Susan Arrington Madsen - I Sailed to Zion: True Stories of Young Pioneers Who Crossed the Ocean

For Our Children

Emily & David, Rebecca, Sarah, and Rachel

SM

Samuel, Daniel, Addie, Freddy, and Shirley Ann

FEW

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Madsen, Susan Arrington.
I sailed to Zion : true stories of young pioneers who crossed the ocean / Susan Arrington Madsen & Fred E. Woods.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1573456519
1. Mormon youthBiography. 2. Mormon childrenBiography. 3. Teenage immigrantsUnited StatesBiography. 4. Immigrant childrenReligious aspectsChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 6. Mormon convertsBiography. I. Woods, Fred E. II. Title.
BX8643.Y6 M33 2000
289.33208691dc21 00-023599
Printed in the United States of America72082-6643
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Save us, O God.
Thine ocean is so large,
and our little boat
is so small.

a sea voyagers prayer

Preface

Many books have been written about the epic story of the Mormon pioneers who crossed the Plains between 1847 and 1869 and settled the Great Basin Kingdom of the West. Much attention has rightfully been paid to those determined souls who braved sickness, unpredictable weather, accidents, wild animals, and physical exhaustion to find religious freedom in the unsettled deserts of the Utah Territory.

However, while focusing most of our attention on the experiences of the overland travelers, we may have missedso to speakthe boat. Most new converts to Mormonism who began the long trek across the Plains had recently come to America from lands far across the ocean. Before taking their first steps toward Zion, most of them had spent from ten days to ten weeks on a sailing ship or steamer on the oceans to gather to America.

This book takes a look at nineteenth-century ocean immigration through the eyes of Mormon children and teenagers who experienced the excitement and trials of being on a ship for days, weeks, and, in some cases, months.

What was it like to be out in the middle of a vast ocean for so long? What was it like to watch someone being buried at sea? What did the drinking water taste like after it had been sitting in a wooden barrel for a month? And what was it like to huddle together below deck during a violent thunderstorm?

To answer these and other questions, and to capture the power of personal experience, we have chosen to include in this book only first-person accounts. Who can better describe waving good-bye to mother and father at the port of Liverpool than the young man who stood alone onboard as the ship departed, trying to hide his tears? Who can better write of the thrill of seeing America for the first time than the little girl who would not forget that moment for the rest of her life?

In preparing this book, we have studied hundreds of such personal records. Most of the accounts we examined were written years after the experiences occurredvery few children or teenagers managed to keep a journal as the ship heaved and sighed on the ocean waves.

This book contains two kinds of excerpts. First, there are longer reminiscences that describe the youthful experiences of the writers. These narratives make up the bulk of the book. Second, there are many shorter excerpts that enrich and complement the longer narratives. These shorter excerpts tell a single incident or make an observation that add detail and color to our understanding of pioneer ocean travel. The shorter excerpts appear as sidebars throughout the book.

Because many of the young women who sailed to America are better known by their married names than by their maiden names, we have included their married names in parentheses in the chapter titles.

For readability, we have standardized spelling and most punctuation. We have occasionally changed wording, but only when necessary to clarify meaning. We have also deleted sentences and phrases in places not critical to the actual narrative, especially in longer chapters. Narrative material has sometimes been reordered to render a more chronological telling of events. In some cases narratives have been combined from more than one source.

For the most part, these excerpts recount only the portion of the histories that deal with the actual voyage to America. For those desiring to read more about a particular pioneer, the title and location of the original history has been provided at the end of each chapter.

Readers may be interested in the difference between the words emigrate/immigrate and emigrant/immigrant. To emigrate is to leave ones country of native origin to go to a new land. To immigrate is to arive in a new land from ones native country. In this book, we have used the terms according to their definition in all new written material. However, we have left the words as they originally appeared in all first person accounts.

Many people have helped make this book possible. We are deeply indebted to the late Conway B. Sonne for his pioneering research on nineteenth-century Mormon maritime migration. His publications have become standard references for those wanting to know more about this important part of Latter-day Saint history.

We are grateful to the staff of the Library and Archives of the Historical Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. We are especially grateful to Melvin L. Bashore and Linda L. Haslam, who prepared Mormons on the High Seas: Ocean Voyage Narratives to America (18401890). We appreciate the assistance of William W. Slaughter, photograph archivist.

Ann Buttars and her associates in the Special Collections and Archives at the Utah State University Merrill Library were generous with their time and resources. We have also benefitted from the refining suggestions of Brigham Young University Faculty Editing Services, Don Norton, director.

We are indebted to descendants of those whose stories are told in this book for providing family histories and valuable photographs. They include Renae Chase, Janice Francom, Lois Lazenby, Sylvia S. Sharp, Thelma Anderson, Clarice Porter, Marilyn H. Mecham, Max Groom, Barbara Whiting, Jan Stock, LaPriel Tobler, Sheryl Kempton, Barbara K. Anderson, Rohn Brown, Max Wheelwright, Mona Lowe, George D. Hulse, Ella Mae Groom Hinckley, Scott Hansen, Vernon Anthony, Reed Zaugg, Noel Zaugg, Marlene Havertz, Barbara Judd, Linda Ferney, Orpha Mohr, Audrey Chappell, Eva Fay Anderson, Daina Zollinger, and the late Paul Ahlstrom. Information on individual photographs and illustrations is found at the back of the book.