Church History in the Family: The Pueblo Saints

The Pueblo Saints

As we have seen, during the winter of 1846–47 about 275 Latter-day Saints formed a substantial community at Pueblo, hundreds of miles west of the main body of the Saints at the Missouri River. This group consisted of the three sick detachments from the Mormon Battalion and approximately sixty “Mississippi Saints” who had come to Pueblo in August.

These southern members of the Church were accompanied by John Brown, who had moved from Mississippi to Nauvoo in 1845. He was appointed by Brigham Young in January 1846 to return to his fellow Saints in the South and urge them to join in the westward migration. Brown and William Crosby led forty-three people 640 miles to Independence, Missouri, where they were joined by fourteen others. They continued west along the Oregon Trail expecting to find the main body of the Saints led by Brigham Young. In July, however, when they reached Chimney Rock in western Nebraska, there were still no Saints. Trappers returning from California told them there were no Mormons ahead of them. Unaware that Brigham Young had decided to establish Winter Quarters on the Missouri, they decided to move to Fort Laramie. There they met John Richard, a trapper who invited them to winter near his trading post at Pueblo. Word finally reached them in Pueblo that Brigham Young had stopped at Winter Quarters.

Life was somewhat settled in Pueblo. In addition to hunting for venison, the Mississippi Saints planted turnips, pumpkins, beans, and melons and worked for fur trappers who paid them with corn. With the incoming battalion men, they built a school which doubled as a church. The battalion kept up regular military drills, and dances were frequent. Seven babies were born during the winter, but there were also nine deaths.

In the spring, Brigham Young wrote to the Pueblo Saints and told them of the plans of the main Pioneer Company to go to the Great Basin in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake. An advance party from Pueblo went north to Fort Laramie where they met Brigham Young and the pioneers. President Young then dispatched Elder Amasa Lyman and others to guide the rest of the Pueblo Saints to the Salt Lake Valley, where they arrived just five days after the Pioneer Company.

(Pioneers of the West, Chapter 26)

Among the Mississippi Saints was grandfather George Washington GIBSON.

Gibson, George Washington.

Wife: Mary Ann Sparks; children: Mary Denise married William New in Santa Fe and did not go west with family. Lydia A. (married Gilbert Hunt in Pueblo), Robert B., Frances Abigail, William C., Laura Altha, Moses, Manomas Lavinia, Joseph.

Among the Mormon Battalion was cousin Eunice Reasor Brown with her husband James Polly Brown.

Brown, James Polly

Wife: Eunice Reasor; children: Neuman, Robert, Sarah, Mary Ann.

The Forgotten Pioneers, Part II by Norma B. Ricketts

"No longer are these 400 men, women, and children nameless faces marching endlessly across the west. "

In Part One, the story was told of seventeen Mississippi Saints and twelve Mormon Battalion men, who spent the winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo, Colorado, joined the Pioneer Company at Fort Laramie June 1, 1847, and continued to the Salt Lake Valley with them. All 29 individuals in these two small groups were identified. But there were other Mississippi Saints and Mormon Battalion soldiers and their families still in Pueblo. This is the story of their entrance into Salt Lake Valley.

In April 1846 Brigham Young called John Brown to lead church members living in Monroe County, Mississippi, west. They were to take a diagonal southern route from northeast Mississippi to the Platte River and rendezvous there with the Nauvoo Saints. There were fourteen families and several single men in this group of 43 adults (24 men, 19 women) and an unknown number of children. Brown selected five men to go with him to assist the families. They left April 8, 1846. When this group reached Independence, Missouri, they were joined by the Crow family, consisting of 17 adults and children. With this addition the Brown company totaled 60 adults.

By mid June Brown and his company were at the Platte River where they waited two weeks for the Nauvoo Mormons. When no one arrived they continued traveling on the Oregon Trail towards Fort Laramie until they learned there were no Mormons ahead. They were advised by a trader to go to Fort Pueblo, Colorado, for the winter. Fort Pueblo was in a sheltered valley; trappers residing there had corn; other food and supplies could be obtained from nearby Bent’s Fort. John Brown and his group arrived in Pueblo August 7, 1846. They immediately began building log cabins and planting crops. Absalom P. Dowdle was appointed presiding elder of the Pueblo branch.

On September 1, 1846, after helping the families get settled, John Brown and his assistants left Colorado to return to their families in Mississippi. On September 12 these men on their eastward journey met the Mormon Battalion traveling west and told the soldiers about the branch of the Mormon Church in Pueblo. Brown’s group continued east and reached their families in Mississippi October 29, 1846.

Meanwhile, as the Mormon Battalion continued west along the Arkansas River, Lieutenant A. J. Smith, temporary battalion commander, decided to send the women, their husbands, and children back to Pueblo. The chance meeting with John Brown had provided him with an answer of what to do with the women and children. This first detachment, known as the Higgins Family Detachment (Arkansas Detachment), consisted of 11 men, 9 women and 33 children under Captain Nelson Higgins. They left the battalion on September 18 and arrived in Pueblo in early October, 1846.

When Philip St. George Cooke assumed command of the battalion in Santa Fe, he thought there were too many women, children, and sick soldiers and decided to send a second detachment to Pueblo. This group left Santa Fe October 18 under James Brown, captain. They arrived in Pueblo November 17 with 92 men, 19 women and 10 children. This was the Brown Sick Detachment (Santa Fe Detachment).

Colonel Cooke sent Lieutenant William W. Willis with the last detachment at the Rio Grande River November 10. They arrived in Pueblo December 20, 1846. There were 56 men and one woman in the Willis Sick Detachment (Rio Grande Detachment).

Altogether there were 159 men, 29 women, and 43 children in the three detachments. The names of these men are known from military rolls, journals, family histories, and from the mustering-out roll. Fifteen soldiers died en route to Pueblo or during the winter.

This Mississippi-battalion contingent (about 300 men, women and children) spent the winter in Pueblo. The soldiers built additional cabins plus a larger building for church and social purposes. A few men worked for the trappers, while others found employment at Bent’s Fort. As spring approached the Crow family grew impatient and decided to start west without waiting for the others. Because of this early start the Crows were waiting at Fort Laramie when Young and the Pioneer Company arrived June 1 and traveled with them on the last part of the journey for the historic 1847 entrance into the valley.

