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Show Croydon Ward, under Bishop George Robert Thackery, had 135 members: 7 High Priests 3 Seventies 8 Elders 3 Priests 6 Teachers 14 Deacons 59 other members and 35 children under the age of eight. Peterson Ward, under Bishop Joseph B. Robbins, had 111 members: 5 High Priests 2 Seventies 12 Elders 3 Teachers 10 Deacons 53 lay members and 26 children under the age of eight.126 Big Horn Basin Move In January 1900, the governor and the secretary of state ofWyoming visited President Lorenzo Snow in Salt Lake City. They wanted to get a colony of Mormons to settle in the Big Horn Basin ofWyoming. In northern Wyoming at that time, there was nothing but barren waste, with no wagon roads, no railroads, no canals. The leaders from Wyoming were assured that a colony would be sent. President Snow appointed Abraham O. Woodruff to take charge of the settlement. It was decided to have the people who were interested in settling this new country meet at Ham's Fork near Kemmerer to be organized into companies. They wanted to begin early so they could arrive at the Big Horn before the rivers reached the high water stage. On 25 April 1900, Elder Woodruff met the colonizers as scheduled. Seven companies were organized. Company two was made up of people who were mainly from Morgan County. George H. Taggart was appointed captain, with William G. Simmons and Alexander Sim, assistants, and John J. Simmons, chaplain. Other Morgan County men and their families were John H. Dickson, Charles A Welch, and John Croft of Enterprise. They had sixteen wagons, twenty-two men, six women, twenty-seven children, and thirty-six horses. Companies two and three had traveled one day's journey from Ham's Fork on Slate Creek in the Fontanelle Mountains. That evening a severe storm with wind and snow came; it lasted three days. During this time the small daughter of John H. and Avilda Dickson became seriously ill and died of pneumonia. The family decided to have the body taken back to the old home of the parents in Morgan for burial. Avilda could not leave her infant son and other children, so Mary L Welch, wife of Charles A Welch, offered to take the body back to Kemmerer. William Passey from the Bear Lake country offered to use 79 |