Richards, Willard, to Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.

The following is a biographical experience of Dr. Andrew L. Lamoreaux on April 20th 1855 as departing on the ship Chimborazo from Liverpool to Philadelphia:
      The ship Chimborazo, Captain Vesper, cleared on the 13th instant, with 432 souls on board, for the port of Philadelphia, of which number about 200 are passengers hence to Utah by the P. [Perpetual] E. [Emigration] Fund. Elder Edward Stevenson, late president of the Gilbraltar Mission, is president of the company, which consists of about 70 souls from the Channel Islands, in company with Elders A. L. Lamoreaux, late president of the French Mission; about 200 from the Principality.
      His experience is noted in: The History of the Chimborazo Emigrating Conference: Organized April 12th 1855.
       Friday, (April) 20th.  A baby, named Mary Price, aged 2 years, daughter of Jeremiah Price, being nursed by her little brother fell off the hatchway on the deck. She fell on the frontal region of the skull just over the right eye. She was picked up [p.9] in an instant, and was bleeding profusely from nose and mouth--she seemed to spit the blood out to [KEEP?] from choking. Speedily her blood [face] was covered with blood, the skull over her right eye was very much swollen, and her little eye closed up. After having bled considerably in a sitting position Elder Lamoreaux came down, and promptly and energetically attended to the case as surgeon, stripped the child, washed the blood off, applied solution of camphor and bandaged the head--then laid her in a blanket, and placed her in the charge of a sister who volunteered to be nurse. The Saints sympathized much with the parents, and rendered every assistance necessary and possible. Elders Stevenson, Jeremy & Mills, administered in the ordinance of the gospel for the restoration of the child, Mills anointing and Jeremy sealing it. Elder Lamoreaux paid every possible attention to his little patient, which seemed to revive wonderfully. Indeed had not some extraordinary power assisted, she must have been killed.

Charles Denney, Jr. Brother-in-law and Long Time Friend of My Great Grandfather David Leaker

The Denney Family is in the Leaker Pedigree Family Line.

       David and Charles were good friends a great part of their lives. Charles writes in his diary of immigrating to the America USA. Charles travels by himself without his family at the age of 16.
        I left London, or rather home, No. 32 City Garden Rose, City Road, London, about 4 p.m. May 23, 1866 and went down to the London docks, and went on board the American [p.11] Congress, a very fine sailing vessel. I was seasick for about 3 weeks straight ahead. I really thought that I was going to die but about three weeks after we started Brother John Nicholson, one of the presidents of the vessel, gave me about a tablespoon full of brandy & I began to mend from that time.
       I helped to serve out the provisions on board the ship. We used to have some good times on board, singing, dancing & etc. We had pretty good weather, very little storms, and a generally prosperous voyage, landing in New York on July 4, 1866, rather the 5th. I had my bunk on the 2nd deck. On board I got acquainted with a number of boys, one whose names was Robert Pike who was drowned soon after leaving New York as he was passing from the steamer to the shore. He was much respected by all on board. His body was found about two days after the Saints left the New Haven steamboat station where he was drowned.

John D. Holladay Pioneer Company (1866)
Departure: 16-18 July 1866 
Arrival: 25 September 1866
Company Information:  350 individuals and 69 wagons were in the company when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Wyoming, Nebraska (the west bank of the Missouri River about 40 miles south of Omaha).

       I left New York on the afternoon of the 5th and arrived at New Haven steamboat station by the next morning. Stayed there all day. [p.12] In the afternoon we took the cars for St. Joseph, Missouri which occupied about 6 days. We arrived at St. Joseph early in the morning and were to leave about 7 or 8 o'clock upon one of the river steamers for Wyoming, Nebraska. While the men were unloading the luggage from the cars to the steamer, Brother Riter & myself went into the town to buy some provisions for those who had none to last them two days on the boat, the length of time the steamer took to travel from St. Joseph to Wyoming. And while we were gone they had finished loading the luggage and while we were returning to the boat we heard the steamboat whistle, and when we came in sight of the landing, saw the steamer about half a mile on her journey up the river & we were left behind. We made the best we could of it, & went back to where we had bought the forty loaves of bread and got them to take them back and spent the most of the day there. We found that the folks that kept the store were apostates. They had been to Utah and had gone back dissatisfied.

Charles Denney, Jr.