The Pueblo detachments and remaining Mississippi Saints, under Captain James Brown, left Pueblo May 24. They gradually gained on the vanguard company until they were only a day behind at the ferry on the Platte River. Finding a blacksmith, they decided to stop to get their animals shod. Next they followed the Platte River to the Sweetwater River on to Independence Rock. After they passed Devil’s Gate, they celebrated the anniversary of their enlistment, July 16: "At daylight there was a salute of small arms in honor of our enlistment and more especially the finishing of our one year’s service to Uncle Sam, and to let every one of Uncle Sam’s officers know we were our own men once more."—John Steele⁷

Although their period of service was up, there was no one to discharge them. They believed they had to go to California to be discharged and receive their mustering-out pay.

On July 28 they had their first view of Salt Lake Valley. Abner Blackburn and several others climbed a mountain crest and were impressed by "the grandest view that ever mortal beheld, the air was clear and perfect for a great view, the great Salt Lake glistening under the sun’s rays, range after range of mountains in every direction, the great desert to the west and Utah lake to the south east and the mountains beyond. A more sublime view was seldom seen from a mountain top."⁸

On July 29, 1847, President Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, George Albert Smith, Amasa Lyman, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson and five other authorities rode on horseback to the mouth of Emigration Canyon, where they met the incoming Pueblo colonists. A violent thunderstorm prevented a grand welcome, but a fife and drum corps greeted the new arrivals. Thomas Bullock described the formation: "Council & Officers first, Infantry next with Martial Music, then followed the Cavalry—with baggage wagons bringing up the rear."⁹

Captain Brown led 29 wagons filled with soldiers, their families, and Mississippi Saints to a campsite about one half mile north of the temple lot. The next morning, July 30, Brigham Young and the Council of Twelve Apostles met with the battalion officers and told them, "Your going into the army has saved the lives of thousands of people." ¹⁰

Since their enlistment period had expired, Brigham Young and the church authorities decided to disband the three detachments and not have them continue to California for severance pay as originally planned. That evening in a general meeting for the Saints Brigham Young spoke until he was hoarse. He expressed a warm feeling toward the soldiers and requested that the men build a bowery on the temple lot so they could hold their meetings in the shade.¹¹

On July 31 Brigham Young assumed command and assigned the soldiers to gather brush for the bowery. They built a comfortable shelter forty by twenty-eight feet in size. During that week the soldiers continued to work under church direction, cultivating the soil and making adobe bricks for both living quarters and the fort. The addition of the men from Pueblo greatly aided in the heavy work in the valley during those early months.

During this same time, Young was organizing two groups to go east to help the Saints come west. These groups were known as the "Ox train of returning pioneers" and the "Horse and mule train."¹²

The ox company left Salt Lake Valley August 17, 1847, and consisted of sixty-nine men, forty-two of whom were ex-battalion. There were 107 men (thirty-two ex-battalion men) in the horse and mule company that left the Salt Lake Valley August 26. In addition to Brigham Young, seven of the Twelve Apostles were in this group. It had been only thirty-three days since the Pioneer Company arrived. As they traveled east, they met the westbound Big Company, which reached Salt Lake Valley in early October 1847.

A third group of over a hundred Mormon Battalion veterans entered Salt Lake Valley in late September-early October 1847. Their entrance to the valley was overshadowed by the arrival of the Big Company at the same time.

These battalion men had been discharged in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847. No longer under military order, the men formed into hundreds, fifties, and tens, under the leadership of Levi Hancock. There were 223 men in this group, and all were identified. They traveled through California’s central valleys, past Sutter’s Fort, into the Sierra Nevada. When they were near Donner Summit, they met James Brown with a letter from church authorities telling the men about the destitute situation in the valley and recommending that they return to California and work a season. Several diaries of these men contain the notation that "about half went on and half went back" to work for Captain John Sutter at Sutter’s Fort.

Since there were 223 men in this group whose names are all known, if "half went back and half went on", that would be about 112 in each group. There are no rosters telling how the men were divided. However, Sutter and his clerk kept a record of who went in and out of the fort. Also, battalion journals tell of their assignments in Sutter’s employment. There are 106 men whose names are known from Sutter’s records, battalion journals, and other sources. Subtracting 106 from the 223 known names traveling from Los Angeles with Hancock, leaves 117 names. As more research is done, it may develop that some of the 117 worked for Sutter and belong on the other list, but the Hancock list may be close to definitive. When material is first published, frequently new information comes forth. If this happens and identifies one new name, it will make this article worthwhile.

Hancock Company

The Hancock Company went directly to Salt Lake Valley in 1847. This is the "half" that continued on with Levi Hancock to Salt Lake after meeting James Brown in the Sierra.

These little-known 1847 pioneers contributed greatly to the early days in the Salt Lake Valley and in helping different companies of Saints come west in the years that followed. The ex-soldiers of the Mormon Battalion had become experienced frontiersman during their long trek. They knew how to survive under perilous conditions, and they were leaders who contributed greatly in establishing settlements wherever Brigham Young sent them throughout the west. No longer are these 400 men, women, and children nameless faces marching endlessly across the west. Each is identified and his role is defined. They can be listed with the other pioneers who arrived during the historic year of 1847.

NOTES

1. There were fourteen families in the original John Brown company when it left Mississippi. Only names known are given. The names of the Crow company, who joined the Brown group, were listed in Part One. The Mississippi Saints settled primarily in Holladay and Cottonwood near Salt Lake City. Perhaps a study of the early pioneers in these two settlements will reveal the names of others who spent the winter in Pueblo. While these names have been gathered from many sources, the primary sources are original battalion rosters and three handwritten pages by Thomas Bullock titled, " Names of Pueblo soldiers and Mississippi brethren arrived in Great Salt Lake City, August, 1847." This document is in the LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City. Bullock lists one name seen for the first time: John Edmunds (black)." There is no Edmunds on the battalion roll. Bullock wrote Edmunds’ name on a page with the women and children. His age is shown as 30. There were black men who served the officers. Perhaps Edmunds was one of these servants who became ill and was sent to Pueblo. Bullock’s list does not identify the company in which Edmunds traveled to Pueblo.

[For lists of names see: http://www.utahcrossroads.org/newsv8n4.htm]

[Part I: http://www.xmission.com/~octa/newsv8n2.htm]

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude - Francis Abigail GIBSON GREEN

Here is lots of otherwise unknown history of our grandfather George Washington Gibson found in the history of a daughter from his first family. Our connection to his is through his second family.

