The Forgotten Pioneers, Part Iby
Norma B. Ricketts
"It is quite generally understood that there were three women who
entered the Salt Lake Valley with the pioneers ... [in] July 1847. The fact has been
overlooked by many that there were [six] other noble women besides these three who...
braved the dangers and hardships of the journey to the west."
—Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History. |
The
story of how these six women and their families, as well as a handful of men of the Mormon
Battalion, intermingled in the Pioneer Company and reached the Great Salt Lake Valley
together on July 22, 1847, actually began in the early 1840s. Missionaries from the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went into the southern states and converted a number
of wealthy plantation owners as well as a group of farmers. By January 1845 there was a
flourishing colony of Mormons gathered in Mississippi. With
persecution increasing in Illinois, completing the Nauvoo Temple was a priority. Brigham
Young sent word to Mississippi that men were needed to work on the temple. Seven men led
by John Brown left Monroe County, Mississippi, on March 14, 1845, and traveled to Nauvoo.(1)
We worked on the temple during the day and whittled and whistled through
the streets at night keeping everything in order, and guarding the city against mobs.
There was no need of a curfew bell in those times; none were seen upon the streets, except
those on duty. --John Brown.(2)
After working on the temple for nearly three months, the seven men left
Nauvoo on June 3 to go back to their families in Mississippi. Two men, John Brown and
William Crosby, accompanied by their wives, returned immediately to Nauvoo and continued
working on the temple until it was completed. During the winter of 1845-46 when the
Mormons were leaving Nauvoo, John Brown was asked by Brigham Young to return again to
Mississippi and, instead of guiding those saints to Nauvoo, to take a southern route and
enter the prairie at Independence, Missouri. They were to meet the Nauvoo Mormons near the
Platte River and Fort Laramie.
Brown was joined by five men who went along as scouts to assist him. In
accordance with Young's instructions, Brown led fourteen families, consisting of
forty-three persons (twenty- four men) with nineteen wagons, out of Monroe County,
Mississippi, on April 8, 1846.(3)
This first group of Mississippi Saints crossed the Mississippi River at
Iron Banks, and advanced through Missouri. After 640 miles, Brown's company reached
Independence on May 26, 1846, where they were joined by the Robert Crow family and others,
an additional thirteen adults and a few children.
At Independence William Crosby was elected captain, with Robert Crow and
John Holladay, counselors. From Independence, they followed the Oregon Trail to the Platte
River where they expected to meet the main body of Mormon emigrants. After waiting a week
in mid-June 1846 for the Nauvoo Mormons, they continued along the Oregon Trail on the
south side of the Platte River past Grand Island toward Fort Laramie. In July they met
eastern-bound travelers near Chimney Rock, and learned there were no Mormons on the trail
ahead of them.(4)
A few miles below Laramie we met Mr. John Reshaw.... We held a consel
& concluded to go no further west but find a place for the company to winter on the
east side of the Mountains. Reshaw said that the head of the Arkansaw River was the best
place to go since there was some corn growing there & it being near the Spanish
country the company could get Supplies. He was going to Pueblo in a few days with two
teams there being no road & he being acquainted with the route we concluded to stop
and go with him. We moved over to his camp. -- John Brown.(5)
Richard (Ree-shaw) was a Frenchman who ran a fur-trading post, Fort
Bernard, eight miles east of Fort Laramie. He was going to Taos to trade skins and get
supplies. He suggested they winter at Fort Pueblo, Colorado, on the upper Arkansas River,
which was in a valley sheltered somewhat from winter storms. The mountain men and trappers
who lived there with their Spanish and Indian wives had surplus corn and there was a
plentiful supply of wild game.
On the tenth of July we started for Pueblo. Mr. Reshaw proved faithful
to us and rendered us all the assistance he could among the indians & on the plains.
--John Brown.(6)
After crossing the south fork of the Platte on July 27, under Richard's
guidance, they found a wagon trail, which they followed until they reached the Arkansas
Valley. The Mississippi Saints arrived at Fort Pueblo, a small mud-walled settlement at
the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, on August 7, 1846. The fort had been built on the
Arkansas River before 1842 by fur trappers and mountain men as a winter rendezvous.(7) The fort was adobe, sixty yards square. Usually there were
around fifteen men and their wives at the fort during the winter.
