Description: This structure, sometimes referred to as "The Exodus to Greatness Monument" is located at the western end of Parley Street where it meets the Mississippi River (seen on either side in the background). The names of thsoe known to have joined the exodus west only to die somewhere along the trail are listed on the walls inside the pavilion. Died: 28 Sep 1846 Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa
Burial: Cutter's Park #15, Winter Quarters
"We started for Nauvoo in the spring of 1845 in March. I [Martin Luther Ensign] was now fifteen years old, had no schooling after this time, as we were traveling and making settlements in uninhabited country. In our travels the route was from Massachusetts, through Connecticut to New Haven, from there to New York, then Philadelphia, through the state to the Ohio River, down to Marysville, thence up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. Most of the Saints had been driven out before we got there. We arrived in Nauvoo in May and stayed only about three weeks, bought wagons and cattle and then took our journey west across Iowa, three hundred miles, to the Missouri River."
"I drove a team for John Wooley, brother of Edwin S. Wooley. They had been to Westfield on missions. There was a city laid out on the west bank of the Missouri River, called Winter Quarters. There we built a house of hewed logs, one of the best in the city. Ward meetings were held in it during the winter and after we came west there was a store kept in it. There were at least two thousand inhabitants, and twelve hundred and fifty homes and dugouts built. This place was afterwards called Florence. The land had not come into market. It was a very cold and sticky place and many people had chills and fever, and scurvy or “blackleg” as it was called by some."
"I took the chills and fever (probably malaria) and they continued with me until the next spring. Hundreds were sick and destitute and a great number died. Father [Horace Datus Ensign] died of scurvy on his birthday, November 28, 1846 being forty-eight years old. Now we were without a father, and in a wild Indian country, our provisions were running short, we were unaccustomed to a life of this kind and now we were left with a windowed mother with six children on her hands, Datus Horace, twenty-one years old, Luman Ashley, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Rufus Bronson and Lydia Esther."
(Autobiography of Martin Luther Ensign, son of Horace Datus Ensign.)
1 comment:
I'm so grateful , for the strong heritage ,for the love of god & country ,especially family ! I am commenting on this post , as a direct descendant and faithful latter day saint. My name is Karen Joy Ensign Mortensen. My great grandfather is Wesley Adams Ensign, son of Martin Luther Ensign & Mary Dunn Ensign. I live in Parker, CO. With my husband , David W. Mortensen, and my 2 boys , Jake David, 17 yrs.& 6 yr. old Richard Jonah, who I named after my father , Richard Douglas Ensign, who looks exactly like my great grandfather. thank you for this opportunity . there is much more to learn , when much is given , much is required ! feel free to contact me. Email is Joy2bmort10@gmail.com. Thank You.
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