I find two of my grandaunts in:

Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude

Volume II F to L

International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers

page 1135

George Washington GIBSON was the father of Francis Abigail GIBSON GREEN who was the half sister of both Sarah Jane GIBSON WOOD and George Andrew GIBSON and the full sister of Manomas Levina GIBSON

My family Lived in Grafton, Utah

The adobe home of John WOOD Sr. and Ellen SMITH at Grafton, Utah. Grafton is a Ghost Town near Zions National Park

Before I get too far away from Grafton. I want to list my grandparents that had a part in the founding, development, events and eventual end of Grafton.

Family founders, settlers and builders of Grafton, Utah

1856 Indian Mission, head quartered at Fort Harmony. Old Grafton 1859-1860 (1) Marcy Jane LUCAS WILLIAMS BARNEY and her second husband (B1) Henry Barney. Marcy's daughter Polly WILLIAMS was the wife of James George DAVIS son of Bishop William Reese DAVIES. 1859-1860 (2) William Reese DAVIES and (3) Rachel MORRIS DAVIES William Reese DAVIES was called to the Indian Mission in 1856. He was the presiding Elder over Fort Harmony which included Toquerville and the communities in the Virgin River Valley. The Davies were living in old Grafton seasonally because of William’s health. It is possible some of the DAVIE children were also in old Grafton. Henry Barney was a counselor to Bishop William R. DAVIES at Fort Harmony. Also Uncle John Calvin ENSIGN (brother of Martin Luther ENSIGN the great grandfather of Camilla SMITH - this links both my parents to Grafton) he was in Dixie from 1861 to 1863, moved to St. George in 1862, probably after the flood; returned to Salt Lake City; wife Emma Garn; they had four children: Emma Lavenia, Mary Priscilla, John Calvin, Jr., And Horace Daniel. Dixie Mission 1861 (Cotton Mission). Flood 1862 Grafton moved 1 ½ miles up Virgin River Valley. 1662 -1865 (4) John WOOD Born 1819 in England and 1877- 1911 (5) Ellen SMITH WOOD born 1822 in England. Ellen SMITH WOOD was buried in Grafton 1899. John WOOD died in Hurricane 1911. CHILDREN who lived in Grafton: (4/5a) Sarah Ann WOOD WESTERN Born 1850 in England. (4/5b) Ellen WOOD BROWN Born 1854 in Lehi, UT. 1862-1865 / (6-4/5c) John WOOD Jr., Born 1858 in Lehi, UT, 1877-1906 married a Grafton girl (9-7/8c) Sarah Jane GIBSON. (See details for John WOOD Jr. family below.) (4/5d) George Henry WOOD [Nen] Born 1860 in Lehi, UT, married 1882 a Grafton girl, dd- Emily Louise HASTINGS. Their children were born in Grafton. (4/5e) Emily WOOD Born 1862 in a wagon box in Virgin, UT, married 1883 a Grafton boy (7/8 b) George Andrew GIBSON Their children were born in Grafton. (4) John and (5) Ellen WOOD got to Lehi, Utah in 1853, then were called to the Dixie Mission Oct 1861 they and their children moved to Southern Utah in 1862 they move from Grafton to Long Valley 1865-1866, then to Lincoln county, Nevada 1869 and back to Grafton in 1877. (1862- ) John WOOD Sr. had a Log home. (1882-1909) This home is occupied by son George Henry WOOD Sr. family. (1880- 1911) John WOOD Sr. new adobe home at new location. Emily and George GIBSON live in this home with widowed John WOOD Sr. until 1911. (2007) The adobe home is still standing in the ghost town of Grafton,Utah. From 1863- (7) George Washington GIBSON Born 1800 SC and second wife (8-B7) Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN GIBSON Born 1840 in England. Six children, one born in Big Cottonwood, Grafton, and Duncan’s Retreat. George Washington GIBSON was buried in Grafton 1871. Ann NEWMAN died in 1875 in SLC, UT. George seemed to be living both in Grafton and Duncan’s Retreat. CHILDREN who lived in Grafton: . (7/8a) Ann Elizabeth GIBSON Born 1858 Big Cottonwood, UT, married 1875 a Grafton boy Charles Harvey BALLARD. They had children born in Grafton. (7/8b) George Andrew WOOD Born 1861 Big Cottonwood, UT, married 1883 a Grafton girl (4/5e) Emily WOOD. Their children were born in Grafton. 1863-1909 (9-7/8c) Sarah Jane GIBSON WOOD, Born 1863 in Grafton, married 1882 a Grafton boy (6-4/5c) John WOOD Jr. (See details for John WOOD Jr. family below.) (7/8d) Mary Ardillacy GIBSON Born 1865 Duncan‘s Retreat, UT, married 1883 a Grafton boy William ISOM Jr. a Mountain Dell boy. (7/8e) Joshua Newman Born 1868 at Duncan‘s Retreat, UT, buried in Grafton 1878 (7/8f) James William Born 1870 at Duncan‘s Retreat, UT (7)George Washington GIBSON (see above) and first wife (A7) Mary Ann Sparks. Eleven children born in SC and MS. Mary Ann Sparks may have lived at Duncan’s Retreat not Grafton. Mary Ann Sparks GIBSON buried in Grafton 1871. CHILDREN who lived in Grafton: (7d) Robert Pulaski GIBSON, He had a child born in Grafton. (7h) Laura Arrilla GIBSON, Husband James Andrus called 1861 to the Dixie Mission. They had children born in Grafton. (7i) Moses Washington GIBSON, He had child born in Grafton. 1873 Bishop in Virgin, UT. Had children born in Grafton. (7j) Manomas Levina GIBSON Husband James Andrus called 1861 to the Dixie Mission. (7k) Joseph Smith GIBSON - Had children born in Grafton. (1863-1864) G. W. GIBSON log home, home occupied (1864 -) by Joseph Smith GIBSON. (1880-1899) this log home is being occupied by daughter Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN her husband Charles Harvey BALLARD and her unmarried brother George Andrew GIBSON who married in 1883. 1862-1865 (6-4/5c) John WOOD Jr., son of John WOOD Sr. and Ellen SMITH, / 1877-1906 born 1858 in Lehi, UT, and wife 1863-1906 (9-7/8c) Sarah Jane GIBSON, daughter of George Washington GIBSON and Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN, born 1863 in Grafton, UT. Their nine children were born in Grafton. 1883-1909 (10-6/9a) John Andrew WOOD Born 1883 in Grafton, married (A10) Laura Elizabeth PARKER Kanarraville girl. (6/9b)Ellen May WOOD, child born and buried in Grafton (7 Aug 1885- 23 Apr 1886). (6/9c) Pearl Ann WOOD, child born and buried in Grafton (11 Jul 1887-11 Jul 1887). (6/9d) Ether WOOD, born 1889 in Grafton (6/9c) Ivie WOOD, born 1891 in Grafton, married a Grafton boy Angus Franklin BALLARD. (6/9e) William Erwin WOOD, born 1893 in Grafton (6/9f) Claudius WOOD, born 1896 in Grafton (6/9g) Clarence WOOD, born 1899 in Grafton (6/9h)Josephine WOOD, child born and buried in Grafton (30 Oct 1902-4 Nov 1902). (1900-1909) John WOOD Jr. home was across the street from John WOOD Sr. home. This home and the barn were taken apart board by board by (10-6/9a) John Andrew WOOD and moved to Hurricane, UT. (10-6/9a) Andrew and (A10) Laura WOOD's family lived in that rebuilt home in Hurricane until abt 1933. Note: (A10) Laura Elizabeth PARKER WOOD wife of (10-6/9a) John Andrew WOOD was a great granddaughter of both (1) Marcy Jane LUCAS WILLIAMS BARNEY and the DAVIES' (2) William Reese DAVIES and (3) Rachel MORRIS DAVIES. [Only the husbands are listed in the labels below because there is not enough room to include the wives.]