The Mormons stopped on the north side of the river about a mile below
the fort. They began felling trees in the bottomland to build cabins and also erected a
larger rustic building of cottonwood logs which served as a church and social hall. They
dropped "Fort" and referred to their location simply as "Pueblo." A
branch of the LDS Church was organized with Absalom Porter Dowdle, presiding elder. The
Mormons planted pumpkins, melons and turnips, and prepared fields for wheat and other
crops in the spring. Flour was obtained in Taos.
After assisting the Pueblo settlement to prepare for winter, John Brown
and his scouts were anxious to return to Mississippi to their families.(8)
We instructed them and gave them such counsel as the spirit dictated,
telling them to tarry there until they got word where to go. They were much disappointed,
expecting to have got with the body of the Church. We comforted them all we could and left
our blessing with them. We bid them adieu on the morning of the first of September, and
started following down the Arkansas River to the Santa Fe trail... --John Brown.(9)
On September 12 as they were traveling east, they unexpectedly met the
California-bound Mormon Battalion. Brown told the soldiers about the Mississippi Saints
and the branch of the Church in Pueblo. It was this chance meeting that later gave
Lieutenant A. J. Smith, commander of the Mormon Battalion, the idea of dispatching Captain
Nelson Higgins and the family detachment to Pueblo for the winter.(10)
Meanwhile, John Brown's group arrived back in Mississippi with their
families on October 29. Another call for help came from Brigham Young. He asked for men to
lead the Pioneer Company west. Six men responded.(11) Thus
it was that John Brown, David Powell, Mathew Ivory, and three slaves, Oscar Crosby, Hark
Lay, Green Flake, all from Mississippi, found themselves in the Pioneer Company, which
left Winter Quarters April 8. When they reached the ferry across the Platte River, they
met the Crow family. The Crows, who had spent the winter at Pueblo, had grown impatient
and had not waited for the Pueblo colony to start west. They left Pueblo April 17, 1847.
Their route took them eight miles east of Colorado Springs. This advance group of
seventeen persons (ten men, six women, and one child) arrived at Fort Laramie in mid May.(12)
After waiting two weeks at Fort Laramie, the Crows were relieved to see
the Pioneer Company approach on June 1, 1847. They gave Brigham Young news of the three
detachments of the Mormon Battalion and the remaining Mississippi Saints in Pueblo. Young
selected four men to go to Pueblo to instruct the two groups to start immediately for the
West: Amasa Lyman, Thomas Woolsey, John Tippets, and Roswell Stephens.(13)
On June 4 when the pioneers continued on, the Crow family added their
five wagons to those of the larger group, raising the number of people in camp to 161, not
counting the four men dispatched to Pueblo. The Crows also brought with them eleven
horses, twenty-two cows, three bulls and seven calves, but they were low on food supplies.(14)
So much has been written about the Pioneer Company that no attempt is
made here to document the details of that memorable trip. There are included, however,
data relating to the Crow family, the Mormon Battalion and changes in the makeup of the
original pioneer company. Details of the last few days going into Salt Lake Valley are
given to establish that the Crow party and a handful of Mormon Battalion soldiers were
indeed with the Pioneer Company.
On June 5, a fter passing Fort Laramie, the trail was filled with uneven
rock which shook and jarred the wagons very severely. At a sharp turn near the bottom of a
hill, Robert Crow's wagon turned over.(15) No one was
injured and it was soon righted. This was the first of several accidents to plague the
Crows in the coming weeks. On June 7 a fine campsite at Horseshoe Creek was located, near
what was called Heber Springs. While camped here several men were roping two steers when
Robert Crow's legs became entangled in a rope. When one of the steers fell, so did Crow.
