An Unexpected Pioneer Ancestor

Pioneers camped at Green River, Wyoming by George Ottinger

On April 16, 1847, a group of 148 Latter-day Saints in 72 wagons left Nebraska and began the 1,031-mile journey to the Salt Lake Valley. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley between the 21st and 24th of July 1847.
In the years that followed, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints from around the world would leave their homes and follow the same route to the Salt Lake Valley. This week in Utah we celebrate Pioneer Day on July 24th, in commemoration of that first company of Latter-day Saints who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Since Dad (Ward H. Forman 1926-2006) was the first of our family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our pioneer ancestors are few, and not direct. But we are related to some of those hardy souls who risked it all to travel to the west where they could worship as they pleased, much as our Mayflower and Puritan and Quaker ancestors did. Surprisingly then, this pioneer story is from Mom’s (Josephine T. Forman 1925-) side of the family! A common ancestor on the Canham side was Emma Girdlestone. This is a bit of her story.

Emma Girdlestone Ridges Smith

Born in March 1835 in Norfolk, England, she joined the church after hearing the missionaries preach in her town. She immediately knew their message to be the true gospel of Jesus Christ. She was baptized at 13 years old. Her parents joined as well. When the gathering to Utah was advised, they saved and prepared to leave their native land and loved ones to start a new life in a foreign land. Emma and her parents left England in the spring of 1856, when Emma was 21. After many delays, they departed from Iowa City, Iowa in July 1856 with the Willie Handcart company. The company had about 500 individuals, 100 handcarts, and 5 wagons when it began. Some days they traveled as much as 30 miles, pushing and pulling their handcarts.

Emma's hand iron, carried across the plains

Emma was a seamstress by trade and she brought her hand iron with her on the trip. Since the travelers were only allowed 17 lbs of belongings each, she could not put the iron on the handcart, but instead tied it to her waist and carried it across the plains. 

  Fall came on early and hard that year. Company provisions ran low causing rations to be cut down to one-half, then one-quarter, and still later to just barely enough to sustain life. Many grew ill from exposure and lack of food.

Ever Onward by Joseph Brickey

The Saints in Salt Lake didn’t learn of the existence of this and other stranded handcart companies until early October. At that point Brigham Young issued an urgent plea to the people for assistance. The first relief company left Salt Lake City 3 days later. By October 19th, the Willie company issued the last of their flour, and the first snowstorm of the season hit. Express rescuers arrived that day and assured the Willie company that help and food were just a day or two away. On October 21st, the needed supplies arrived. They then made a brutal trek over Rocky Ridge in Wyoming during a blizzard on October 23rd. 15 members of the company were buried the next day. Emma’s parents died within 4 days of each other during this time period. Now she was on her own.

Pioneers Entering the Salt Lake Valley by King Driggs

Ten supply wagons met the Willie Company on October 31st, west of Green River. By November 3rd, additional teams had reached them and all the company members were able to ride in wagons. They arrived in Salt Lake City on 9 November 1856. Emma told her descendants that as they came into the valley the sun was shining and flooding the valley with its glory; it looked like a Heaven of peace and rest to those weary travelers. Emma married twice and had at least 8 children, and has a very large posterity now. She always bore a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. She died in 1914 in Logan, Utah.

Though not all Latter-day Saint pioneer stories were this dramatic, and some were much worse, in general the people were willing to sacrifice in order to gather with others of common belief and live free to practice their religion. Of special note is that the Willie Company also included several members of the Moulton family, ancestors of Annette’s husband, Jess Moulton, as well as several Caldwell family members, who are ancestors of my husband, John D. Van Natter.

A version of this story was originally share at Family Search Memories 22 July 2018