See also: Life in Grafton, Based on Accounts by Grace Atkin Woodbury and Mary Bertha Wood Hall, by Victor Hall.  https://wchsutah.org/documents/life-in-grafton.pdf

George Washington GIBSON founder of Cottonwood

George Washington GIBSON cabin on Cottonwood Lane, Salt Lake County, Utah.

Founding Father

1) Big Cottonwood Canyon
Big Cottonwood…originally known as Holladay’s Settlement, was settled in the spring of 1848was settled by John Holladay, Porter Double, William and Benjamin Mathews, Washington Gibson, Allen Smithson, and others who arrived in the valley with the Pioneers in July 1847. They were known as the Mississippi Company because most of them were from Monroe County, Mississippi… After spending the winter of 1847-48 in the Old Fort, these families started out in the spring of 1848 to find a suitable place for locating farms. Finally they made a camp on Spring Creek, about a half mile southeast of the present Big Cottonwood Ward Building [book published in 1947]. They settled close together and built a number of log cabins.
(Tales of A triumphant People A History of Salt Lake County, Utah 1847-1900, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Salt Lake County Company, Steven and Wells Press SLC, UT, 1947, Chapter II, And There Were Sites For Future Communities, Big Cottonwood Canyon, P.73.)

[Ella HAWKES SMITH was Second Vice-Pres. of the Salt Lake Company of DUP at the time of this books publication. Her picture is on p. 321.]

2) Holladay Camp
Holladay, originally known as Holladay’s Settlement, was settled in the spring of 1848 by John Holladay, Porter Double, William and Benjamin Mathews, Washington Gibson, Allen Smithson, and other pioneers who had arrived in 1847. Later came some who arrived in 1848 3with the Mississippi Company [a second Mississippi Company of 1848]. They were attracted by Spring Creek and Cottonwood Creek, limped mountain streams flowing from the Wasatch Mountains. Holladay was one of the First settlements made outside of Salt Lake City.
(Tales of A triumphant People A History of Salt Lake County, Utah 1847-1900, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Salt Lake County Company, Steven and Wells Press SLC, UT, 1947, Chapter II, And There Were Sites For Future Communities, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Holladay Camp p. 85.)

3)Twin Peaks Camp
In the fall of 1847, after locating farming land along the creeks at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, the settlers spent the winter in the fort at Great Salt Lake City. Then, in the spring of 18487, a group of families made a camp on Spring Creek, a tributary to Big Cottonwood Creek, located about twelve miles southeast of the old fort in Salt Lake City. Some of these settlers were John D. Holladay, Philo Dibble, William and Benjamin Mathews, Washington Gibson, Allan Smithson and others, These families were members of three groups. Some came from Nauvoo, others were members of the Mormon Battalion, and the Mississippi Company who had wintered at Pueblo, Colorado. Each family was allotted ten acres of land along Spring Creek. They settled close together in village style. In April, William H. Walker, and member of the Mormon Battalion and Aaron Farr, an original pioneer of 1847, built the first two houses of logs. The little village thus created was the first of its kind founded in Utah outside of Salt Lake City. It was called Holladay’s Burgh, in the honor of John Holladay, one of the first settlers and the presiding elder of the settlement.
Before the close of 1848, the inhabitants in Holladay’s Burgh had been increased by the arrival of more settlers, among whom were Charles A. Harper, one of the original pioneers of 1847, William Bringhust, George and John Bankhead, Robert Green, Alvin G. Green, and a few others. Most of these settlers spent the winter of 1848-49 in the village proper, though a few families lived on the farms immediately above the village.

From 1848 to 1853 more settlers came. Among them were Milo Andrus [father of James Andrus-James married two Gibson girls], David Brinton, Archie Hullinger, Lyman Wood, William Howard, William Casto, and William Covert. There were at this time one hundred and sixty-one in the community.
(Tales of A triumphant People A History of Salt Lake County, Utah 1847-1900, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Salt Lake County Company, Steven and Wells Press SLC, UT, 1947, Chapter II, And There Were Sites For Future Communities, Big Cottonwood Canyon, Twin Peaks Camp p.p. 96-97.)

NOTE: Joseph and Elizabeth NEWMAN family with five sons and one daughter Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN, arrive in the valley in 1853 and settles at the mouth of Big Cottonwood canyon. Ann and many of her brothers are buried in Holladay Cemetery.

4) South Cottonwood Camp
The south end of the tract was selected as the site on which the South Cottonwood Ward erected its meeting house in 1856. Under Bishop Andrew Cahoon and his counselors Geroge W. Gibson and William Carruth.
(Tales of A triumphant People A History of Salt Lake County, Utah 1847-1900, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Salt Lake County Company, Steven and Wells Press SLC, UT, 1947, Chapter II, And There Were Sites For Future Communities, Big Cottonwood Canyon, South Cottonwood Camp p. 259.)

NOTE: Holladay’s Settlment/Burgh founded spring of 1848, was divided over time to became Cottonwood, Big Cottonwood, Holladay, Twin Peaks. Some parts of Mill Creek, South Cottonwood, and Murray may also have been include.