William Clayton reported the ropes were cut "and he [Crow] was liberated without
injury."(16)
The morning of June 8 was cool as the pioneers broke camp, crossed the
narrow Horseshoe Creek and began to climb a steep cliff. Doubling the teams, they were
able to pull the wagons to the top. After descending this hill, Harriet Crow stood on the
wagon tongue to get a drink from a water bucket. As she jumped down, the team moved
suddenly; her coat was caught on the wagon hammer and she fell to the ground. Her husband
seized her, but her coat was still caught and he couldn't get her out before the front
wheel passed over her thigh and ankle. She was badly bruised and in great pain, but no
bones were broken.(17)
June 15 found the pioneers crossing the Platte River, hampered by strong
winds and high, swift water. Three rafts were used to ferry wagons across. During the
afternoon, animals belonging to Robert Crow were driven into the river to swim to the
other side. A rope had been left on one of the horses. When it reached the middle of the
stream, the horse's legs became entangled in the rope so that he couldn't swim. Brigham
Young named nine men to stay and operate this ferry across the North Platte River for
other Mormon companies to follow and for emigrants going west.(18)
By June 29 the pioneers stayed close to the Big Sandy, following it to
the southwest. When they made camp that night, they noticed that more had fallen victims
to a strange illness, beginning with a headache, succeeded by high fever, followed by
delirium. The cause of this sickness, now identified as Colorado tick fever, was not
known.(19)
They reached Green River on June 30 where Samuel Brannan and his two
companions came riding into camp from California. Brannan had been sent with over two
hundred Mormons around Cape Horn in the ship Brooklyn to San Francisco. He
reported the Brooklyn Saints were well situated and were putting in wheat in
preparation for the arrival of the pioneers, and gave a brief report on the Mormon
Battalion stationed in Los Angeles and San Diego. Brannan brought with him eleven copies
of the California Star, the paper he printed on the press brought in the Brooklyn.
He talked continually about California and its attractions, trying to entice Brigham Young
to settle there.(20)
On July 4 five men were assigned to go back and act as guides for the
Big Company, which arrived in Salt Lake Valley in late September and early October 1847.
These five guides were Phineas Young, George Woodward, Aaron Farr, Eric Glines, and Rodney
Badger. The pioneer company was thus reduced in number by five.(21)
Meanwhile, in Pueblo the sick detachments of the Mormon Battalion and
the remaining Mississippi Saints had started west May 24. After crossing the Platte River
on June 28, thirteen men were dispatched to recover stolen horses. They caught all but one
of the thieves, who headed towards Fort Bridger with the stolen animal. Still in pursuit,
they learned the Pioneer Company was ahead of them. The men rode hard to overtake Young
and his band.(22)
The battalion scouts caught up with Brigham Young and the pioneers at
the junction of Big Sandy and Green River (Wyoming) on July 4. Battalion member William
Walker learned his wife was in the next company so he joined the five men assigned to
guide the Big Company and left immediately to go back with them.
After the twelve remaining battalion soldiers were ferried across the
river and reached the campsite, Wilford Woodruff described the scene: "When we met it
was truly a hearty greeting and shaking of hands."(23)
Since it was Sunday there was no big celebration by the two groups. The
soldiers lined up in military formation to listen to words of greeting from Brigham Young.
At the conclusion of his remarks, Young asked for a cheer for the returning battalion
members. A great shout of "Hosannah, hosannah, hosannah, give glory to God and the
Lamb," rang through the camp. The soldiers then were dismissed and quickly were
surrounded by friends eager for news of their adventures during the previous year.
Misfortune struck the Robert Crow family again when one of their cows
was found dead, apparently "poisoned through eating some kind of weed."(24) (William Clayton) Many in the camp were still suffering
from the fever. The pioneers were not impressed with Fort Bridger when they arrived July
7. They did some trading before continuing on.(25)
On July 8 Williams and Brannan were sent back with a letter to Amasa
Lyman to meet Captain Brown and the sick detachments with instructions from Brigham Young
to bring them to the pioneer group as quickly as possible. Brigham Young had become very
ill by July 10 and the company stopped for three days.
During the evening of July 12 the company discussed Young's illness.
They decided to break the pioneer company into three groupings--an advance guard, the main
body, and a rear group consisting of the ailing Brigham Young and others in eight wagons.
The next day, July 13, Orson Pratt, leader of the advance guard, was charged to "try
and find a pass over the mountains." They left in early afternoon.(26)
Pratt described his group as being "shut up in a narrow valley, 10
to 20 rods wide, while on each side the hills were very abruptly 800 to 1,200 feet"
all day on July 14.(27) Using shovels they filled in
ravines and dug up tree stumps, trying to make the rugged trail more passable for those
who would follow. The main group was about twenty miles behind.