        While in St. Joe, [as] it is called, I visited one of their meetinghouses with a young boy who went to act as deacon & clean up the [p.13] house. It was in this place where I first tasted gum, the boy giving me a piece. 6 p.m. the 2nd day, visited the marketplace & bought some mutton & potatoes which the storekeeper where we bought the bread kindly cooked for me to take with us on the boat.
         The first night after arriving in St. Joseph I slept in a wagon box on some hay. The next night we went and slept on the steamboat so that we would not be left behind again, and on the second day after, in the afternoon, we reached Wyoming where I found my luggage, a box, and a sack which contained all that I possessed in this world consisting of some clothing, a few tools, & etc. I stayed in Wyoming that night, & the next afternoon started on the journey across those long, dreary, desolate plains about a thousand miles to our destination. I was in one respect more fortunate than many others, some of them having to stay in Wyoming 5 or 6 weeks. On the next day after my arrival in Wyoming, one of the brethren asked me if I would not like to go on. I told him yes, & he told me to get my luggage and get into a wagon that was just ready to start, and, after they had taken [p.14] away my box from me, as being too heavy to take along, and putting all my things into my sack, I started on my journey with about 500 others in about 60 wagons, across the plains.  The captain of the company [was] Brother Halliday . .
       Here I knew scarcely anybody, almost an entire stranger in a strange land. yet I did not feel discouraged, but still desired to go on to the valleys of the mountains. On the first afternoon we traveled about a mile, just to say we had made a start & then camped for the night; The first evening we camped, the captain of the company, Bro. Halliday of <Alpine or> Am. Fork Utah Co., Utah, called the camp together, & held a meeting, instructing the Saints in regard to their duties, the dangers of the people, in leaving the main camp, giving good, kind, fatherly advice, &c. We then had prayers and retired for the night. We used to have even prayers every evening previous to retiring, about 8 o'clock, which I think I never missed. I enjoyed good health, the whole journey through, although I did not have as much food as I could have eaten.
       It must have been about the 14th of July 1866, when I left Wyoming for Salt Lake City. We traveled the old road, that is the road the pioneers traveled, I think or at least the one traveled by the Saints for a number of years, previous to this time. As I did not keep a journal, of course I must depend on my memory for what I write now.
       In the wagon, that I was put in there was (2) two families; Bro & Sister Balmforth, and six children, and Bro & Sister Isaac Woods, no children, making eleven in all. On our wagon cover our teamster wrote the name of "Weber Sal," & that is what our wagon was known by, our teamster's name was Joe [blank space], from Weber, a pretty good kind of man, but rough like the rest of the teamsters; on another wagon was, "Pony Express," "to Salt Lake, Pike's Peak, or Bust by Golly," on another "The Mountain Boy," The Pony Express was driven by Mart Lenzi, or as he used to be called "Pony" because he was a short, stumpy sort of a fellow, and full of his fun, another wagon was driven by Tom Brown, which was loaded with coal oil for the old Tabernacle, and the Theatre.    
      Most of the wagons have some church freight in them, in addition to the emigrants & their luggage. There was nothing particularly exciting in our journey: But I will remember the first death that took place on the plains, the scene I shall never forget. I think it was about two 2 weeks after we started on the Plains, I think it was a sister. A rough box was made somewhat in the shape of a coffin, with no lining, or anything of that kind, the grave was dug on a hill a little way from the side of the road, and the train was stopped for noon, and she was buried, and in the afternoon the train went on, almost as though nothing had happened.
     We had about 6 deaths on the plains, all buried alike, on the road here and there we would see a piece of wood about the size of a pickett stuck up, it was the tomb "stone" of some weary emigrant, who tired of the long and weary journey, by the ox teams, has taken his last long rest, or perhaps a toil worn Saints, who, with his hand cart had given up under what might be considered one of the most wearisome and laborious journeys ever undertaken by man or woman in this or any other generation, another tombstone would mark the last resting place of some loved son or daughter, who, overtaken by cholera or other disease incident to the plains, had bid their parents gone or brothers & sisters go on while they, weary of the March, laid down for their last long sleep. In other places nothing but two cross Bones of oxen would mark the grave of the sleeping traveler, with his or her name written on the bones. These land marks were not touched by the travelers, but left all alone in the solitude of death, with none but the eye of that all seeing God, who does not let even a sparrow fall to the ground without his notice, to watch over them.
      Others were not so fortunate, if it might so be called, as to have even a box to be laid in, but had to be rolled in a blanket, and in that way were buried. Here and there might be seen holes in the ground about 10 or 15 feet from the graves, which were made by wolves, who in their desperate hunger had burrowed into the graves and feasted on the remains of some buried traveler. But let us leave this dreary scene & take another view of this long march.