FIELD TRIP:

Sons of the Utah Pioneers Monuments & Markers

HOLLADAY, UTAH

• 1^st Settlers in Holladay
  Sponsor: Holladay Chapter, 1994
  Location: 4782 Holladay Blvd.
  This monument and plaque shows the original survey in 1849 with the names of the first settlers, and the leader of the settlers, John D. Holladay, as branch president.

• Old Fort Site
  Sponsor: Holladay Chapter, 1975
  During the Walker Indian War in 1853, 161 settlers on Big Cottonwood Creek built a fort at this location. The fort enclosed four acres, but was not needed as the indians proved to be friendly.

Location of Old Fort marker: 2217 E 4800 South, Salt Lake County, 84121. This is at the east entrance of Olympus Jr. High School. The school was originally built on the site of the Fort in the 1800's and has been rebuilt since my sister and I attended in the 1960's.

Manomas Lavina GIBSON ANDRUS daugther of George Washington GIBSON and Mary Ann SPARKS

source: Our Pioneer Heritage Vol. 2 p. 437 and found at http://worthens.com/node/8

History of Manomas Lavina GIBSON ANDRUS

[includes history of George Washington GIBSON and mention of
Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN. Manomas is a half sister of Sarah Jane GIBSON WOOD and a full sister of Francis Abigail GIBSON GREEN.]

The following pioneer personal history interview with Manomas Lavina Gibson Andrus, wife of Captain James Andrus, was held at the home of Mrs. Andrus in the presence of her granddaughter, Mrs. Caddie Andrus Graff, and Mabel Jarvis, the interviewer, in behalf of the Utah Historic Records Survey of Washington County, Utah, in 1936. Whenever the pioneer is quoted the writer has made an effort to quote the exact wording given. All supplementary material used was assembled from a previous interview with the writer and from a sketch prepared by Manomas's daughter, Mrs. Vilate Andrus Wadsworth, on the request of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

When I called on Manomas Lavina Gibson Andrus, "Aunt Nome" to most of us Dixie folk, she was busily washing the breakfast dishes, and gave little evidence of her ninety-four years, or of her total blindness, from which incapacity she has suffered since 1922. She resides with her granddaughter, Mrs. Caddie Andrus Graff and family; rather, they live with her in the home built for her by her late husband in the early nineteen hundreds and with which she became familiar before being deprived of her sight. This home is located on First South Street, midway between First and Second West, and is just a block west of the public square on which are located the Woodward School, County Library, St. George Stake Tabernacle, Dixie College gymnasium and General Building and the recently erected Amusement Hall and open-air pavilion.

"Aunt Nome" is a very small woman, and she is growing just a trifle frail. Her voice is not as vibrant as it once was, but her mind is clear and her hearing remarkably keen. Having previously obtained enough items from her life history for a local newspaper write-up, going over her remembrance again in somewhat greater detail was a genuine pleasure for me and seemingly for her. We spent a most affable two hours.

Manomas Lavina Gibson was born in Monroe County, Mississippi,
March 10, 1842, the daughter of George Washington and Mary Ann Sparks Gibson, she being the tenth of eleven children. She has no record of the actual town in which she was born, knowing only the county and state. As she recalls, they were in a farming district apart from actual towns.

Manomas was only four years of age when her parents and other family members became converts of the Latter-day Saints (Mormon) Church and commenced the long journey across the Great Plains to Utah. There were seventeen persons in the group from Mississippi, who joined the Pioneers at Ft. Laramie, in June of 1847. They had wintered at Pueblo, along with many others who later joined Captain Brown's detachment of the Mormon Battalion and came on to Ft. Laramie with them, arriving June 16th, the first seventeen having arrived on the 1st. The entire group pushed forward on the 17th, hoping to overtake the main caravan before it reached Utah. These facts are recorded in the Utah Chronology. The Gibson’s were with this company of seventeen who wintered at Pueblo, which was then only a small trading post with a few log buildings. There were only a few other women than those of the Gibson party in the settlement that winter. Mr. Gibson had contracted Mountain Fever (Typhoid) which was their reason for this delay along the route.

Though not yet five years of age, "Aunt Nome" recounts clearly the incidents of that long cold winter. One event stands out prominently in her mind. There were assembled at Pueblo, along with the few Mormon Pioneers, quite a number of traders and trappers who did a good bit of drinking and gambling. One night some of these men were gambling in a building next to the cabin occupied by the Gibson’s. An argument arose over the card game, and the Gibson children were terrified at the thought of what was going on so near them, as they could hear every word of the snarling, swearing men. Suddenly there were shots. One man was killed. Keen in her mind today is the memory of that awful night, the loud shouting of the men and their gunfire as they pursued the murderer, who was later apprehended, shot to death and brought to camp for burial. Father Gibson, being a carpenter, fashioned a coffin from rough logs in which the murderer was buried. Much suffering was endured during that long winter and such anguish lest something should happen and they might not get to the Valley.

With the coming of spring they resumed their journey to Utah, continuing with the sick detachment from the Mormon Battalion under Captain Brown, and arriving in Salt Lake Valley July 29th, 1847, five days after the main caravan of pioneers. There was almost a celebration over their safe arrival, as there had been great anxiety concerning them.

The Gibson’s remained in Salt Lake during the summer and winter of 1847, and Manomas remembers taking a hand with her brothers and sisters and the others in the war waged on the crickets. The children were given small wooden mallets and did all they could to help exterminate the insects. Then came the great flocks of gulls. She shuddered as she recounted the way the gulls gorged on the crickets till they could hold no more, than disgorged themselves and took on a fresh feeding until finally the cricket horde were destroyed.

The family moved to Big Cottonwood in the spring of 1848, where they erected, first, just a shelter of willows, and her father did some farming. They brought some tools with them when they came across the plains, a heavy axe, a sort of spade shovel, and her father had a few carpenter tools. Soon they had a log house, or cabin, in Cottonwood, but just a very small place and plenty crowded, even though their possessions were very meager.

They had only Johnny cake most of the time for the family, but her father secured a little flour for her invalid mother. They did have a pretty plenty of meat most of the time, as her father was handy at killing the wild rabbits and pine hens, and there were lots of fish in the stream not far from their home. They also dug sego roots, cooking the bulbs much the same as potatoes. And they soon raised their own potatoes and such small vegetable as are found commonly in gardens--beans, peas, carrots, cabbage, beets and turnips. They made some molasses from beets, as well as from cane, and this syrup was the chief sweetener for all purposes.