On July 19 Orson Pratt and John Brown climbed Big Mountain on foot and
caught a glimpse of the valley through an opening in the canyons.
As the main pioneers entered the towering Wasatch Mountains, they
struggled through the most difficult travel of the entire trek. They camped in today's
East Canyon Creek where three wagons were left behind: Henry G. Sherwood, Benjamin F.
Dewey and James Case, who had come down with mountain fever. They traveled only seven
miles on July 20 before camping close to Big Mountain.
On July 21 Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow climbed Donner Hill and from the
summit a broad valley stretched before them. "We could not refrain from a shout of
joy which almost involuntarily escaped from our lips the moment this grand and lovely
scenery was in our view." --Orson Pratt. (28)
At one point in their exploring, Snow lost his coat and went back to
find it. Pratt continued on and stopped on what became the heart of Salt Lake City. Twenty
years later he recalled: "I stood solitary and alone on this great city plot. I gazed
on the surrounding scenery with peculiar feelings in my heart. I felt as though it was the
place for which we had so long sought."(29)
The rest of Pratt's group followed slowly clearing the road as they
descended through Emigration Canyon.(30)
The main body climbed over the Hogsback and spent the night of July 21
in East Canyon. They conquered Big Mountain, finally camping on the banks of Emigration
Creek. They were only about half a mile behind Pratt and the advance scouts. Meanwhile,
the rear guard had not traveled for a couple of days and remained miles behind because
several still were seriously ill.
On July 22 Orson Pratt took George A. Smith, Porter Rockwell, Jesse C.
Little, John Brown, Joseph Mathews and John Pack with him to determine where the first
crops were to be planted. Pratt and his companions rode five miles toward the lake and
then turned north checking out the land for farming possibilities. After traveling fifteen
miles, Pratt and the men turned back and rejoined their group. On the same afternoon (July
22), the wagons of the main company made a rapid descent into the valley and camped near
the advance guard at what is now 500 East and 1700 South, Salt Lake City.
Stephen Kelsey, a non-member, was sixteen-years old when he arrived in
the valley on July 22. He later stated, "There was a fraternal feeling, a unity of
purpose, and often, after a hard day's tramp, the sound of music could be heard above the
cry of the coyote, and the leaders of that band, by their self- sacrificing disposition
and faithful labors, have engraved their names upon the tablets of memory that time itself
cannot efface." Stephen was baptized into the Church on July 23, 1847, the day after
arriving in the valley.(31)
Early on the morning of July 23 John Pack and Joseph Mathews were
assigned to ride back and tell Brigham Young that all pioneers were in the valley in a
single camp near a stream they named City Creek. At 9:30 a.m. the pioneers in the valley
gathered to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the "preservation of the camp, their
prosperity in the journey, and their safe arrival in this place,"(32)
Prayers were led by Pratt and Willard Richards. Meanwhile, Brigham's
small group continued to make its way down through the canyons.
The pioneers immediately began tilling the soil, plowing and planting
and digging ditches to irrigate the land. By noon five acres had been plowed for potatoes.
Shortly after noon the water was turned into the potato patch. They were plagued by
mosquitoes. A rattlesnake was killed near camp and a scorpion was seen by three-year old
Milton Threlkill.(33)
At 2 p.m. on July 24 Brigham Young and his small company arrived in the
valley. Thomas Bullock wrote, "All rejoiced to see them, especially as they are
better in health."(34)
In the week that followed they explored the valley, sent expeditions
south to Utah Lake and north to Cache Valley, met with local Indians, chose a site for the
temple, investigated the nearby canyons, made crude roads into the mountains for timber,
plowed and planted 53 acres of vegetables and other crops, and started building a boat.
They surveyed the city, assigned farming plots and adopted a number of rules.
On July 27 the Twelve and a few more of us went out to explore. We went
west and came to the outlet of Utah Lake, which was named Jordan. While we were crossing,
Brother Amasa M. Lyman came to us and joined the expedition. He said the detachment of the
battalion, with the Mississippi families from Pueblo, was nearby. He had come in ahead of
them. --John Brown.(35)
When Brown wrote this passage there were, as far as can be determined,
163 persons in Great Salt Lake Valley, including nine women and three children. The
starting roster of the Pioneer Company had about fifty personnel changes during the
journey. Yet over the years history frequently records only the names of the company as it
left Winter Quarters.
