Mormon Pioneers

Mormon Pioneer Ancestors of

George Virl Osmond (1917-2007)

and Olive May Davis (1925-2004)

George Osmond Jr. (FS PID# KW89-FWT):

In 1855, George Osmond of England immigrated to Utah. He was 18 years old at the time and a passenger and "Shipwright" aboard the passenger ship "Clara Wheeler" when it sailed from Liverpool, England, in November 1854, and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 12 January 1855. (LDS church members aboard the "Clara Wheeler" sailed under the direction of LDS church leader Henry E. Phelps.) George Osmond traveled across the Plains in the "Hooper and Williams Freight Train", which consisted of 26 wagons that left Atchison, Kansas, in June 1855, and arrived in Salt Lake City on 5 September 1855.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=16033)

Frederick Jacobsen (FS PID# KWJ5-VFX) and Elizabeth Pedersdatter (Pedersen) (FS PID# LZJ7-R3S):

In 1862, Frederick and Elizabeth (Pedersen) Jacobson of Denmark immigrated to Utah. They were among 570 individuals who left Florence (now Omaha), Nebraska, on 27 July 1862, in the "Joseph Horne Company, and with 52 wagons traveled across the Plains and arrived in Salt Lake City on 1 October 1862.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=29166)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?companyId=159)

William Thomas VanNoy (FS PID# KW87-TSL):

"William Thomas Van Noy [of Missouri]…lived in the state of Missouri until he was 22 years of age. He started with a company of emigrants to California at the time of the gold rush in 1849. They traveled by way of Salt Lake City and while there he became very ill and could not go on. The saints being very hospitable he was taken in and cared for by [a Latter-day Saint family. On] December 18, 1850, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

(See: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=17655814)

Agnes Birrell (FS PID# KWN2-7LP)

In 1859, Agnes Birrell of Scotland immigrated to Utah. She was in the "8th Handcart Company" and listed as "Agnes Birrell" in the George Rowley Company, and was among 235 individuals-along with 60 handcarts and 8 wagons--that began their journey from the outfitting post at Florence, Nebraska (now Omaha), on 7-10 June 1859, and who traveled across the Plains and arrived in Salt Lake City on 4-6 September 1859.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=21482)

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?lang=eng&companyId=17)

Isaac Hawk Vail (FS PID# KWJB-WPC)

Isaac Hawk Vail of Illinois may have traveled to Utah in 1851 in the Morris Phelps Company--which had about 77 people and begin its journey on 9 June 1851 from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs) and arrived in Salt Lake City between 26 September and 1 October 1851. Isaac's travel to Utah is mentioned in his sister's obituary.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=54138)

Tyresha Ann Beeler (FS PID# KWJ8-WPZ)

"Tyresha Ann Beeler Vail [of Indiana]…came across the plains [in 1852] with ox teams when she was eight years old. She was married [in 1857] to Issac H. Vail when she was 14 years old. To this union seven children were born."

(See: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=24221187)

Tyresha Ann Beeler traveled across the Plains in the John B. Walker Company--which had about 258 individuals when it began its journey on 26-30 June 1852 from the outfitting post at Kanesville, Iowa (present day Council Bluffs). The company arrived in the Salt Lake City on 2-7 October 1852.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=10243)

Thomas John Davis (FS PID# KWV7-VJM) and Elizabeth Williams (FS PID# KWV7-VJ9)

"After they [Thomas John Davis and Elizabeth Williams] joined the Church [in 1848 in Wales] they had a burning desire to come to America and then to Zion. They worked hard and saved every penny they could to pay for their passage in 1856. They went to Coaldale, Pennsylvania where they lived while he worked in the mines with other Welsh friends and relatives to earn money to pay their way to Utah. While living in Pennsylvania four children were born to them….

"[In about 1867] they came west to Evanston, Wyoming, traveling by train with two Mormon missionaries returning from the Eastern States Mission. From Evanston they traveled by ox team to Ogden, Utah where they lived for about a year and a half. Their first home in Samaria [Idaho] was a dugout but soon Thomas built them a two-room log house."

(See: http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Resource_Info.aspx?id=611).