She laughed a little as she described the lighting systems of those first years in Utah. "Often all we had was the pine log in the fireplace. And before we got to making candles, we use the tallow dip. For this we would use one of mother's heavy saucers, which was deep enough to hold a good cup of the melted tallow. Then we would select a heavy button around which we fastened a piece or scrap of course cloth. This was tied over the button, then the ends were stripped and braided. Such a lamp would give us a fairly good light for two or three evenings. Candles, when we could get them, were better, but it was a long time before we had any lamps."

Manomas was baptized into the Church in Big Cottonwood Creek, in 1850, when she was eight years of age.

When Manomas was fifteen years of age she went to work in the home of Levi Stewart, who had three families for whom she did the general housework, most of the cooking, and all of the washing. For this she received a wage of $1.50 per week, mostly in store-pay. With this money she purchased her first dainty piece of calico print at 25 cents per yard, and made it up during odd minutes and after work. She remained at Stewart's until her mother's illness made it necessary for her to return home. Later she worked at the Beehive House for Zina D. Young.

Due to her mother being ill most of the time after she was of school age, this pioneer girl had little opportunity for an education. She did attend a few weeks of school in Big Cottonwood, and was able to complete the Third Reader before being compelled to discontinue school.

When Manomas was fifteen years of age, her father brought home a second wife [Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN], just a young girl her own age. From time to time there was considerable trouble between this young wife and the Gibson children. Because of this experience, Manomas vowed she would never marry in the order of polygamy then practiced by the Church. Her father was very pious and strict in his demands of no labor on the Sabbath, and it seemed to be Manomas' misfortune to be reported for extra floor scrubbing or cooking now and then on the Sabbath. And when father Gibson punished, he never slighted the job in the least. The wounds thus made in the heart of this girl were slow to heal, though she thinks now of ways that she might have avoided much of the trouble then endured.

In 1851 [Correction 1861, explanation: The Dixie Mission was announced at General Conference Oct 1861. James Andrus was called to go to Dixie at that time.
Geo. Washington GIBSON and different family members may have been living both in Cottonwood and the Dixie Mission for some years. In 1856 Geo. Washington GIBSON is a counselor in the South Cottonwood Ward. He had a home and children born to Ann NEWMAN GIBSON in Big Cottonwood in 1858 and 1861.], the Gibsons came to the Dixie Mission, settling at first in what is now the town of Grafton. Her sister, Laura, had married [1857] James Andrus, and after a time she came to live with them in St. George. After some time, James asked her to become his plural wife. She did not consent at once, although she did not "spit in his face" as she had vowed she would do should any man ask her to enter polygamy. In 1862, James was called to go back to the Platt River and escort a company of emigrants to Utah. Manomas went to Salt Lake with her sister Laura in time to meet the men on their return, and while there the marriage to her sister's husband was consumated in the Old Endowment House--a step in life she has never felt to regret, although for many years it meant partial isolation from community life and plenty of hard work. She said, "James never showed any partiality. If he bought a spool of thread for one, he did for the other too."

The first five years of her married life were spent at Duncan, which was an important location for her husband who ran his cattle and horses between there and Canaan. He was also appointed as a Captain in helping to quell the Indians who were giving a good bit of trouble during the early sixties.

In 1864, her son George Judson was born, and in March of 1866, she bore a daughter whom they named Medora.

In September of that year the Bishop requested the people in the nearby settlements to congregate at Grafton for greater protection. Captain Andrus had been sent to Salt Lake City for supplies and ammunition, but before going had arranged for his wife and children to be moved into a place he had secured for them. But when the hired man got them to Grafton, the house they had expected to have was already occupied, and scarlet fever was prevalent. The only place available was an open cow shed in which her possessions were assembled in the best order possible. Not having been used for some time, this shed at least afforded a shelter; and as her two children were ill with the fever, she was grateful for that much. While here, her two children continued to grow worse, finally dying, one six weeks after the other.

The succeeding two or three years were spent in St. George, where two more children were born, Edwin in 1868, who died when a month old, and Moses in 1870. These first four children were born under great hardships and suffering. Each time she was confined in a bed made on the floor, and after the fourth day she felt obliged to be up and at the housework again.

In the spring of 1872, Manomas moved to Canaan, where the next eleven years of her life were spent caring for her family and cooking for the men who were assisting her husband in caring for his droves of horses and herds of cattle. For the first few years, her house was a wagon box, and over a fire in the open she did the cooking for the fifteen hired men, her husband (when he was home), and herself, and children. Finally, a rock house was built for her.

While she was living in the wagon box, and was alone at camp except for a sixteen year old boy and her son, Moses, who was only eighteen months old, a frightening experience occurred. One evening, just at sundown, eighty Indians came riding up to the ranch, all in their war paint, and camped down in a clump of trees close to her wagon box. The only thing she could do was to kill them a beef, so she and this young boy proceeded to do so before it became too dark to see. They gave the Indians the beef and a sack of flour. She didn't sleep that night or undress herself or her child, shaking for fear that they would be killed.

Next morning as she was straining the milk she looked up and found her child gone. She frantically searched for him and found him sitting in the middle of the Indian camp. She walked out, picked up the baby and brought him back to the wagon. The Indians went away without harming them.

Just as her new rock home was completed, except for doors and windows, her husband was called by President Erastus Snow to set out with as many men as he could muster to pursue a band of Indians who had been molesting the various settlements of southern Utah. Leaving two men with his wife at the ranch, Captain Andrus took the other thirteen with him and started in pursuit. They were absent three weeks during which time the little family at the ranch remained right in the rock house with windows and doors rocked up, afraid to venture out, or to light a candle at night, lest the natives, finding they were unprotected, would attack.

During their life at Canaan, her husband traded a horse for a husky four year old Indian boy. He was so utterly dirty and unkempt, that Mother Andrus sickened at the thought of having to clean him up that first time. Seeing how she felt, her sister's daughter, Laura, told her not to worry, she would take care of him. Then with her soap, towels and tub, this young girl disappeared into the corn patch a few yards from the house, returning for a pail of warm water and the wailing child. It required two or three returns to the house for more warm water before she was satisfied with her job, but how different he looked when she finally brought him back to the ranch house scrubbed to the point of shining and decked out in clothing. It was weeks before the little fellow ceased moaning for his own people, and he almost grew ill before he would accept food and make friends. But when he once yielded, they got along nicely. He grew up to be an excellent help at the ranch and was a grown young man when his relatives coaxed him to return to their circle. Seeing he wanted to go, Captain Andrus gave him an excellent horse and saddle, and released him with kindness and the best of feelings.