      As we traveled on day after day, we would see herds of Buffalo, deer, and other wild animals that inhabit this Great American desert, some of our teamsters take their rifle in hand a perhaps be forturnate enough to kill one, when the most favored ones in camp would get a small piece of this fresh meat, which was considered quite a luxury, others would shoot a rabbit or two, &c. The principle food that I got was flour and bacon, one pound of flour per day was all I was allowed, and about 1 pound of bacon per week. The flour I used to make into dumplings and the bacon I used to fry, on one occasion I had a treat in the shape of a couple of rabbits heads, which I cleaned and boiled, and thought I had a feast. As we journeyed up the Platte river I used to go a fishing and would cook what I caught for supper. I used to do all my own washing, as I did not know anyone scarcely that I thought would do it for me. I enjoyed good health, all the way across the plains.
     One night in particular I must speak of as being the first that I ever passed in the open air, in the pouring rain. There was no room in the wagon for me & I had to walk about the whole of the night as I could find no dry place to lay down in, the rain poured down very hard, and I was dripping wet through the whole night; I thought the morning would never come. We could get no fire, & I could get no shelter. But I felt that it was alright.
     The teamsters used to have some good times, at night, they would have their dances, songs, games &c., but I felt too strange to try to join in with them. The night herders used to sleep in the wagons during most of the day & watch the cattle at night, and protect the train from Indians raids while the others slept. The train which started out ahead of us from Wyoming was attacked by Indians and a number of their <oxen> driven off, so that they had to leave a great part of their luggage behind, we passed the same spot 2 days afterwards and saw their luggage, but, as we ourselves were heavily loaded, we could not take any of their luggage along. There was nothing connected with our journey very much different to what all others, who traveled the same way, experienced.
      One night, however, I must write about, as it seemed to me, at that time, the longest night I every saw. In the afternoon it commenced to rain, and continued to do so up till dark, it was now bed time, but I had no place to lay my head, the wagon, then containing 10 persons, was too crowded, and the ground was soaking wet, & I had but 1 knotted quilt for bed clothes, I laid down under a wagon for a short time but was soon sopping wet, I could do nothing else but walk around all night in the rain, & I thought the morning would never come. At about 6 o'clock the rain quit, & I gathered some "Buffalo Chips," dried Cattle dung and made a fire, and dried myself as best I could. One young woman, <I think her name was George before she was married,> acted very kind to me on one occasion, & I must never forget it, she told me if I would carry her some water and some "buffalo chips," she would wash my shirt & quilt for me. I carried the water for her, also the "wood," then she told me her mother said she could not do it, so I had to do it myself. The way I used to wash my shirt was like this—I would go into the water with it on, then after I had splashed about a while, and rubbed my shirt I would lay it on the bank to dry while I went into the water again , so you see I was clean myself and had a clean shirt to put on.
     When we had got a good way on our journey a Bro Meiks took me to drive a team for him for about 2 weeks till we arrived on this side of Green River, when he took a different road & I left him. When at Weber a person wanted to hire me, But I wanted to come to Salt Lake, so I did not stop there.
     It was on the night of the 25th of September, 1866, that we made our last camp out. Early next morning we were up and doing. This place I think, must have been what is called Hardy's station. The most of us <boys> put on some of our Sunday go to meeting clothes, and started off to walk to the city ahead of the train, but it seemed a tremendous long walk, in Parley's Canyon. We met several parties who had came to meet their friends & relatives, but I thought I had no one to meet me, so I journeyed along, till I came to the mouth of the Canyon.
     I shall never forget my feelings as I looked upon the city of Salt Lake from the bench at the mouth of Parleys Canyon, it seemed so beautiful to me. I walked down the road till I came to a place between the Cotton factory of President Young to what is known as Smoots factory, about a mile ahead of me. I saw a couple of teams, and I said to myself, I'll rest here till these teams pass me, then I will proceed on my journey, so I sat down by the roadside til the first one, a horse team came up, the man who was driving it asked me if I knew a boy in the train, which was then coming into sight, by the name of Charley Denney. I replied "I'm the one." He said, "jump on, & I'll take you home,["] but did not tell me his name, & I did not know him. In a little while I found out that it was my Brother-in-law, David Wm. Leaker, and the young woman who was riding with him was my cousin, Caroline West, and she gave me a couple of nice ripe peaches, the first I ever had tasted in my life.
        
BIB: Denney, Charles. Reminiscences and diary (Ms 1820),