The observation of Joseph Fielding Smith that the women in the Crow
family were generally not recognized as being with this pioneer group is still true today.
When he wrote there were other noble women besides the three in the pioneer company, he
listed the names of the six women and identified them as Mississippi Saints: Elizabeth
Crow, her daughter-in-law Harriet B. Crow, and her four daughters, Elizabeth J. Crow,
IsaVinda Crow, IraMinda Crow and Matilda Jane Crow Threlkill. The other three women, who
came with the pioneer company, were Clarissa Decker Young, Ellen Sanders Kimball, and
Harriet Young.(36) It also has gone largely unnoticed that
other Crow party members and twelve soldiers of the Mormon Battalion entered the valley on
that historic day, July 22, 1847.
For one week these nine women watched the beginning of an empire unfold.
And then on July 29, 1847, these same nine women welcomed over two hundred men, women and
children to their new home. Although this latest group of arrivals immediately changed the
complexion of the valley and contributed to its beginning, they, too, have been overlooked
by history. They will be identified and their story will be told in Part Two, in the next
issue of Crossroads.
1. John Brown, William Crosby, John Bankhead, William
Lay (non-member), Daniel M. Thomas, James Harmon and James Harrison.
2. Leonard J. Arrington, "Mississippi
Mormons," The Ensign (June 1977), 46-51; "Mississippi Saints," Our
Pioneer Heritage, comp. Kate B. Carter, 20 vols., Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Salt
Lake City, 1959), 2:425. These men took the place of city police after the Illinois
legislature repealed the Nauvoo Char-ter and its police force. Journal of John Brown,
Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Our Pioneer Heritage, 2:428.
3. William Crosby, Daniel M. Thomas, William Lay,
John D. Holliday, and George W. Bankhead. The wives of these scouts remained in
Mississippi. LeRoy R. Hafen and Frank M. Young, "The Mormon Settlement at Pueblo,
Colorado, During the Mexican War," Colorado Magazine 9 (July 1932), 121-22.
4. John Brown Journal, 427.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Hafen-Young, "Mormon Settlement," 124.
The year 1842 is usually given as the date of its founding. However, a letter dated
January 1, 1842 indicates that there were buildings standing at that time at Fort Pueblo.
The letter addressed to D. D. Mitchell, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, from Bent's Fort
on January 1, 1842 complains of unlicensed traders who had built houses and were operating
on the Arkansas River.
8. On September 1, 1846, John Brown, William Crosby,
Daniel M. Thomas, George W. Bankhead, John D. Holliday, William (Billy) Lay and James
Smithson left Colorado to return to their families in Mississippi. Wales Bonny (not LDS)
traveled with them as far as Independence.
9. John Brown Journal, 243.
10. Two more detachments of sick soldiers were sent
later to Pueblo by Colonel Philip St. George Cooke after he assumed command of the
Battalion.
11. The six men who responded were: John Brown and
his slave, Henry Brown, who died en route to Winters Quarters; David Powell; Mathew Ivory;
Oscar Crosby, a slave of William Crosby; Hark Lay, a slave of William Lay; and Green
Flake, a slave whom William J. Flake had given to Brigham Young. Although Daniel M.
Thomas, wife Ann Crosby Thomas, and two slaves, traveled to Council Bluffs with John
Brown, they stayed in Winter Quarters and did not go with the Pioneer Company. They went
west with the Big Company of 1847.
12. The Crows were from Perry County, Illinois. They
joined the LDS Church in June 1838. The family consisted of Robert Crow and his wife,
Elizabeth Brown Crow (Elizabeth was a cousin of John Brown) along with their married
children and grandchildren: Benjamin B. Crow, his wife Harriet Blunt Crow, and their
children Walter Hamilton Crow, John McHenry Crow, William Parker Crow, IsaVinda Crow,
IraMinda Crow, Elizabeth Jane Crow; and Matilda Jane Crow Threlkill, her husband George
Threlkill, and their three-year old son Milton Howard Threlkill, who drowned in a stream
southeast of the camp in Salt Lake Valley. His was the first death in the valley. Also
James William Threlkill, Archibald Little, James Chesney, Lewis B. Meyers. Norma Baldwin
Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion, 1846-48, (Logan, Utah: Utah State University
Press, 1996), 214-17.