She lived in Pipe Springs for one year, then they moved to St. George, where she lived for the rest of her life, except for two years which she spent in Oxford, Idaho, 1887-1889, where her youngest child was born. She was the mother of thirteen children, six of which died in infancy.

She witnessed the hectic days of Silver Reef, the endless and arduous labor of trying to control the Rio Virgin for irrigation purposes, the bringing in of the Cottonwood water supply for culinary use, and the tradegy of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, the gruesome details of which still fill her with distress.

During her life she has witnessed the transition of western travel from the heavily built, ox-drawn prairie wagon to the finely equipped carriage. In 1901 she rode in her first automobile, and during the years since then, she has enjoyed driving in some of the finest of the modern makes of cars. The Andrus place was well known for its fine stalls of work and draft horses, and they went about in real style in their fine carriage, behind excellent trotters. James Andrus was never happier than when driving a well-groomed outfit. To the end of his life he preferred to travel behind his own team.

She was an active Relief Society worker, and served in the Primary Presidency.
Her husband, James, died in 1914. Her past many years, especially since her blindness, have been spent doing ordinance work for the dead, in the St. George Temple. Even at ninety-four, she is still able to enjoy this activity, and she looks forward with happiness to the time when she may be permitted to meet with those for whom she has performed this religious service.

She bears no ill will toward any living or departed person, and is never disturbed by the racket of little children. Five of the thirteen children born to her are still living close about her. And she now has twenty-eight living grandchildren and twenty-four great grandchildren.

Manomas Lavina Gibson died May 31, 1940, at St. George, Utah, being 98 years old at that time.

Mormon Trail - George Washington GIBSON - Mississippi Saints

George Washington GIBSON gravestone at Grafton, UT (ghost town)

Mormon Pioneer ancestor of Kirt DeMar WOOD From BR Sixth Generation back to

GIBSON, George Washington age 47 / b. 1800 Union County, South Carolina. / m. First Spouse, Mary Ann SPARKS 1822 Union County, South Carolina and Second Spouse Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN 1857 Salt Lake City, UT. / d. 1871 Duncan Retreat, UT, buried Grafton, UT.

Known places of residence are: Union County, South Carolina / Monroe County, Mississippi / Pueblo, CO Winter 1846-47/ Old Salt Lake City Fort, UT 1847-48 / Big Cottonwood, UT 1848-61 / Grafton, UT / Duncan Retreat, UT. BAPTIZED: Dec 1843 Mississippi. ENDOWED: 6 Nov 1855 EHOUS SS: 6 Nov 1855 EHOUS, Mary Ann SPARKS SS: 15 Mar 1857 POFFI, Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN SP: 23 Mar 1950 ARIZO, Robert GIBSON and Mary EVANS BY LAND: John Brown Company - Mississippi Saints Departure: Mississippi, 8 Apr 1846 Wintered 1846/1847 in Pueblo, CO Arrival in Salt Lake Valley: 29 July 1847 Pioneer information: George Washington GIBSON traveled his wife Mary Ann Sparks and their children. Gibson, George Washington (46) Gibson, Mary Sparks (44) Mary Densia (23) married in Pueblo and stayed there. She died within a year Gibson, Robert M. (22) Gibson, Lydia E. (20) married in Pueblo, CO, Gilbert Hunt of Mormon Battalion. Gibson, Robert P. (18) Gibson, Frances Abigail (14) Gibson, William (12) Gibson, Laura Arrilla (9) Gibson, Moses (6) Gibson, Manomas Lavina (4) Gibson, Joseph Smith (1) Source: Gibson, George W., 1848, 48, NA, Roster found in Heart Throbs of the West, Volume 9, Pages 469-521 Gibson, George Washington, 1847, 47, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, George W., 1852, NA, NA, South Cottonwood Ward; Utah Bishops' Report microfiche 6051208 Gibson, Mary Sparks, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Frances Abigail, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Joseph Smith, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Laura Altha [Arrilla], 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Lydia E., 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Manomas Lavina, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Moses, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, Robert M., 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 Gibson, William, 1847, NA, Brown, Our Pioneer Heritage, Vol. 2, p.436-440 HISTORY MISSISSIPPI SAINTS: A group known in Church history as the "Mississippi Saints" left for the distant Salt Lake Valley from Mormon Springs (near Aberdeen), Monroe County, Mississippi, in April of 1846, under the direction of Tennesseean John Brown. The Mississippi Saints became the first since the Spanish friars of 1769 to establish a religious colony in the West, at Pueblo, Colorado. Many of these early converts were marvelous frontiersmen, resourceful colonizers, and shrewd traders. Because of their abilities, nearly all of them were eventually called to lead Latter-day Saint colonies to Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon, and other areas of the West. They were valiant in their love of God, their prophet, and their religion. They helped lead the colonization by Latter-day Saint pioneers of much of the western United States.

(http://www.lds.org/newsroom/showpackage/0,15367,3881-1---3-203,00.html)

Leonard J. Arrington, “Mississippi Mormons,” Ensign, Jun 1977, 46 These little-known Saints from Monroe County chalked up an impressive record of “firsts” as the Church moved west. The company that came with Brigham Young through Emigration Canyon was an exciting blend of races and nationalities; but among the Danes and the New Englanders and the Canadians was a small group of converts whose soft drawls and black servants marked them as Southerners. I was amazed to discover two facts about these Southern converts: (1) They went West a full year before Brigham Young and his party; wintered at Pueblo, Colorado, while waiting for the rest of the Saints; joined them at Fort Laramie in June 1847; and entered the Valley with the first company; and (2) these Southern converts established the first Latter-day Saint settlement in the West after Salt Lake City—Cottonwood... ...Monroe County, Mississippi, however, was a little different. Monroe County had been settled, for the most part, by couples with young children who had emigrated to that good cotton country from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama in the late 1830s. As those children grew they intermarried, and practically the whole county was kin. When the missionaries arrived in 1843, the converts spread the gospel among their families, and within a year, a congregation of perhaps 150–200 Latter-day Saints was thriving, including black members as well as whites. It was called the Tombigbee Branch after the river where most of them settled. They were reasonably well-off, with livestock, homes, slaves, and good land.... ...John’s [BROWN] assignment was to return a third time to Mississippi [from Nauvoo] and gather the Saints and join the main pioneer camp near the Platte River. In the snow and storms of January 1846, John left for Mississippi; he directed the hasty preparations and led forty-three persons in nineteen wagons out on 8 April 1846. He planned to return in the fall of 1846 for the rest. SEE: Ensign, Jun 1977 for complete article. The Mississippi Saints’ Trail, 1846-47: Colorado, Wyoming, Ensign, Aug 1979 In April 1846 a group of Mormon converts from Monroe County, Mississippi, started north with the intention of joining the main body of pioneers on the North Platte River, somewhere near Fort Laramie. These Mississippi Saints followed the Mississippi River north to the Iron Banks, near present-day Columbus, Kentucky, and then cut across the Missouri, following existing county roads, to Independence where they picked up the Oregon Trail and followed it to within a few miles of Fort Laramie. There they discovered that Brigham Young and the pioneers had not been able to start for the Rocky Mountains that year and were in Winter Quarters on the Missouri River. Facing winter themselves, the Mississippi Saints followed a trapper trail dating from the 1830s south to Fort Pueblo on the Arkansas River in present-day Colorado. There, joined by three sick detachments of the Mormon Battalion, they spent the winter.... SEE: Ensign, Aug 1979 for complete article.

