Browsing Tag

winter quarters

25 posts

    PORTER, Sanford: A Visionary Man

    The last night there came a Voice–clear, audible, and distinct, "There is a God, and He has known the desires of your heart this number of years. I will instruct you three times this night the way that is right- -that you need never again doubt, but shall be satisfied in your mind concerning God.”
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      CHAPMAN, Julia Ann

      With the coming of spring, the brethren made a concerted drive to get all the Saints out of Kanesville. Other than for Julia’s health, Isaac was well equipped to travel. In the heat of the late spring, Julia gained some weight and felt pretty well. Deciding that they could safely make the trip, Isaac loaded the wagon
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        ATKIN, George B.: Tooele City Councilman

        George was good with carpenter tools. The two men built a number of homes, the first LDS chapel, and other structures. Their names are on several plaques noting their contributions. George managed the co-op store and it boasted the first telephone in the community. He later operated the Tooele Z.C.M.I. store. He was a member of the County Livestock Association. George and his brother were both members of the Tooele militia.
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          HILL, George Washington: Stalwart Convert and Missionary to the Indian People

          The missionaries were "to labor among the Indians in Oregon country." They were instructed leave their homes and families and " to settle among the Flathead, Bannock or Shoshone Indians….teach the Indians the principles of civilization; teach them….to live in peace with each other and with the whites;….to settle down….to build houses…" (7) This mission became known as the Salmon River Mission.
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            FREESTONE, George: and his Wives, Alice Carlisle and Jennie Lind

            George found himself, as a fifteen year-old, driving four yoke of oxen on a heavy freight wagon to the Utah Territory. His younger brother, James, later wrote that he had driven sheep 1,000 miles barefooted across the Plains. “In Alpine,” George wrote, “between 1855 and 1856, I spent about half of my time building forts to fight against the Indians and half my time killing crickets.” The family struggled against these odds to make a living. Then in 1858, they lost their father when he was killed by Indians.
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              TWITCHELL, Ephraim & Phoebe Melissa Knight

              One day Branch President Ephraim Twitchell was traveling from Sacramento a long way by wagon. The last day of his journey he was traveling late, after dark. He did not stop because he was almost home. He was alone in his wagon, when suddenly there was a man sitting beside him on the spring seat. He just appeared from nowhere. He told Ephraim that he should take his family from San Juan Bautista and go to San Bernardino. Ephraim responded that they had not been in San Juan very long and that his children had their friends there. He noted that he did not think he could get them to go with him. The man beside him replied, "Yes, you can, and you must go to San Bernardino or you will lose them." When Ephraim turned to answer him he was not there. He had disappeared just as he had appeared -it seemed like just out of thin air. Ephraim knew the gospel very well and remembered their story in the Book of Mormon about the three Nephites. He thought this must be the answer-the messenger was one of the three Nephites. He then saw a beautiful new coat that the messenger had left on the spring-seat beside him. He thought the messenger had really been there-that he had not just imagined or fantasized. Ephraim went home and told his wife, Melissa. They talked about the move. They prayed about it for a couple of days. They knew they must go to San Bernardino, California. Every one of their children and one nephew, John Newton Twitchell, the oldest son of Jasper Twitchell went with them. Anciel Ephraim's oldest son came a year later.
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                POND, Stillman Pond

                On February 2nd 1846 the migration west began. Stillman and his family remained in Nauvoo until after the battle of Nauvoo in September 1846 when they were driven at the point of a bayonet across the river. Tribulations and hardships were many as the winter set in early and the Mormon refugees were without the proper food, clothing and shelter. The camp was ravaged by malaria, cholera, and consumption. The Pond family fell victim of all of these diseases. Stillman’s wife, Maria, became consumptive and all the children were afflicted with malaria. Snow fell early on the plains of Iowa and along the way Stillman and Maria buried their son Lowell Anson in September of 1846 on the plains of Iowa. Maria’s body wracked with pain and bowed down with grief for the loss of her son; was unable to walk and was confined to her bed in the back of the wagon with the fever of malaria. In this condition she gave birth to twin boys Joseph and J. Hyrum, the later part of September and the twins died a few days later and were also buried along the trail in Iowa.
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                  ALLEN, Jude

                  In May 1845, the company turned west from their northwestern trek and moved across western Iowa to Fort Vermillion, a French trading post in the present south-eastern part of South Dakota. This group of Mormons was probably the first Anglo American settlers in South Dakota. Jude and the others in the company spent the next ten months hunting buffalo, herding cattle, putting up log cabins, raising vegetables and putting up hay.
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