TITLE PAGE Elizabeth Gower Clark Little Baddow, 20 Febi:.uary 1819 - Essex, England I PIONEER (full name) BIRTH (date and place) DEATH (date and place) PARENTS 28 October 1882 - Richville, Morgan, Utah . MARRIED (who and date) ARRIVAL IN UTAH {date) (Company arrived with) HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) (address) William Gower Elizabeth Nunn Daniel Clark (about 1839) John Wood (1867-Christmas time) 1864 William Hyde's Company 1946 Dora Clark Rich (granddaughte'r ) Rt. 2, Morgan, Utah 84050 CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING Sou_th_M_o_r g__ a_n_ _______ Camp _M_o_r~g'-a_n_ ___________ County (Camp Historian & addresa)_· __ L_o_l_a_D_a_w_s_o_n_P_e_te_r_so_n _____ _ P.O. Box 13, Morgan, Utah 84050 County Historian & addres s)_ ___v_ e_l_o..;.y_T_o_n_k_s_D_i_c_k_s_o_n_ _______ P.O. Box 203, Morgan, Utah 84050 SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PP.GE NUMBERS: • •• Eli zabeth Gower was born i n Little Ba d dow. Es sex. En g l and , February 20, 1819. The d~ughter of Wi l liam Gower and El i, abeth l\lunn. The Gower familv is a very old and distinguished famil y in Eng l i sh h isto rv. They came d o wn thr ough t be royal l i nes of the countr y at t hat time and the genealogy has been traced back to about the si >: th centLwy. Their coat of arms is in the f ami 1 y record book at the present time • • Elizabeth Gower was a very fine looking woman; tall and stately , with a queenl y bearing and was reared in a home of weal th~ refinement and culture. She was the second daughter in a large family. Her mother was a very refined and beautiful woman, wi th means enough to travel to Ind i a to purchase fine and beauitiful things for her children and grandchildren. Elizabeth married Daniel Cl ark about 1839. They lived in the old home of his childhood, which home he had inherited from his father's estate at Colchester England, about fifty miles Northeast of London. They were comfortably located. He had a good trade and their children were coming along at regular intervals, all strong and healthy. In such pleasant surroundings, little did they dream of the trials they would meet later in life. In their veins flowed the blood of Ephraim. The chosen of God, and they were able to hold out faithful to it all. When the mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was opened up in England, Daniel Clark and Elizabeth his wife were among the earl y converts. They were baptised in 1848. After they joined the Church their children were not allowed to attend school any more, which was a great trial to the parents for they loved education. However, they were able to teach their children many things at home. Persecution was so great they had to steal out in the darkness of the night to baptise their children or anyone else. About this time British soldiers were stationed at Colchester and the town was expected to give them food and shelter, that being the custom of the country at that time. The soldiers had no respect for life nor property, and helped themselves to any thing they wanted. They became so troublesome it was unsafe to remain there, so the Clark family left their home by night and moved to Barking, Essex, England, a suburb near London. Nearly all their belongings were left behind to be confiscated by the soldiers in the government. In Barking they lived in a home owned by Elizabeth's father William Gower • The parents thought they could send their children to school at Barking but they were disappointed. No "Mormons" were allowed to attend school. They bore this trial, however, the same as they 2 • did all other forms of persecution. About the year 1851 :~ome elders· of the Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter Day Saints came to London and made their headquarters at Barking in the Clark home. Soon a branch of the Church was organized with Daniel Clark as presiding elder- From that time on the Clark home was the home of the elders. Elders would come and go from their home, Charles W. Penrose among others. We can imagine what a busy life they had here making a home for the elders, mothering the saints of the branch and taking care of her lat>ge family. Three of her younger children were born here and one or two deaths occured here, but I'm sure there was a heap-o-livin in that house which made it a real home. All of the work of conducting the branch was done from here. The children long remembered the many beautiful Bible stories told them by the elders. In fact the younger ones took their fist Sunday School lessons on Brother Penrose's knee. • They lived in this home about 14 years. Daniel Clark was a good singer and conducted the choir in the branch. Eizabeth also had a good voice which she delighted to use for the blessing of the Saints. Her daughters grew to womanhood here and used their talents for the building up of the branch. Elders would come and go and the family was able to hear a good deal about the conditions in Utah. They like all other good Saints at that time had a great desire to imigrate to Zion, but having been bereft of all their property it took them some time to save means enough to take them so far. The father was a shoemaker of no meal ability, having been apprenticed to a good workman for a number of years. He had a good trade making fine foot wear for the society people of the community. As the children grew up they went out to work to help out with the expense of the family. It was finally decided to send the three older daughters to Utah with a company of Saints. They were Sarah, Elizabeth and Rebecca. They went three years before the family and worked and sent money to help the family to imigrate. The parents and younger children labored on in the branch and saved all they could for the trip. I'm sure much joy was felt in the labor of building up the branch and preparing for the journey, for the whole branch was preparing to leave in a body. The family well remembers how Daniel Clark would sit at his work bench and sing in his beautiful baritone voice: "Come, Come ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, But with joy wend your way;" and, no doubt they also sang "Come go with me beyond the sea where happiness is true. " By the first of the year 1864, they were almost ready to start on the journey. On the first day of June 1864 Daniel and Elizabeth led their little flock down to the wharf and embarked on the good ship Hudson and sailed away for a new country, to them the "promised land," the "Iand of Joseph." Many of them were never to see their native land again. 