William G. Hartley, “Gathering the Dispersed Nauvoo Saints, 1847–1852,” Ensign, Jul 1997, 12.... Trails of the Scattered Saints, 1846-47. (1) Main Body of Saints (Mormon Pioneer Trail), left Nauvoo on 4 February 1846. (2) Mississippi Company, left Marion County, Alabama, in March 1846 and Monroe County, Mississippi, in April. Spent winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo. (3) Mormon Battalion, left Winter quarters in July 1846. (4) Mormon Battalion Sick Detachments, spent winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo. (5) Saints on the Ship Brooklyn, left New York on 4 February 1846 and arrived at Yerba Buena on 31 July 1846. Two Groups Arrive in Pueblo Far southwest of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, two other Latter-day Saint groups ended up wintering in 1846-47 at today’s Pueblo, Colorado: the Mississippi company of Saints and the sick detachments of the Mormon Battalion. While Nauvoo was being evacuated, leaders instructed members in the South to come northwesterly and to join them somewhere on the Platte River. In late March 1846, Alabamans under John Holladay and Mississippians under William Crosby formed a company of some 60 persons. Guided by 25-year-old John Brown, a Tennessean and former missionary to the South, they headed to Missouri, where they were joined by 16 other members, some connected to the southerners. The group, which came to be known as the Mississippi company of Saints, then set out on the Oregon Trail and arrived at Grand Island, Nebraska, unaware they were already 170 miles west of President Brigham Young and the growing settlement at Winter Quarters. Thinking President Young was west of them, they trekked onward to today’s Laramie, Wyoming, where they learned that the Saints had stopped to create Winter Quarters. Needing a place to winter themselves, they accepted a mountain man’s invitation to accompany him 300 miles south to Pueblo, Colorado, arriving in early August. There as many as 15 mountain men and their Spanish or Native American wives and families headquartered. The southerners fixed up their own lodgings and prepared food for the winter. One traveler observed these Saints on 20 August and said: “After half an hour’s riding, we saw the white wagons of the Mormons drawn up among the trees. Axes were sounding, trees falling, and log-huts rising along the edge of the woods and upon the adjoining meadow. As we came up, the Mormons left their work, seated themselves on the timber around us, and began earnestly to discuss points of theology, complain of the ill-usage which they had received from the ‘Gentiles,’ and sound a lamentation over the loss of their great temple of Nauvoo.” In September, John Brown and 6 others headed back to the South to get additional family members. On the way home they met the nearly 500-man Mormon Battalion, whose leaders had come to feel encumbered by the over 80 women and children accompanying the battalion and hampered by some seemingly unrecovering sick battalion soldiers. When battalion leaders learned that 275 miles west at Pueblo was headquartered the Mississippi company, the news was received joyfully. Within four days many of the women and children were sent to Pueblo with the first of three sick detachments of soldiers. Ultimately about 154 soldiers and nearly all of the women and children with the battalion joined the more than 70 wintering southerners to form a community of over 300 Latter-day Saints. Surprisingly, this group in Pueblo was some 520 miles southwest of President Young and the Saints back at Winter Quarters. No one knows what would have been the sad outcomes for those with the Mormon Battalion had not the Mississippi company of Saints been so fortuitously located in Pueblo to receive, care for, and nurse their incoming brothers and sisters. During their fall-to-spring stay there, they built a church for worship and socials, and at least 9 deaths, at least 7 births, and 3 marriages occurred in this Colorado branch of the Church. Next spring, an advance party of 17 from the Mississippi company went north in April and waited for two weeks at Fort Laramie before greeting President Young’s advance, exploratory company on 1 June 1847. The rest of the Mississippi company and those associated with the Mormon Battalion who had wintered at Pueblo soon moved north to Fort Laramie and reached the Great Salt Lake Valley five days after President Young. These pieces of the scattered Church became part of the whole again. SEE: Ensign, July 1997 for complete article. Kirt DeMar WOOD - John Andrew WOOD pedigree

Grafton Cemetery

George Henry and Emily HASTINGS WOOD

Our family buried in Grafton are as follows:

[1] Ellen SMITH WOOD (1822 Stanleybridge, England - 1899 Grafton, Utah) wife of John WOOD Sr.

Ellen’s son [2] George Henry WOOD (1860 Lehi, Utah - 1898 Grafton, Utah) wife of G.H. WOOD [3] Emily Louise HASTINGS WOOD [twin] (1860 SLC, Utah - 1909 Kanaraville, Utah)
Six of Ellen’s grandchildren three unnamed and three daughters of John Jr. and Sarah Jane GIBSON WOOD, who are [4] Ellen May WOOD (Apr 1885-Aug 1886) [5] Pearl Ann WOOD (11 Jul 1887-11 Jul 1887) and [6] Josephine WOOD (Oct 1902- Nov 1902). [4-6] are also grandchildren of George Washington GIBSON and Ann Elizabeth NEWMAN.

[7] George Washington GIBSON (1800 South Carolina -1871 Duncan Retreat, Utah)
his first wife [8] Mary Ann SPARKS GIBSON (1802 South Carolina -1871 Duncan Retreat, Utah) [9] Joshua Newman GIBSON (1868 Duncan Retreat, Utah -1878 Grafton, Utah) son of G.W. GIBSON and A. E. NEWMAN. Also seven other G. W. Gibson - grandchildren, and daughter in -laws.