• • • Alexander and Nancy Ellen Wagaman Robison Alexander Robison was born 20 October 1800 at Quincy, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. His wife Nancy Ellen Wagaman was born in 1801 at Quincy, Franklirl County, Pennsylvania. Nancy was the oldest child of Andrew Wagaman and Catherine Rock. Alexander and Nancy Ellen were married in 1822 and were the parents of eleven children- Nancy, Hannah, David, William, Daniel, Catherine, Eliza, Leanna, Franey, Ephraim, and Mary Ann. They successfully raised ten of their children having lost the oldest child, Nancy, in infancy. They lived in a very beautiful part of south-central Pennsylvania. It was hilly country, similar to Utah, and had a lot of hardwood, clumps of trees and the beautiful Susquehanna River running near by. Elder Angus M. Cannon, a Mormon missionary from Utah, converted Alexander to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1854. Nancy Ellen was baptized and confirmed on 15 May 1854 by Elder William Tarmen, a missionary from Utah. It is believed that they were Quakers as a story is told of their daughter Franey joining the Church with her friend after hearing a missionary preach on the street comer. Franey was sixteen years old and went to work for an LDS lady who made her a pretty ruffly print dress with blue buttons down the front. This was Franey's first colored print dress and she loved it so very much, as she always wore black and white being Quaker. On 7 May 1860, Alexander and Nancy Ellen and their extended family left all their worldly possessions and started west for Zion. They departed less than a year before the Civil War broke out and lived only a few miles from the Gettysburg Battlefield where the greatest battle of the war took place in July 1863. They traveled by rail and water 2,000 miles to Florence, Nebraska. As they were nearing Niagara Falls, just across the line in Canada, their little eight-year-old granddaughter, Agnes, (Daniel' s daughter) died. As they were traveling under contract the train was not permitted to stop and little Agnes was carried away by a negro porter and buried, they knew not where. It was a very sad experience for all of them. They camped at Florence for two weeks while preparations were being made to begin their trek west. While here another grandchild died, three-year-old Johnny (Daniel's son). They joined a handcart company and their son, Daniel Robison, was selected as the captain of the company. A Mr. Green, a merchant from Salt Lake City, Utah, who had several wagons of merchandise to take to Salt Lake invited Alexander and Nancy Ellen to drive a team of horses and four oxen with a load of merchandise. They were not only furnished with transportation but good food as well. So they didn't have to walk a step across the plains. Alexander was sixty years old and Nancy Ellen was fifty-nine years old. The others in the company, however, pushed and pulled handcarts all the way to Salt Lake City were they arrived on 27 August 1860. They lived in Salt Lake City that winter. In the spring of 1861, their youngest son, Ephraim, took them to Farmington. Here they rented a one-room adobe house, one room and one small window and a small fireplace on one side to do the cooking and for heating. It was furnished with one old table, homemade. They fixed up the little shack the best they could, built a bunk on one side of the room out of small poles, willows and straw, made their beds out of old quilts nearly worn out through crossing the plains. Times were very hard and food very scarce. They ate mostly boiled potatoes with salt. Their neighbors felt sorry for them and gave them their small potatoes. When they would • • • go to the mountains to get wood, they would take their pockets full of small cold boiled potatoes and salt. It took Alexander and Ephraim from 1861 to 1864 to scrape up enough money to buy a yoke of oxen and the front running gear of an old wagon. On this they built a small cart. They put all their belongings on the cart and Nancy Ellen sat on the top of it all. Ephraim got on one side of the oxen and Alexander on the other side of the oxen. They walked all the way, a distance of twenty miles, to Morgan in Morgan County, Utah, where they joined others of their family who were there. They lived here for the remainder of their lives. Alexander Robison died in Morgan on 23 January 1878 and was buried in the North Morgan Cemetery. Nancy Ellen died on 14 November 1883 and was buried by her beloved husband, Alexander, in the North Morgan Cemetery. (This information was compiled from several different histories. Some were written by LaVirda Robison Stuehser and others from biographies of Alexander and Nancy Ellen's children.) JS/ I I I Brief History of Alexander Robison and Nancy Ellen Wagaman Alexander Robison was born in Quincy, Franklin County, Pennsylvania on 20 October, 1800. Alexander ' s wife, Nancy Ellen Wagaman was born in Quincy, Franklin County, Pennsylvania in 1801. Nancy Ellen was the oldest child of Andrew Wagaman and Catherine Rock. Alexander and Nancy Ellen were married in 1822 and were the parents of eleven children: Nancy, Hannah, David, William, Daniel, Catherine, Eliza, Leanna, Franey, Ephraim, and Mary Ann. They lived in a very beaut iful part of south-central Pennsylvania and successfully raised ten of their eleven children having lost the oldest child, Nancy, in infancy. Alexander and Nancy Ellen were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1854. On the 7th of May, 1860, Alexander and Nancy Ellen and their extended family left all of their worldly possessions and started west for Utah. They departed less than a year before the Civil War broke out and lived only a few miles from the Gettysburg battlefield where the greatest battle of the War took place in July 1863. The families traveled by rail and water to Florence, Nebraska. They joined a handcart company in Florence and their son, Daniel Robison, was selected as the captain of 1 • • • I I I the company. Mr. Green, a merchant from Salt Lake City, Utah, who had several wagons of merchandise to take to Salt Lake invited Alexander and Nancy Ellen to drive a team of horses and 4 oxen with a load of merchandise so they didn't have to walk across the plains. The others in the company, however, pushed and pulled handcarts all the way to Salt Lake City were they arrived on August 27, 1860. Alexander and Nancy Ellen lived in Salt Lake City until the spring of 1861, and then moved to Farmington, Utah. They resided in Farmington in a one room adobe house with one window and a small fireplace until 1864. In 1864 they joined others of their extended family in Morgan, Utah where they lived for the remainder of their lives. Alexander Robison died in Morgan, Utah on the 23rd of January, 1878 and was buried at the North Morgan Cemetery. Nancy Ellen died on the 14th of November, 1883, and buried beside her husband. 2 • • •