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=51196)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=51195)

John Martin (FS PID# KWNL-MVB) and Anna (Hannah) Jenkins (FS PID# KWNL-MVY)

"This [John Martin] family…left Liverpool [England, on] Tuesday, 30th of June, 1868 for New York, on the steamship Minnesota. They reached New York, July 12th, and arranged to go by train to Laramie, Wyoming. They left Laramie for Salt Lake Valley on July 25th in Captain Loveland's Company of 40 mule team wagons and 400 passengers. John Martin played his violin to help with the amusement and programs around the bonfires at night when they were encircled by the wagons. [The] Salt Lake Valley was reached August 20, 1868…. Finally this couple settled in Samaria, Idaho, in the autumn of 1869."

(See: http://welshmormon.byu.edu/Resource_Info.aspx?id=682)

"Hannah Jenkins Martin" is listed as "Anna" in the Deseret Evening News and came with her mother, Anna Evans Jenkins, and her brothers and sisters, and her husband, John Martin, in the Chester Loveland Company, which had about 40 wagons and 400 individuals who began their journey from the outfitting post at Laramie, Wyoming, on 25 July 1868 and who arrived in Salt Lake City on 20 August 1868.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=44586)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=35772)

William Nichols (FS PID# KWVQ-2XG) and Ellen White (FS PID# KWVQ-2XL)

William Nichols was baptized into the LDS Church in England in February 1853; and Ellen White joined the LDS Church in England on 19 April 1854. They were married on 19 March 1854 in Kelloe, Durham, England.

"In the Spring of 1868, the [Nichols] family made plans to leave England and join with the Saints in Utah. With the help of the Perpetual Emigration Fund," William, Ellen, and their three daughters (Catherine, Isabella and Mary Ellen) "joined with the 146 such company that had been sponsored by the Church. This company consisted of 412 British, and 45 Swiss and German Saints booked on the sailing ship Resolute for New York…. Their ship, the Resolute, failed to arrive as scheduled, and the shipping company quickly pressed into service an aging fire-damaged substitute [sailing ship] named the Constitution. On June 24 [1868] the ship…left at midnight, ready to set sail for New York…. On Sunday, August 5th [1868], they [arrived and] cast anchor in New York Harbor. After going through customs at Castle Garden, the luggage and emigrants then transferred by tug boat up the Hudson River to where they boarded a train. On August 7th at 2:00 pm. the train pulled out, following the Hudson River, reaching Albany the next morning. At noon the group resumed their travels and their train meandered through Rochester into Canada and then Detroit, Chicago to Omaha. The Chicago to Omaha part of the trip was especially difficult on the company as the railroad had only provided three passenger cards for nearly 500 people, making up the different with some uncomfortable box cars…. They reached Omaha on the morning of August 13th and continued that evening at 7:00 for Benton or the end of the line in Wyoming. The train arrived in Benton, Wyoming, August 16, 1868." (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, pages 227-246.)

William Nichols and Ellen White traveled in the John Gillespie Company which had about 500 individuals and 50 wagons when it began its journey on 23 August 1868 from the outfitting post at Benton, Wyoming, and arrived in Salt Lake City on 13 September 1868.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=37603)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=37600)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?companyId=126)

John Booth (FS PID# KWNL-QK7) and Ann Lythgoe (FS PID# KWNL-QKQ)

John Booth was baptized into the LDS Church in England on 5 May 1855; and Ann Lythgoe joined the LDS Church in England on 1 May 1848. They were married on 31 May 1857 in Pendlebury Eccles, Lancashire, England.

John Booth left on the ship Emerald Isle from Liverpool, England on 20 August 1859, and arrived in New York on 1 October 1859. He then took a "train to join up with John Lythgoe in Saint Louis to help earn means for the rest of the family to come to America…. By early 1864, John Lythgoe and John Booth had managed to send enough money to pay passage for the rest of the family to come to America. (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, page 348.)