13. Woolsey, Tippets and Stephens were Battalion
members who had been sent to Council Bluffs as couriers. They were included in the
original pioneer company when it left Council Bluffs.
14. Hal Knight and Stanley B. Kimball. 111 Days
to Zion (Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1978), 133; Thomas Bullock, The Pioneer
Camp of the Saints, edited by Will Bagley. (Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Company,
1997), 176.
15. Knight-Kimball, 111 Days, 143.
16. Ibid, 147.
17. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 185.
18. Men left at the ferry included Thomas Grover,
captain. John S. Higbee, Luke Johnson, Appleton Harmon, Edmond Ellsworth, Francis M.
Pomeroy, William Empey, James Davenport and Benjamin F. Stewart. After running the ferry
for sometime several men returned to their families in Council Bluffs. The others
proceeded west and arrived in Great Salt Lake Valley with the members of the Big Company
October 3, 1847. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 194. "The First Company to Enter
Salt Lake Valley," Daughters of Utah Pioneers (Salt Lake City: 1993), 27.
19. Jay A. Aldous and Paul S. Nicholes, "What
is Mountain Fever?" Overland Journal 15 (Spring 1997), 18-23.
20. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 194.
21. "The First Company," 72, 142; Bullock,
Pioneer Camp, 218.
22. This battalion group included John Buchanan,
William W. Casto, Andrew Shupe, Thomas Bingham, George S. Clark, Allen Compton, Francillo
Durfee, Samuel J. Gould, James Oakley, Benjamin Roberts, Joel J. Terrell and William H.
Walker, with Thomas S. Williams in charge. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 215.
23. Knight-Kimball, 111 Days, 209.
24. Ibid, 289.
25. Ibid, 216.
26. Ibid, 228. Pratt's group included 23 wagons and
43 men: Stephen Markham, Porter Rockwell, Jackson Redden, Nathaniel Fairbanks, Joseph
Egbert, John Freeman, Marcus Thorpe, Robert Crow, Benjamin Crow, John Crow, Walter Crow,
William Crow, George Threlkill, James Chesney, Lewis Myers, John Brown, Shadrach Roundy,
Hans Christian Hanson, Levi Jackman, Lyman Curtis, David Powell, Oscar Crosby and Hark
Lay. Others were: Joseph Mathews, William Carter, Gilbert Summe, Green Flake, John
Gleason, Charles Burke, Norman Taylor, Alexander Chesley, Seth Taft, Horace Thornton,
Stephen Kelsey, David Grant, James Stuart, Robert Thomas, Charles Barnham, George Wardle,
John Eldredge, Elijah Newman, Francis Boggs, and Levi Kendall.
27. Ibid, 231.
28. B. H. Roberts. A Comprehensive History of
the Church. Vol. 3 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 214.
29. Journal of Discourses, Vol. XII, 88-89.
30. "The First Company," 148.
31. Mary N. Porter Harris, comp. "Non-Mormon
Immigrants to Utah." (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, February 1997),
235.
32. Knight-Kimball, 111 Days, 250.
33. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 232.
34. Naomi M. Cottam, comp. "Early Pioneer Life
in the Great Salt Lake Valley." Daughters of Utah Pioneers. November 1996, 23. It was
not until 1880 that Wilford Woodruff told about Brigham Young uttering these historic
words as he entered the valley: "This is the right place, drive on." Bullock, Pioneer
Camp, 237.
35. Ibid., 134, 239. Roswell Stephens and Samuel
Brannan also returned with Lyman from meeting with the battalion detachments. Bullock, Pioneer
Camp, 239.
36. Two other Mormon women saw Great Salt Lake
Valley before the nine women with the Pioneer Company. Among the emigrants led by Lansford
W. Hastings on his cutoff across Utah in August 1846 were Elizabeth Rhoades, her husband
Thomas, and other members of their family; they entered the valley from the north. On
August 22, 1846, Levinah W. Murphy of the Donner Party became the first Mormon to arrive
in the valley via Emigration Canyon. |