3 .. e • There was a 1 arge company of Saints on the shi'p u9der , charge of certain church officials. Daniel & Elizabeth had .five c-hildren ranging in ag€ from thre~ \1/2 to sixteen years. The five children were Katherine, Arthur Benjamin, Ellen Victoria, Rosa and Frederick William. The ·three older girls were already in Utah and they had buried two infant sons in England~ - They were seven weeks on the water and the trials of that trip would be hard to imagine, much less to describe. • Eliabeth was naturally a strong, healthy woman, but no sooner were they on the water than she became very seasick and had to keep to her bed most of the way. Measles broke out on the ship as well as other forms of sickness. Two of Elizabeth's younger children took the measles in a violent form but their Ivies were spared while nine of the company died and were buried in the ocean. Imagine Elizabeth ' s feeling when she was so sick herself, knowing her children were also very ill. But she was blessed even in this sore trial for her ever faithful husband and her sixteen year old daughter were well all the way across the water. They landed in New York and were kept in quarantine ten days before entering the U.S.A. This was during the war between the states , the North and the South, and they had to take a detour up through Canada and across the country to about as far west as Chicago before they could again enter the country. They traveled in box c a rs a nd on flat boats across the country to the Missouri Ri ver . El e ven of the company died on this trip across the country but the Clark family was again spared and reached the camp i ng place on the Missouri River. There they were met by fre i ghters with o x teams sent out from the valleys to bring them to Utah . They remained here two weeks preparing for the journey across t he pl ains . This little breathing spell must have been a relief to the travel worn women and children but there was much work to be done to prepare for such a trek as that which they now faced. It was mid summer by this time and the sun beat down more severly than the English people were accustomed to. Here the cattle had to be herded at night as well as by day. Daniel Clark took his turn at this as well as at any other kind of work that had to be done. The hot day and the cool nights gave him a severe cold. The change in altitude was almost as sever on him as the change in climate. He was never well after this cold. As their journey reached the dry, sunbaked plains, the drinking water was scarce and contaminted causing a scourge of cholera to break out in camp which took many lives. It is said that they would stop morning, noon and night to bury the dead. Sixty four died of this plague • Among those who laid their bodies down on the "plains" was Daniel Clark. He died and was buried without a casket at the first crossing of the North Platt River near Ft. Larmaie Wyoming. It • '. was not definitely known at this time what caused h"is death. It was perhaps complications resulting from exposure, hardships ~nd change of climat~. He d{ed at seven o~tlock in the morning in July. He was buried and the company on its way by eight o'clock. They dared not take time to give a decent burial to the dead or the summer would be passed before they could cross the high mountains. Being caught in a snowstorm in crossing the mountains would have been a fearful thing. The death of her beloved husband was a severe blow to Eli\abeth. She thought she could not give him up, or at least, that she could not survive without him, but he told her she must be brave and carry on for the sake of her children. He said she would be able to finish the journey to the valley of the mountains then live to rear the children, which she did. They were travelling in Wm Hyde's Company. The wagons were loaded with freight for the merchants of Salt Lake Valley and there was not room for any one to ride who could possibly walk. Only the sick, the old or the very young had a chance to ride. The Clark family paid the teamsters so much money for their passage but Ellen Clark Hale, then the sixteen year old daughter, who said she walked every step of the way from the Missouri River to Salt Lake City and drove a team of three or four yoke of oxen most of the way. When we consider the way Elizabeth had been reared in a sheltered home in a city all her life we wonder how she was able to bear the stillnesss of the vast expanse of the plains or the rugged majesty of the mountains. Perhaps the only sounds to be heard on the plains would be the moan of the sick; the weeping of the bereft family, the creaking of the wagons, the cracking of the driver's whip or the mournful cry of the coyote; or perhaps worse, the war whoop of the savage Indian. They were not permitted to have the cheer of a campfire some of the time, because of the nearness of the Indian Camp, for fear the Indians would see the smoke of their fires. At one time they passed the campsite of some people who had been attacked by Indians. Some bodies lay unburied where the company all had been murdered, but this company hurried on as quickly as possible lest the Indians might return. At this time, 1864, there was a regular mail route to the Great Salt Lake Valley and on to the Pacific Coast. The mail stage travelled so much faster than the ox teams that the imigrants could keep in touch with their friends in the valleys to some extent while enroute. Elizabeth's daughters had been told of the journey of the family and were preparing to go out a days journey to meet them. A letter was sent to them telling of the death of their father but it was never delivered. The girls knew nothing of the sad event until they met the company, a days travel out from Salt Lake City. They were very much shocked when they did not find their Father with the company but such trials always have to be borne, so, with .. 5 sad hear-ts they took up their- jour-ney back to the city. The thr-ee daughter-s wer-e all married by the time the mother- arrived in the valley and they helped to '·make homes for the younger- childr-en. Elizabeth Clar-k stayed in Salt Lake City, and being an expert seamstrees, fitted or curtained one of the , Wal~er Brother's mansions. At Christmas time 1867 she marr-ied John Wood a farmer of Richville in Morgan County Utah. They lived in Richville for fi+tl.een years until her death the 28th of October- 1882. '-] ~4 Her descendants in the intermountain States will probably reach 900 at this time 1946.