"John Booth tells us that "When the Civil War started, we [John Lythgoe and John Booth] decided to go to Utah. We are told that the two traveled west with a train of emigrants…to the Missouri River…. We walked and worked our way from then on. …When we got to Fort Bridger [Wyoming], we got in a train of emigrants that was leaving for Utah. At Green River a girl…got her leg broken and had to be hurried to Salt Lake City to be taken care of. John Lythgoe and I were among eight young men to carry her to a doctor at Salt Lake. She was carried on a stretcher." (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, page 277. Note: The listing of John Booth in the 1864 Joseph S. Rawlins Company-which appears in the Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel website--is not correct.)

In 1864, Ann Lythgoe Booth traveled with her mother, Esther Lythgoe Wilcock, and her two sisters (Elizabeth and Rachel) and her two children (Lucy and Ellen), from England on the sailing ship Monarch of the Sea, destined for Utah on April 27, 1864.

"[Esther's son] James [Lythgoe] said that 'My father came to see me a few days before I set sail for America, and I accompanied him to the Bolton Station and gave him half sovereign 10 shillings as I parted with him. My mother held means for his emigration until the last but he would not go'. …We do not have all the facts but James [Lythgoe] has passed down to us that 'the only objection father had against coming to Utah was his dread of the sea'."

"On the morning of June 3rd [1864] their ship [carrying Ann Lythgoe Booth and company] arrived at New York where the landing of the emigrants at Castle Garden at once took place. In the evening they boarded a steamer for Albany, New York, and from there they traveled by train to St. Joseph, Missouri, thence by steamer up the Missouri River to Wyoming, Nebraska." (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, page 348-349.)

When Ann Lythgoe Booth arrived in Nebraska, she and her two daughters (Lucy and Ellen) then traveled with Esther Wilcock Lythgoe and her two daughters (Elizabeth and Rachel) in the Joseph S. Rawlins Company--which had about 400 individuals and about 50 wagons when it began its journey on 15 July 1864 from the outfitting post at Wyoming, Nebraska (the west bank of the Missouri River about 40 miles south of Omaha). This company of Saints arrived in Salt Lake City on 19 September 1864.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=31103)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?lang=eng&companyId=245)

Ann Lythgoe Booth and her "family finally arrived at their destination in [Coalville, Utah, in] September 1864, where John Booth had arrived only the day before, having escaped capture by Indians when leaving from Virginia City, Nevada, two months earlier." John Booth stated that he "reached Coalville [Utah] one day ahead of the Emigrant Train" where he finally met up with his wife, Ann Lythgoe, and their two daughters. (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, pages 285 and 305.)

Esther Wilcock (FS PID# KWV9-PSX)

"Esther Wilcock [was born in 1805 in England and] parted from her husband [Thomas Lythgoe] of nearly forty years to accompany her daughters Elizabeth, Rachel and Ann with two grandchildren leaving England on the sailing ship Monarch of the Sea, destined for Utah on April 27, 1864.

"[Esther's son] James [Lythgoe] said that 'My father came to see me a few days before I set sail for America, and I accompanied him to the Bolton Station and gave him half sovereign 10 shillings as I parted with him. My mother held means for his emigration until the last but he would not go'. …We do not have all the facts but James [Lythgoe] has passed down to us that 'the only objection father had against coming to Utah was his dread of the sea'."

"On the morning of June 3rd [1864] their ship [carrying Esther Wilcock Lythgoe and company] arrived at New York where the landing of the emigrants at Castle Garden at once took place. In the evening they boarded a steamer for Albany, New York, and from there they traveled by train to St. Joseph, Missouri, thence by steamer up the Missouri River to Wyoming, Nebraska." (See the 2002 book: The Life and Time of Benjamin Thomas Nichols and his wife Olive Lovenia Booth, 1875-1934, page 348-349.)

Esther Wilcock Lythgoe traveled in the Joseph S. Rawlins Company which had about 400 individuals and about 50 wagons when it began its journey on 15 July 1864 from the outfitting post at Wyoming, Nebraska (the west bank of the Missouri River about 40 miles south of Omaha), and arrived in Salt Lake City on 19 September 1864.

(See: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/pioneerDetail?lang=eng&pioneerId=31197)

(Also: https://history.lds.org/overlandtravels/companyDetail?companyId=245)